STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 205 



have not come to the college of agriculture, if there has beeu 

 practically no demand whatever for agricultural education, it is 

 not because the regents have failed in their duty, not because 

 they have not made generous provision for this education, not 

 because they have not been willing to do everything which large- 

 minded men could do to promote so great an interest as the 

 agriculture of Minnesota. And I wish to say here that if the 

 regents have not accomplished directly for agriculture as much 

 as might be desired — as much as they desired — they have at 

 least proved themselves wise trustees of the property intrusted 

 to their care — for they have converted property which original- 

 ly cost them only .*'8,000 into property which could easily be 

 sold 'to-day for .««250,000, while the fruit farm at Minnetonka, 

 purchased for $2,000, could be sold now for -$50,000. If anyone 

 can show anywhere more profitable farming than that let us 

 know where it is. 



But the regents have not stopped even here. In their zeal to 

 meet the wants of the farmers of the State, they have consented 

 to impair somewhat the symmetry of the university, and have 

 opened specially easy paths by which students can enter the de- 

 partment of agriculture, and they have done this by my advice. 



When I came to the university, a little more than two years 

 ago, I found one student registered in the college of agriculture. 

 He graduated at the end of the year; and the second year of my 

 administration opened without a single pupil in agriculture. You 

 will believe me, gentlemen, when I say that I pondered upon 

 the subject long and earnestly. I became satisfied that two 

 things were clear : First, that the actual dema,nd for special edu- 

 cation in agriculture was very slight, as shown by the fact that 

 in a great agricultural State with its tens of thousands of farm- 

 ers, not one farmer's son appeared to ask for instruction in agri- 

 culture, while hundreds of farmers' sons and daughters came to 

 the university to ask for instruction in other things. Second, 

 that the children of the State who desired education at all would 

 take the highest education that they could get. If, therefore, 

 they once fitted themselves in the high schools to enter the regu- 

 lar courses of the university, they would keep on as long as they 

 could in the lines of their j)rej)aratory work in the schools — 

 that is in languages, mathematics, and mental, physical, natural 

 and economic science. In the full tide of successful and 

 joyous scholarship, with its almost infinite x>ossibilities for the 

 future, very few students would ever wish to turn aside to study 



