SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. o77 



to be enters upon his agricultural course at the college with a foundation 

 upon which a superstructure of great service and value may be erected 

 without hinderance or delay. 



Not all the farmers to be will be able to secure the college training,. 

 you say. True, but I would that they could. The agricultural college- 

 recognizes this condition and through its experiment station and the- 

 county experiment stations and the short courses and the local corn 

 judging schools it is becoming most helpful to the would be farmers, and 

 the real farmers who are not really educated for their work. All such 

 arrangements bring the work to the people and make it possible for 

 them to take advantage of valuable instruction which many could not 

 or would not otherwise obtain. Do the farmers realize what is set at 

 their very doors? 'Tis hard for those who have fixed habits to change 

 their ways and they pay too little attention and give too little study to 

 the problems they have to solve. The young men who are to be the suc- 

 cessful and progressive farmers of the future must and will (if not at 

 once, in time), take advantage of all these means of education and pre- 

 pare themselves to take care of their farms in a better way, with no more 

 labor, and reap better returns. 



Some may not see the value of the experiment station — both state 

 and county — and think the money spent to sustain them a waste. It 

 does not seem to me that such persons have the right view of the matter. 

 No farmer can depart very far from the usual plan of doing things,, 

 because he does not have time enough to try many experiments and be- 

 cause he dare not risk his crop too much to untried ways. The experi- 

 ment station can help out in this, because its prime object is not to raise? 

 a crop, but really to get the real result from a certain plan or methodi 

 that may appear to the mind to be what is wanted. A failure at the ex- 

 periment station may prove to be a great blessing to the farmers of an 

 entire county or state. Again, the bank account of the farmer is not 

 seriously affected by a failure at the experiment station, but it would 

 be if the same failure occurred on his farm. Oftentimes we need ta 

 know two things; first, what to do; second, what not to do. These ex- 

 periment stations can teach us both of these things at a much less cost 

 than to learn them by experience. "Experience is a dear school." The^ 

 station close by ought to be of the greatest interest and value to the- 

 farmers if they get out of it what they could. 



Often we lose the value of an article because we do not use it. Is it 

 so with all these means of education which are being placed before the 

 farmers? 



From all these means, "sub-schools" and "short courses," etc., the 

 farmers may learn to know the soil of his farm and its strength and 

 possibilities; he may learn to know good seed and how to care for it and 

 how to plant it; he may learn to improve the quality of the product; 

 he may learn to secure a greater quantity of the product; and he may 

 learn to keep his insect enemy from making valueless his labor. In 

 short, he may learn to be the farmer he should be. 



If your boy is to be a physician he will have to be educated for the 

 work; if he is to be a lawyer, he will have to know the law; if he is ta 

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