STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 203 



in the direct productiou of food, but it is applied in larger 

 and larger measures to the manufacture of the myriad articles 

 which the genius of man has invented for human comfort and 

 which, from being the luxuries of the rich, are fast becoming 

 the necessaries of the i^oor. Whatever adds to the productive 

 power of labor adds to the sum of human comfort, and especi- 

 ally increases the number of those who can have this comfort. 

 We are therefore under the greatest obligations to those search- 

 ers after truth who explore the dark places of nature's domain, 

 and bring to light new forces for the service of man. 



But with the advance in agriculture and the recognition of a 

 scientific method in agriculture, the old idea that anybody can 

 be a farmer and that as likely as not education will unfit a man 

 for a farmer's life, has, to a considerable extent, passed away, 

 and there has come instead a demand for agricultural education. 

 This demand is sensible and proper. The supply ought to equal 

 the demand. And it does. 'No person who desires an agricul- 

 tural education need go without it because it can not be had. 

 The trouble thus far has been that while a clamor is raised for 

 agricultural education the boys to be educated are nof forthcom- 

 ing, and to educate there must be persons to receive the educa- 

 tion. Up to the present time the demand for agricultural 

 education in Minnesota can not be said to have been very great, 

 and I have no hesitation in saying that the supply has been 

 largely in excess of the demand. . And if, at the present moment, 

 the demand seems to anybody to be greater than the supply, I 

 answer, in the language of the market reports, that "the de- 

 mand is mainly speculative and not for consumption." And I 

 add, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, "to 

 prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world." 



In the first place it is to be observed that the regents of the 

 university have not been negligent in the matter of providing 

 facilities for agricultural education. Consider for a moment 

 what they have done. 



The endowment of a university in Minnesota was begun in 

 1851 by the act of Congress granting two townships of land for 

 the purpose. The territorial legislature j)assed an act in 1851 

 for the establishment of the university. The state constitution, 

 adopted in 1857, confirmed the previous action and expressly 

 provided for the vesting in the university of all lands which may 

 hereafter be granted by Congress or other donations for univer- 

 sity purposes. For reasons too well known to be repeated here, 



