34 ANNUAL REPORT 



If you had come here three years ago you would have seen 

 quite a different state of things. The underbrush was so dense 

 that a blackbird could scarcely have gone through it; you would 

 have found the farm grown up to weeds and grass, with hedge 

 rows about four rods wide; not a panel of good fence on the 

 place; not a farm building, except an old shanty; an old stable 

 large enough for three horses and two cows. One hundred acres 

 of this farm we have been in possession of but two years, al- 

 though of the upper part, consisting of about one hundred and 

 fifty acres, we have had possession of for three years. We com- 

 menced three years ago this spring. 



We are now just commencing our real educational and experi- 

 mental work. And perhaps it will be well enough for me to 

 state what the object of this farm is. It is called the "Experi- 

 mental Farm," and it is called the ''University Farm;" and it 

 is called the " State Farm." It is neither the one nor the other. 

 It is really a practical school, a practical farm, a place to train 

 and educate the young men that we expect to have in the depart- 

 ment of agriculture, in the practical details of farm life. That 

 is really the object of the farm. It is not a model farm. A 

 model farm is one in which you never have any weeds, one where 

 there are no bugs, where there is no very dry weather, no very 

 cold weather, or anything else that is not just right, but where 

 everything is "perfect" and where you get the very best re- 

 sults from the least expenditure of money. That is a model farm! 

 I say this is not a model farm, for we have weeds and bugs, etc. 



This is not an experimental farm. An experimental farm can 

 not be run by common labor. It can not be run by the kind of 

 labor that we get at twenty-five, dollars a month. When you 

 establish such an experimental farm as is desirable in all depart- 

 ments of grain, and stock and fruit and flower and vegetable, 

 it will require for its superintendence, and management in all 

 its details, men who will cost you perhaps $3,000 a year. This 

 will be necessary in order to have it of practical value and 

 benefit. Thus far we have had no money for that work. Many 

 of the leading states of the Union are pushing this experimental 

 work, and I do not know of a state where anything is being done 

 that does not receive less than $5,000 for that work; the state of 

 New York receiving $15,000 to $20,000. We have not reached 

 that point yet. 



It is true this line of work promises the best results to the 

 farmers of this country at the present time. It is worth a good 



