And State Papers 305 



striking change made in the entire West by the ex 

 tended use of alfalfa. 



Moreover, the Department has taken the lead in 

 the effort to prevent the deforestation of the country. 

 Where there are forests we seek to preserve them ; 

 and on the once treeless plains and the prairies we 

 are doing our best to foster the habit of tree planting 

 among our people. In my own lifetime I have seen 

 wonderful changes brought about by this tree plant 

 ing here in your own State and in the States im 

 mediately around it. 



There are a number of very important questions, 

 such as that of good roads, with which the States 

 alone can deal, and where all that the National Gov 

 ernment can do is to co-operate with them. The 

 same is true of the education of the American farm 

 er. A number of the States have themselves started 

 to help in this work and the Department of Agricul 

 ture does an immense amount which is in the proper 

 sense of the word educational, and educational in the 

 most practical way. 



It is therefore clearly true that a great advance 

 has been made in the direction of finding ways by 

 which the Government can help the farmer to help 

 himself the only kind of help which a self-respect 

 ing man will accept, or, I may add, which will in 

 the end do him any good. Much has been done in 

 these ways, and farm life and farm processes con 

 tinually change for the better. The farmer himself 

 still retains, because of his surroundings and the 

 nature of his work, to a pre-eminent degree the 



