send theirs to the agricultural colleges where mod- 
ern systems of tillage are taught. The opportu- 
nity is ample. There are sixty-three colleges and 
universities now receiving aid under acts of con- 
gress aS a condition of maintaining a course in 
agriculture. Keep them, if you possibly can, good 
agricultural schools, and save them from the temp- 
tation of trying to ape the airs of the university. 
They are today the most useful, the most fruit- 
ful educational institutions in the country. See 
that the children of the farm go where they will 
not be taught to despise the soil or long for a fu- 
ture freed from its labors; but will learn the fact, 
now being fully understood, that the right kind of 
farming offers scope for the keenest intelligence, 
occupation for the most active brain and oppor- 
tunity and reward for the highest ambition. 
After all it is to the next generation mainly that 
we must look for the transformation of our great- 
est and most vital industry, though something may 
be done with this. In both fields, the man who as- 
sumes to be the farmer’s friend or hold his inter- 
ests dear will constitute himself a missionary of 
the new dispensation. It is an act of patriotic 
service to the country. It is a contribution to the 
welfare of all humanity, and will strengthen the 
pillars of a government that must otherwise waver 
in some popular upheaval when the land shall no 
longer sustain the multiplying children that its 
bosom bears. It is a high commission that is offer- 
21 
