236 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



I shall not attempt it. But for the moment I represent this State ana 

 I have a deep interest in it and I have a deep interest in all the means 

 and methods through which its people are to be lifted up to .a higher 

 plane of living, and through which its various enterprises may be car- 

 ried forward to a still more splendid success. 



I have spoken about the dignity of your business and of all agri- 

 culture, and that leads me naturally to say a word not in behalf of an 

 institution but of an institution which I think is entitled to as much 

 credit for the wonderful things that have been accomplished in agri 

 culture as any other in the world; an institution which in my humble 

 judgment means more for the people of Iowa than any other in its midst. 

 I stand for all our institutions of learning; they are all associations of 

 which we may well be proud and to the support, the enlargement, the 

 development of which every citizen ought to give his best thought. But 

 in this present instance,' speaking to the dairymen of the State bf Iowa 

 as the men who are particularly interested in the profession (because I 

 shall henceforth call it a profession), the profession of agriculture, I 

 Avant to remind you that we have in this state an institution of which 

 all its people should know more, and towards which all its people should 

 stretch forth a more helpful hand than has hitherto been tendered to it 

 — I speak of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Art^-.. 

 (Applause.) 



I believe that this institution is doing as much to confer honor upon 

 the men of Iowa as any other in our midst; I believe it is doing more 

 to make the business in which you are engaged profitable than any that 

 we have ever founded amongst us. and we have, and it is with pride 

 and with gratification that I mention it, — ^we have at the head of the; 

 agricultural department in this great college a man who leads the world 

 in the field to which he has devoted his life — I speak of Professor 

 Curtiss. (Applause.) 



All this should stimulate the pride of an Iowa man. But I am noi 

 now speaking as a member of its board of trustees. I am not here 

 soliciting alms for it. It belongs to you. it does not belong to me, it 

 does not belong to the members of the board of trustees, it belongs to 

 you; and I lift up my voice for it this afternoon because if we would 

 maintain it at the high point that it has already attained, if we would 

 give it additional efficiency, if we would bestow upon it additional help- 

 fulness, it needs the sympathy, it needs the good will, it needs the inter- 

 est of every man in this broad State who is interested either in agri- 

 culture or in the mechanic arts. 



I have been boasting a good deal this afternoon and I have a right 

 to. I have boasted of the things that God has given us. But there 

 are some things I can not boast of. The things that man can give us 

 I am not able to place upon the high pinnacle to which I have those 

 of bounteous Nature. This institution of ours, well equipped as it is 

 with the best intelligence of the age. can not maintain the elevated 

 position that it has acquired unless we can keep pace with developments 

 in other states and other countries. Why we need for this institution 

 at this time a million dollars to expend in building. Now this seems 

 a large sum, does it not. but we have twelve to thirteen hundred of the 



