84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF AGRICULTURE. 



BY J. H. HALE, SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, and brother farmers : 

 I thought yesterday afternoon, when I listened to the elo- 

 quent and able address of our friend from New York, and 

 finally to the words of wisdom from our old friend Stock- 

 bridge, that it was hardly right and proper for me to come 

 here at this seat of agricultural wisdom of Massachusetts and 

 try to say anything to benefit agriculture. When my friend 

 Stockbridge was speaking, my mind quickly went back to 

 one of the very first meetings of the Connecticut State Board 

 of Agriculture. Our good friend was there, and talked 

 about things that were Greek to me. I suppose it was the 

 first I had heard relative to phosphoric acid, potash and 

 nitrogen, and I got it mixed up with a drug shop, for it 

 seemed to me it had nothing to do with my work as a farmer. 

 But that meeting, and other meetings where men of like 

 calling and like faith in agriculture have spoken, have stim- 

 ulated me to whatever of success I have met with in agri- 

 culture. I wanted to say yesterday, when our friends were 

 belittling the work of the colleges, — I think Professor 

 Jordan did, a little bit, — the tremendous work they are 

 doing outside of their legitimate calling, that their indirect 

 work would always be their greatest work. 



My subject is " The business side of agriculture," and I 

 know more about that than I do about agricultural educa- 

 tion, because I did not have any agricultural education. 

 What little I know I have stolen from others or dug out of 

 the soil. 



Perhaps we sometimes get an impression of business as I 

 did the other day. I ran across a man who was whitewash- 

 ing some buildings. He had bought some brushes and was 

 daubing the whitewash on with the brushes. I suggested 



