80 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



touch it. And yet I have just a thought or two that I wish 

 to bring to your minds. First, I want to endorse what a 

 previous speaker has said relative to a mistake which I 

 think some of us are liable to make with reference to other 

 colleges or institutions. This is a State with a large num- 

 ber of institutions, and I believe they all have their place. 

 When I was a boy I was induced to attend our agricultural 

 college at Amherst. I was urged by some to go to some 

 other institution. I came here, and am not ashamed of it. 

 I am very glad that I made up my mind to take just the 

 course I did. It might not have been a wise course or a 

 wise move for some one else. There are many educational 

 institutions, and I believe they all have their place. I do 

 not believe we want to be jealous of them at all. If my 

 brother wants to study Latin or Greek, I say to him " Go 

 do it." One thing that interests me is the future mission of 

 the agricultural college. I have thought a great deal about 

 it, and it is not quite clear in my mind yet, — not as clear 

 as I could wish it to be. Thirty-one years ago we did not 

 have any agricultural college, and we did not know exactly 

 how to go to work. We had comparatively few men in our 

 country who had any experience in these lines of work. 

 We had to try and do the best we could. Is it any wonder 

 that we have made some blunders ? Is it any wonder that 

 we are still far from perfection? I believe we have done a 

 good work, and I believe the light is dawning and we can 

 see more clearly than ever before the future line in which 

 we ought to work. The problem has come to Dr. Jordan 

 and to many of us, Why do we not receive a larger number 

 of students who desire to study agriculture? Why is it 

 that many of the students who come to us do not follow 

 agriculture in some way or other after they complete their 

 course? Every young man when he gets through with his 

 college education finds himself confronted with this con- 

 dition of things : Here I am twenty-two years old, per- 

 haps, I have been fortunate enough to secure four years of 

 training, now I must look out for myself. What am I 

 going to do? How can I best look out for myself? How 

 can I make the most of myself ? Most of the students who 

 go to the agricultural college are handicapped from the 



