FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. 



29 



made by Mayor Samuel H. Ashbridge, the Hon. 

 George F. Edmunds, and Director-General Wil- 

 liam P. Wilson, after which a few telegraphic 

 messages were read, and then Dr. Hill announced 

 that the congress was formally opened. 



The congress continued until Nov. 1, and was 

 attended by 350 foreign delegates, representing 

 40 nations. In addition to that, delegates were 

 registered from 200 chambers of commerce of the 

 United States. Some well-known person was 

 chosen to preside each day, beginning with the 

 Hon. Thomas B. Reed, and papers pertaining to 

 topics affecting international trade were pre- 

 sented by men particularly interested and com- 

 petent to consider every phase advanced. Typical 

 of the papers read were the following: The In- 

 dependence of Nations, by Edward Atkinson; 

 The World as a Market for American Iron and 

 Steel, by John H. Sternbergh; and The Southern 

 Cotton Industry, by D. A. Tompkins. 



Results. At midnight on Dec. 2 Director- 

 General Wilson of the exposition went to the south 

 entrance of the exposition grounds and, in the 

 presence of the officials, declared the exposition 

 closed. Earlier in the evening there was a meet- 



ing of the Board of Directors in the south pavil- 

 ion, at which the reports of the heads of depart- 

 ments were received. In reviewing the results 

 attained by the exposition, Director-General Wil- 

 son said that not only were the receipts sufficient 

 to meet every obligation, but a substantial sur- 

 plus would remain after all debts Avere paid. In 

 many respects it had been the most successful 

 exposition of its kind ever given in this country. 

 As an instance of this he showed that the daily 

 average of paid admissions was greater at the 

 Export Exposition than the daily averages of the 

 expositions at San Francisco, Atlanta, and Orna- 

 ha. The total number of admissions at the Ex- 

 port Exposition had amounted to about 1,500,000. 

 Treasurer Wright said that, after all debts were 

 paid, a surplus of about $50,000 would remain, 

 which would be divided between the Commercial 

 Museum and the Franklin Institute. Nearly all 

 obligations had already been met. 



That the exposition did a vast amount of good 

 to the manufacturing interests throughout the 

 country is generally admitted by all who were in 

 a position to observe the nature and extent of 

 the results which it attained. 



F 



FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. The 



Farmers' National Congress of the United States 

 met in nineteenth annual session, in Faneuil Hall, 

 Boston, at 10 A. M., Tuesday, Oct. 3, 1899. Ad- 

 dresses of welcome were made by the Hon. Josiah 

 Quincy, mayor of Boston ; Gen. Francis H. Apple- 

 ton, representing Gov. Wolcott, the State Horti- 

 cultural Society, and the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture; and E. G. Preston, secretary of the Boston 

 Chamber of Commerce. Responses were made by 

 the Hon. W. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin, president 

 of the congress ; John M. Stahl, of Chicago, secre- 

 tary of the congress; the Hon. Benjamin F. Clay- 

 ton, of Iowa, chairman of the Executive Commit- 

 tee of the congress; and the Hon. W. G. Whit- 

 more, of Nebraska. 



In his annual address President Hoard paid 

 an eloquent tribute to " Boston and this grand 

 old Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with their 

 heroic history, their steadfast adherence since the 

 beginning of the nation to republican ideals of 

 government, their magnificent contributions of 

 intellect and patriotic purpose to the growth of 

 national character, achievement, and destiny." 

 He said: 



"The principal drawback and hindrance to 

 agricultural thought, profit, and progress is a 

 lack of union and sympathy between scientific 

 theory and the everyday practice of the farm. 

 As yet there is a wide gulf between the teacher 

 of agricultural science and the working farmer, 

 and our farmers are especially lacking in appre- 

 ciation of the great value to them of the scien- 

 tific teacher. They think that very much of 

 what is done at experiment stations, taught at 

 agricultural colleges, or related in dairy and farm 

 papers, for instance, is nothing but theory. A 

 new order of teaching agriculture needs to be in- 

 stituted in this country, as is being done in some 

 of the countries of Europe. The Canadian Gov- 

 ernment has solved this problem in one line at 

 least it has introduced dairying into regions 

 where the industry was unknown by building 

 cheese factories and creameries in the latest and 

 most improved form, and placing them in charge 

 of graduates of Government dairy schools. These 



institutions were maintained until the farmers 

 about them had learned the way and method of 

 true practice, when they were absorbed by local 

 capital. The difference between successful and 

 unsuccessful men in all callings is not luck, but 

 rather judgment and energy. Good judgment is 

 an act of the mind, and one must have a mind 

 well stored with sound knowledge and well 

 trained to use it in order to exercise the best 

 judgment. I see a ray of hope in the fact that 

 this great national body of farmers have come 

 to see the tremendous importance of this ques- 

 tion. I hope you will include it every year in 

 your programmes until discussion is crystallized 

 into action all over the nation." 



President Hoard also recommended co-opera- 

 tion among farmers, the conservation of the fer- 

 tility of the farm, and the preservation of political 

 independence. He said : " It is largely through 

 the submergence of the political influence of the 

 farming classes that the present unfair and of- 

 fensive systems of taxation exist." 



Committees on credentials, finance, and reso- 

 lutions were appointed. 



At the afternoon session Dr. Henry H. Good- 

 ell, President of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, read a paper on The Mission of the Ex- 

 periment Station, which he stated to be " to apply 

 scientific methods and principles to the investi- 

 gation of all questions affecting rural economy; 

 to teach the teacher, furnishing him with a body 

 of facts from which coherent law can be deduced; 

 to become bureaus of utility, distributing centers 

 of information to the thousands applying to them 

 for aid: to act as a detective force, preventing 

 and exposing fraud in the sale of fertilizers, con- 

 centrated cattle foods, the products of the dairy, 

 seeds, and the thousand and one spraying mix- 

 tures offered in the market; and the testing of 

 foreign seeds, fruits, shrubs, and trees for either 

 ornamental or economic purposes." 



J. W. Stockwell, secretary of the Massachu- 

 setts State Board of Agriculture, read a paper on 

 Decline of Farm Lands in the East: Cause and 

 Remedy. Among the causes he mentioned unjust 

 taxation, poor rural schools, and trusts. For 



