COM stock] annual address 5 



The chicken, turkey, guinea, duck and goose, each can tell its 

 own ancient, racial history to the one who is observant and thinks 

 about what he sees. Take, for instance, the turkey with its wild 

 instincts and but partially domesticated habits; or take the 

 duck — and merely as an example — its webbed feet on short legs, 

 set wide apart and far back which thus make such efficient oars 

 when the duck is in its native element, but which make its move- 

 ments on land so awkward and waddling. Neither of these birds 

 can be understood or taken care of with the fullest intelligence, 

 unless the student has an understanding of their development in 

 the great battle of the survival of the fittest. 



The same is true of cattle and, especially, cogent of that acme 

 of nervous instincts, — the horse. At least half of the men who 

 drive horses throughout our country are totally unfit for it ; and 

 it is simply an excruciating experience to witness their brutal 

 ignorance in this capacity. When the young farmer realizes 

 that through countless ages the horse's ancestors escaped their 

 enemies by shying and by keen watchfulness and by being able 

 to kick and bite and to be ever and always on the alert for surprises, 

 he has gotten far along in understanding how to meet these pro- 

 pensities, in a sensible and himiane manner. But perhaps the 

 pig has suffered most of all by association with man — not even 

 the Indian, brutalized by the white man's fire-water, makes a 

 more lamentable case than does the naturally neat pig in the 

 incomparable filthy sty where it is imprisoned by ignorant man. 



There certainly can be no real intelligence in caring for the 

 domestic animals until their natures and development are under- 

 stood; and this is all in the realm of nature-study. 



The young farmer grounded in nature-study is prepared to meet 

 intelligently almost any situation that is likely to occur; but 

 without this he is doing his work blindly and hazardously; he is 

 a gambler although he may not know it, for he places his stakes 

 upon results without understanding causes. 



What are all the agricultural scientists in this broad land doing 

 for the farmer? They are simply working out nature-study les- 

 sons for him ; and in proportion to his knowledge and understand- 

 ing of nature he is able to avail himself of their results. The 

 reason that the great work of Experiment Stations is even yet 

 appreciated and utilized by only a small proportion of the farmers 

 of the United States is because nature's ways arc, as yet, myster- 

 ious to those who till the soil. 



