550 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



my advice about making farming a business I ask him, 'Are you man 

 enough? If not, don't do it, but go and be a lawyer or a doctor or a 

 preacher or something of that sort.' " 



"We as a Nation are young in years. Our people have been too busily 

 engaged in pursuits other than agricultural to give to the latter much at- 

 tention. Nature has been so extremely kind that he who would sow, even 

 though the seed were mediocre, could reap a profitable harvest. Why, 

 anybody could farm. He who failed in any other line of work could 

 make a living by going to the country. They were as confident of their 

 ability here and their success almost as marked as was that of the lawyer 

 who,' broken in health, sought to renew his strength by outdoor labor. 

 With this idea in mind he applied to a farmer for work and was asked 

 that question which is asked everyone today, "What can you do?" "I 

 can do anything that anybody else can," was the prompt reply. "Very 

 well, sir; take this stool and pail, go down yonder to the woods pasture 

 and milk that large red cow." After nearly two hours had expired, the 

 man not having returned with the milk, our proprietor went down to 

 the pasture to see what might be the difficulty. There he saw his man, 

 pail and stool in hand following the old cow around the pasture. "See 

 here, sir, what is the trouble?" "I've been following this old cow 

 around for an hour and a half trying to get her to sit down on this 

 stool so I could milk her." 



The natural tendency of the farm is to retrograde what has been the 

 effect of our past practices? In New York alone one and a half million 

 acres that once sold from $100 to $125 per acre are now selling from $30.00 

 to $50.00. Other New England states have met a similar fate. Men, hav- 

 ing robbed one soil, yearned for new soils to rob. Their pathways may be 

 traced by the fertility, or rather lack of fertility, in the different sec- 

 tions of our country. 



These evil practices are going on today. Renting of land until it has 

 been wasted by selfish motives has bean carried too far. I need not take 

 you very far to show you good examples of this fact. To perpetuate the 

 productive capacity of the soil is an imperative duty. He who does not 

 do this is wasting his capital stock. There is practically no virgin soil 

 that can be obtained as were these fertile plains upon which we dwelt. 

 The men can no longer treek to nearer fields. 



Today success does not depend so much upon nature as it does upon 

 the manner in which we deal with nature's forces. 



The first stage in any nation's development is a strife for material 

 gain; secondly, that of culture and learning. We have now passed the first 

 stage. In our riches we should not lie down and subsist upon our plenty. 

 "The problems to be met and solved on the farm are as great as those 

 in any other calling." "In the near future the man with the old-time 

 methods will be completely outclassed by the man with a training in his 

 pursuit." It is the trained hands that have accomplished the great things 

 in life, in art, literature and music. Genius is responsible for only one- 

 half of the success of great men. 



There has been much ridicule of the book-learned farmer in the past, 

 and justly so. 



