160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



The lecturer on agriculture, Dr. Townsend, had 

 gone to the State University of Ohio where he did 

 valuable work. He was a man of unusual ability 

 and his scope of knowledge was wide and in some 

 lines profound. As there were few trained men 

 in agriculture at that time, his position was not 

 easy to fill. One day President Welch asked me 

 why I could not teach agriculture; I replied be- 

 cause I did not know how. " But," said he, 

 " Can't you tell the boys how you have been doing 

 things I understand you have long been a suc- 

 cessful school teacher." The President carried out 

 his suggestion, as he usually did, and I began to 

 tell the students what I knew about farming. It 

 did not take me long to run short of material and 

 then I began to consult the library. I might as 

 well have looked for cranberries on the Rocky 

 Mountains as for material for teaching agricul- 

 ture in that library. 



Thus, fortunately, I was driven to take the class 

 to the field and farm, there to study plants, animals 

 and tillage at first hand. So again I was shunted 

 onto the right track by sheer necessity and ever 

 since I have kept the rails hot on that particular 

 spur. Much of the illustrative material necessary 

 for agricultural teaching cannot be assembled in 

 the class room and so I fell into the habit of taking 



