,246 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



of roses and in a land overflowing with plenty, so 

 I can't help being optimistic and perhaps just a 

 little flowery. When I compare present conditions 

 with some I have been through in the past I rejoice 

 with exceeding great joy. I am fully persuaded 

 that the many educational agencies which have 

 been at work during the last half century for the 

 help of the rural classes, have been major factors 

 in accomplishing the vast improvement in social 

 life and productive effort in the farming districts. 

 But there is much yet to be done so I am pro- 

 foundly impressed with the need of using eco- 

 nomically and efficiently the agencies already estab- 

 lished for the education of those who furnish food 

 for themselves and for the world. When that is 

 accomplished such other agencies as experience 

 proves to be needful may be added. The agricul- 

 tural education which is founded on a knowledge 

 of conditions, on skill and upon the accumulated 

 literature of science, is only of yesterday and it 

 would be strange if we were not formulating some 

 schemes which will be greatly improved in the 

 future. I am sometimes called " a pioneer in agri- 

 cultural education;" and therefore I may caution 

 those who are now in the field and at work, that I 

 left many invisible stones and roots in the soil 



