732 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



feel; his brain was clear to think; his hand was powerful and skillful to 

 do. How came he to be educated? By being directed by a loving and 

 righteous stepmother to love the right and the good; by striving at all 

 times to know the truth in every situation; by working industriously to 

 be of the highest service to his fellow men. It was in the school of labor 

 which he dignified that he was educated; it was not in the school of 

 learning. 



No honest work is degrading; the only disgrace comes from the manner 

 in which it is performed. The works of the head, the hand and the heart 

 all are alike necessary, all are alike honorable. 



There is no more dignified or wholesome way of earning a living than 

 by forming a partnership with the forces of nature. 

 "There are millions of positions in the busy world today. 

 Each a drudge to him who holds it, but to him who doesn't, play; 

 Each believes that his real calling is along some other line 

 Than the one at which he's working — take, for instance, your's and mine. 

 Many a farmer's broken hearted that in youth he missed his call, 

 While that same unhappy farmer may be the envy of us all." 



If you want to dignify any calling put the stamp of public opinion upon 

 it. You put the stamp of approval upon a farmer's vocation when you 

 put the science of agriculture in our schools. You may think that science 

 does not apply to the practical farmer, that there is ngthing of value in 

 book farming. But science is simply the truth — the facts and the prin- 

 ciples discolsed by the most complete experience of practical men. The 

 useful man is he who contributes to the general welfare. 



An eminent writer makes one of his characters give it as his opinion, 

 "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to 

 grow on a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve 

 better of mankind and do more essential service to his country, than the 

 whole race of politicians put together." Dean Swift's imaginary char- 

 acter was very must disposed to find fault with politicians, but he 

 was evidently sound on the relation of corn and grass to human happiness. 



We tend to strive for learning beyond our surroundings, we are not 

 satisfied with small development we want big results. We may -make 

 drudgery of our work, or we may combine the Intellect with the working 

 of the hand. 



How many of us as we watch the growing of a plant from a tiny seed 

 to its maturity can tell the conditions necessary for its development, 

 though plant life is our daily companion. 



We may demonstrate a problem but can we tell how the soil can be 

 better tilled in order to conserve its fertility. Henry Wallace says the 

 farmer of this century is a land robber. If we do not educate our 

 farmers our fertile fields will become, not in our day, but come it will, 

 as barren as the farms of New England. 



There must be a permanent agriculture to support a prosperous com- 

 munity. Land should not only maintain its productiveness it should 

 increase its productiveness, and the 'knowledge of how to secure this may 

 come to us through our Agricultural institutions and in this instructive 

 world of nature, our daily associate, we may be able to see more than 



