382 ANNUAL KEPORT. 



requires as well disciplined, as well cultivated a mind, as the prosecution of 

 agriculture. I know that is contrary to the generally received idea, that if there 

 was a dull, stupid boy in the family, all he was good for was to make a farmer, but 

 if there was a bright boy you must make him a lawyer. But I make the statement 

 without fear of contradiction, that it requires ten-fold more brains and more 

 education and more skill to make a successful farmer than it does to make a lawyer, 

 physician, clergyman or merchant. 



I don't know of a department of labor that demands more diversified information 

 than agriculture. The farmer must not only have a thorough knowledge of the 

 work in itself, he should also understand the underlying principles upon which his 

 labor is based. There is not a single field of human knowledge from which agri- 

 culture does not demand a contribution. 



Let us see in what respect this applies to the farmers of Minnesota. In the first 

 place, for a successful prosecution of his business and calling, the farmer should be 

 familiar with the soil; its cultivation is one of his labors, and it is utterly impos- 

 sible for him to become acquainted with its characteristics, composition and 

 requirements, its adaptability to one kind of fruit or another, to grains, vegetables 

 or stock, without first becoming familiar with the principles of chemistry, mineral- 

 ogy and geology. 



Has the University of Minnesota made any provision for the student in these 

 departments? — It has the finest geological museum in the northwest; its chemical 

 laboratory is fully equipped with the most improved and complete apparatus, and 

 is under the charge of a competent corps of professors. There is most ample pro- 

 vision for instruction in all these departments. 



The intelligent farmer should possess a thorough knowledge of plants — their 

 structure, both general and minute, — their habits, adaptability to varied soils, meth- 

 ods of germination, growth and fruiting, and their relative economic value. The 

 science of botany is peculiarily necessary to the agriculturist, and in how far can 

 the University supply this need ? It has a laboratory wherein each student uses his 

 own compound microscope, and with his eyes corroborates what he learns in his text 

 books; he sees the cells of the plant, their arrangement into various tissues, their 

 difEerent uses in the several parts — leaf, stem and root. He examines also the fun- 

 gus growths which prey on our field crops — becomes familiar with the methods of 

 the potato fungus, the ergot of wheat and rye, the corn smut, etc. He is enabled 

 thus to study and investigate the whole realm of plant life from the minute bacteria 

 to the fruiting apple tree. 



In other departments of science he obtains facts equally valuable and necessary, 

 for the farmer must learn the laws of the elements that are continually at work, 

 modifying and controlling the things with which he labors. He should familiarize 

 himself with the effects of light and heat and electiicity, of storms, ice and snow, 

 of heat and cold, and in all these branches of learning the University offers him 

 great advantages both as to excellent apparatus and skilled instructors. There are 

 between twenty and thirty professors who are men devoted to their specialities, and 

 they offer the amplest provision for the investigation of these necessary adjuncts 

 to farming. 



Bo much in general for the equipment of the University. Now as to what pro- 

 vision is made for the Department of Agriculture. The student who comes to the 



