128 Presidential Addresses 



advancement of farm life ; by experimental stations ; 

 by the use of trained agents, sent to the uttermost 

 countries of the globe; by the practical application 

 of anything which in theory has been demonstrated 

 to be efficient; in these ways, and in many others, 

 great good has been accomplished in raising the 

 standard of productiveness in farm work through 

 out the country. We live in an era when the best 

 results can only be achieved, if to individual self- 

 help we add the mutual self-help which comes by 

 combination, both of citizens in their individual 

 capacity and of citizens working through the State 

 as an instrument. The farmers of the country have 

 grown more and more to realize this, and farming 

 has tended more and more to take its place as an 

 applied science though, as with everything else, 

 the theory must be tested in practical work, and can 

 avail only when applied in practical fashion. 



But after all this has been said, it remains true 

 that the countryman the man on the farm, more 

 than any other of our citizens to-day, is called upon 

 continually to exercise the qualities which we like 

 to think of as typical of the United States through 

 out its history the qualities of rugged independ 

 ence, masterful resolution, and individual energy 

 and resourcefulness. He works hard (for which 

 no man is to be pitied), and often he lives hard 

 (which may not be pleasant) ; but his life is passed 

 in healthy surroundings, surroundings which tend 

 to develop a fine type of citizenship. In the coun 

 try, moreover, the conditions are fortunately such 



