452 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



which has been referred to and I know the people in the west will be 

 glad to hear that now a period of prosperity seems to be returning to 

 those same eastern farms For example, in New York state values of farm 

 lands in the last decade increased thirty-five per cent, which is a very 

 distinct and encouraging increase, not like the increase you saw in this 

 state where values jumped about one hundred per cent in the same 

 period. 



I think it would be unwise for me to attempt to discuss problems 

 which are peculiar to the state of Iowa for the simple reason that while 

 I am using every way I can to learn those problems, yet I am not far 

 enough advanced in my lessons, so I feel free to discuss them. I want 

 to say a few words about two phases of your agriculture which are more 

 or less alike in all states, and especially prominent in the state I have 

 been residing in in recent years. 



In the first place, let me bring to your attention the change of at- 

 titude of the public at large toward agricultural education, and I may 

 say that in Iowa we have a great agricultural college. I can say this 

 with all modesty, for I have had nothing to do with the making of the 

 agricultural college. We have a college which is well manned, which 

 stands high not only in this state but carries a splendid reputation 

 throughout other states, and even in foreign countries, and I esteem it 

 a very high honor to be asked to become connected with such an insti- 

 tution as the one at Ames. In 1862, just fifty years ago, Senator Morrill 

 of Vermont introduced and secured the passage in congress of a bill to 

 provide education in all the states along the lines of agriculture and me- 

 chanic arts. Senator Morrill was taking a long look into the future. 

 People did not appreciate that education, especially education of college 

 grade, was even desirable in connection with either agriculture or me- 

 chanic arts. Senator Morrill was considering the great increase of popu- 

 lation which he felt sure this country would see. He doubtless had 

 taken occasion to familiarize himself with conditions in European coun- 

 tries where problems that we would have to meet had been already met 

 and to a large extent solved. He saw that both agriculture and engineer- 

 ing in those countries were being promoted in a very necessary and vital 

 way through the aid of institutions of higher learning, and so in 1862, 

 in the hour of great agony in this country's history, that measure was 

 put upon the statute books which established colleges of agriculture and 

 engineering in all of the states. 



The senator believed that those two great industries have an import- 

 ant bearing one upon another, that each one to a large extent is dependent 

 upon the other, and the tendencies and the history of the times have 

 proven that he was entirely correct. These industries and these kinds 

 of institutions must go hand in hand to bring about the very best re- 

 sults. But the people at large did not appreciate the need of instruc- 

 tion in agriculture as readily as that in engineering and years went by 

 and the agricultural colleges were not attended by many students. In 

 1892, it happened that I came in personal contact with this line of work 

 as a student in a college of agriculture, and I recall in that time there 

 was but a handful of students studying agriculture, and there was an 



