And State Papers 303 



based on the foundation of the prosperity of the 

 wage-worker and the tiller of the soil. 



But the needs of these two classes are often not 

 the same. The tiller of the soil has been of all our 

 citizens the one on the whole the least affected in his 

 ways of life and methods of industry by the giant in 

 dustrial changes of the last half century. There has 

 been change with him, too, of course. He also can 

 work to best advantage if he keeps in close touch 

 with his fellows; and the success of the national De 

 partment of Agriculture has shown how much can 

 be done for him by rational action of the Govern 

 ment. Nor is it only through the Department that 

 the Government can act. One of the greatest and 

 most beneficent measures passed by the last Con 

 gress, or indeed by any Congress in recent years, 

 is the Irrigation Act, which will do for the States 

 of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain region 

 at least as much as ever has been done for the States 

 of the humid region by river and harbor improve 

 ments. Few measures that have been put upon the 

 statute books of the Nation have done more for the 

 people than this law will, I firmly believe, directly 

 and indirectly accomplish for the States in question. 



The Department of Agriculture devotes its whole 

 energy to working for the welfare of farmers and 

 stock growers. In every section of our country it 

 aids them in their constantly increasing search for 

 a better agricultural education. It helps not only 

 them, but all the nation, in seeing that our exports 

 of meats have clean bills of health, and that there is 



