FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 615 



the farmer; for that reason they have come away from the farm, and 

 they are full of arguments against the farmer's life. And when they 

 find a boy that intends to go back to the farm they begin to ply their 

 arguments. Here is where the greatest danger comes. His schoolmates 

 say to him that he is making a mistake in choosing the occupation of 

 a farmer, and unless there is somebody at hand to give hi^l the argu- 

 ments against those that are urged upon him and to put him on his 

 guard, there is danger of his being turned aside after all to find, per- 

 haps, some occupation that he does not believe in and in which he will 

 never make a success. 



Now, I have no hesitation in telling you what I think ought to be 

 done with the boy. Instead of sending him to a high school, let him 

 spend, two, three, or four years at the agricultural school at Guelph. 

 This school, unlike some others, is devoted entirely to agriculture. The 

 effort there is to make prominent the practical side of agriculture in its 

 various lines. There the boy does not incur the danger that I have 

 spoken of. If you take a boy who has a natural inclination toward the 

 farm, who really wants to be a farmer, and if you let him have three 

 or four years at the agricultural college, I guarantee that he will come 

 away not only retaining his inclination toward the farm, but enthusiastic 

 along that line. I have seen how this thing operates over and over 

 again. I do not know of any case in late years where a lad of the proper 

 qualifications, sent thus to the agricultural college, has been turned 

 aside from his chosen occupation. On the contrary, all the influences 

 there are in the r-everse direction; they are all toward agriculture as 

 the best calling for a young man who is fit for it, whereas in the other 

 colleges the influences are all in the opposite direction. At our agri- 

 cultural college a youth has all necessary advantages in the way of gen- 

 eral education, and along with them he receives an education in these 

 other lines fitting him especially for the calling he has selected. 



BREADTH OF MIND IN FARMING. 



A\hat we need, I believe, is young men of keen, perceptive minds, 

 well trained for the calling of agriculture that they have chosen. We 

 do not want men of but one idea. How often do we see men of con- 

 siderable intelligence with but one idea— one line of thought to which 

 everything else is made subordinate. I think, of all men on earth, the 

 worst is what I call a "crank;" and the farmer who is a "crank" is about 

 the worst man you can get hold of. We want young men with intel- 

 lects well trained, so that they will be broad-minded, men of sound judg- 

 ment, so that they will be sympathetic with their fellows, and, while 

 energetic in their own business, will be public spirited. What we want 

 in this country and what is wanted, I apprehend, in that other country 

 from which many of you come, is that we shall bring ourselves together 

 as one man. We ought to have the same step and go in the same 

 direction. 



But especially do we want young men with enthusiasm. After all, 

 Mr, President, is not that the one indispensable quality? Show me a man 



