208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of his house, his fence corners will be free from thorn and thicket, his corn rows as 

 straight as the eye can run them, and his house will not be as one seen this morn- 

 ing from the passing train. It was a well built house, elevated on pillars about 

 three feet high. Scarcely a foot of soil was in that yard that had not been turned 

 up by the nose of the savory pig. *It was a landscape of niingled mud and mire. 

 Such scenes as this science must certainly condemn and the crudest artistic 

 taste forbid The farmer, therefore, needs the higher education in order that he 

 may develop to the highest degree possible the useful and the beautiful in his own 

 vocation. 



Third. The farmer's obligation to support the schools of higher education. If 

 I were gifted with the tongue of eloquence I would stand before this audience and 

 plead with you, as representing the farmers of Indiana, until there would not be a 

 county in our State that would not have a score of young men and young women 

 pursuing a course of study in Purdue University ; until half of the students of 

 Indiana State University were the lusty sons and fair daughters from the farms of 

 our State ; until every Christian college in our commonwealth is thronged with 

 eager students, the noblest and truest of whom are the children of Indiana's broad 

 acres. It is not enough that the farmer should be satisfied with a hundred and sixty 

 acres of land. It is not enough that he should be contented that his fine horses 

 and cattle should take the premiums at our fairs. There is more at stake than fat 

 sheep, horses and cattle, and while these are valued highly as they deserve to be, 

 let each farmer not fail to be loyal to that higher education whose aim is to make 

 him a man more competent in all his chosen toil. No man, whether he be a farmer, 

 or lawyer, or doctor, or of any other profession, has a right to esteem so lightly 

 these powers of the soul — reason, conscience and the will — as the masses of men 

 esteem them. The farmer is above his profession. He is larger than his toil, richer 

 than his flocks, more beautiful than his herds, more valuable than every possible 

 development of his lands. The farmer's own intellectual, moral and spiritual devel- 

 opment ai-e concerns of such far-reaching interest that in comparison with himself, 

 his lands and his flocks, his houses and his cl'ops, are but as the shadow to the sub- 

 stance, the garments to the man. Realizing his own value, recognizing the fact 

 that the higher education has to do with that in himself which makes him of su- 

 preme value, how can the farmer fail in an appreciation of and loyalty to our insti- 

 tutions of higher learning? Speedily may the day come when the youth all over 

 our land shall be compelled to subject themselves to a much more rigid course of 

 instruction than the few now receive by choice. If the sons and daughters of the 

 farmers of our State have not the advantages of a higher education, Avho will be 

 responsible in that eternity whither we are all moving, and where mind and con- 

 science and heart are measured and not lands and grain? I urge you therefore to 

 be loyal and in earnest in the advancement of the higher education, for the good 

 of the boys and girls — that they may grow in their mental powers and moral sensi- 

 bilities. Then will they bring to your old age the merited joy that life can bring 

 — the privilege of seeing your sons and daughters noble and true as you go down 

 into the valley whence there is no more return to earth. 



The farmer is under obligation to support the higher education for the sake of 



