THE NEW INSPIRATION. 371 



Now this great body of scientists the nature of whose un- 

 dertakings for the farmer we have but imperfectly indicated, 

 work, not at cross purposes, but harmoniously, for they are 

 constituent parts of one of the divisions of the general Gov- 

 ernment the Department of Agriculture. Besides the scien- 

 tists, there are helpers, clerks, experts and executive officers. 

 These, all working together with an enthusiasm seldom sur- 

 passed in a secular calling, are doing much to inspire and 

 make possible to the farmers the progress and development 

 which now characterize their calling attainments never before 

 equaled in the history of the world. 



It is the Department of Agriculture which is searching the 

 earth for new varieties of plant life and transplanting old 

 varieties and so stocking every locality of the country with 

 an abundance of the forms of vegetation which may most 

 profitably be grown in it. It is this department which is stim- 

 ulating an agricultural education which has never been ap- 

 proached among any people. It is this Department which 

 represents the wisest and most powerful paternalism ever 

 worked out by any government a paternalism which assists 

 and protects while at the same time stimulating the self- 

 reliance and exalting the self respect of the beneficiary. Theo- 

 retically and actually the department is the servant of the 

 people, but practically instead of being of the general average 

 intelligence as the legislative bodies of the government always 

 are, it knows as much as its most intelligent employer, while 

 at the same time it serves with a fidelity which leaves nothing 

 to be desired. 



When the part which this Department is playing in the in- 

 credible progress of American agriculture is fairly considered 

 it acts as a stimulant both to pride and patriotism. To such 



