74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



bottom cause goes about as far back as total depravity. The 

 sentiment is all through the community, — it was when I was 

 a youngster, and I do not know as it has improved, — that 

 any very very bright boy who enters the common school must 

 go to college and be a minister. This opinion has pervaded 

 the whole community for generations. It begins in the kin- 

 dergarten, and goes to the common school and to the high 

 school and finally to the college. I greatly fear, — I hope I 

 do not know it, — that that same instruction which was started 

 in the kindergarten and went through to the common school 

 and to the high school has found its way into the teachers of 

 the agricultural colleges. I fear that you have in your agri- 

 cultural colleges teachers who have the same influence to-day. 

 That is what is the matter with many of your boys who grad- 

 uate from the agricultural colleges and go somewhere beside 

 to the farm to do their life work. What does the act of Con- 

 gress say ? I would have no teacher in an agricultural col- 

 lege who should not be saturated through and through with 

 what is found in the last clause of that act. He should take 

 these boys and fill them with all the science he knows, directly 

 in the line of agriculture and mechanic arts. He should cul- 

 tivate them to be bigger and more useful citizens aud fit 

 them for all the duties of citizenship. That would be fulfil- 

 ling his mission. 



The Chairman. We would like to hear from some of the 

 teachers. 



Dr. C. S. Walker. There are two or three thoughts that 

 have occurred to me. I think the lecturer of the afternoon 

 is a graduate of an agricultural college. Now, I think there 

 we have one great encouragement. We have sent out from 

 our agricultural colleges men like the lecturer of the after- 

 noon. People have heard him and seen him, and have asked 

 what college he came from. The reply is, "an agricultural 

 college," and the people say, "I guess I had better send my 

 boy there." One of the best arguments which our agricult- 

 ural colleges set forth is the character of the men who go out 

 from the institutions. Now, I think that if a few men of 

 this stamp go out over the length and the breadth of the land, 

 they will furnish arguments for the colleges which will main- 

 tain them. 



