14 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



agriculture and technical education which arises from 

 the benefits of the Morrill act. 



The States have also given additional sums for the 

 support of these institutions. Later additions were 

 made to the grants of funds from the public treasury 

 in the interest of agricultural education. Among the 

 first of these was the Hatch act, establishing particu- 

 larly agricultural experiment stations. 



Wonderful as is this endowment, the greatest ever 

 given to education by any nation or at any period of 

 history, the progress of agricultural training has not 

 been limited alone to the colleges and experiment sta- 

 tions. Forty years ago the Farmers' Institute was 

 almost unknown. To-day hundreds of institutes are 

 held throughout the whole country, in which the data 

 relating to agricultural progress are presented and dis- 

 cussed. I well remember my first appearance at a 

 Farmers' Institute, now nearly forty years ago, as a 

 young teacher of agricultural chemistry. I was ex- 

 pected to tell the farmers something about the princi- 

 ples of fertility. It was an embarrassing situation to 

 me, having only lately come into this work and being 

 so little acquainted with all of its ramifications. For- 

 tunately for my reputation, my audience knew even 

 less than I. The terms " phosphorus," " potash " and 

 " nitrogen," were indeed Greek to the farmer as most 

 of them were Greek in their etymology. But at least 

 there was an awakening among them. It was the dawn 

 of a new era in Agriculture. 



If we could only compare this primitive institute in 

 Indiana with one of its modern descendants, what a 

 contrast there would be! From my point of view the 

 institute was a great deal more of a school to me than 

 it was to the farmers who came. I realized then, at 



