SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 



553 



HON. ALBERT B. CUM.M 



more, in the last decade, to the ivealth of the Nation than all other dis- 

 coveries combined. This may seem to be a startling assertion, but in truth 

 it is exceedingly conservative. I take a single illustration among many 

 that are in m,ind: The information that h.as been given within the last 

 five years to the corn groivers of Iowa icith respect to the selection of 

 seed corn, added this year not less than sixty millions of bushels to our 

 corn crop. That is to say. we raised and harvested sixty millions of 

 bushels more upon the same land than ice icould have raised and har- 

 vested under like conditions, had not science lighted up the icay to better 

 farming. All other agricultural products have been similarly advanced, 

 and the aggregate good accomplished is as astonishing as it is gratifying. 

 "The study of agriculture has done something else even more im- 

 portant than to multiply production. It has ennobled and dignified the 

 labor of the farmer. It has lifted up his calling to a higher rank among 

 men. for his icork now occupies his mind, as well as his hand. Under 

 its inspiration, nature has unfolded new beauties, and the slice of earth 

 that falls so gracefully from the ploto has become to the boy who turns 

 it more than a strip of black soil. It has made country life more inter- 

 esting, and the country home more attractive. The result icill be a 

 check upon the tendency of bright, ambitious lads to leave the farm and 

 the old folks for the gilt and glitter of toivns and cities. In these days, 

 books and papers are as necessary to the farmer as his agricultural im- 

 plements — not story books nor political papers only, but scientific books 

 and scientific papers. In a icord. the farmer of the future must be a 

 scholar. He must be a man of learning, not for embellishment but for 

 efficiency." 



