102 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of the possibilities of either or both for true happiness and 

 growth, or the spirit of manhood dies, and in the lower 

 stratum that life, without imi)ulse or aml^ition, drags a mis- 

 erable existence. 



Where, with calm action alcniii' these lines, we seek to 

 make our industries of greater value because of their signifi- 

 cance, and not as the end of education ; when we come to 

 understand agriculture, not with reference to the methods of 

 growing a crop or the making of any product, but touching 

 the great problem of life which manifests itself everywhere 

 and seek to enter into close harmony with it, — there is sure 

 to come a compensation not to be found in handling crude 

 l)roducts or in bending over a machine. 



Xot every boy can be trained to a successful life on a farm. 

 Wisel}^ has it been ordained that natural tastes and desires 

 should control ; but recreant have we been, in the work of 

 the past, in not setting clear Ij^ before the rising generation 

 the opportunities for vitilizing those natural desires in fitting 

 themselves for the most harmonious life. Thousands of men 

 in the professions to-day find life a drudgery, because during 

 the formative period, in the work of the schools, they were 

 not helped to see the picture of a life most harmonious. 



I pity the man whose enviroiunents are such that he can- 

 not be Avorking out his ideals ; and Avell maj^ Ave urge that 

 system of mental training which Avill naturally and inevit- 

 ably strengthen in the minds of the young those natural 

 traits and tendencies which always promote enthusiastic 

 labor. AVhen this is possible, the mass of toilers will become 

 thinkers, not machines, and the measure of the man will be 

 something larger than the sum total of his da3^'s labor. 



That this may be stimulated, I Avould place pride in the 

 farm and its surroundini>:s as the central invioorator and 

 chief inspirer. Out of pride springs enthusiasm, out of 

 enthusiasm coui"age, out of courage hope, out of hope faith, 

 and out of faith determination. Every man is an artist, 

 leaving upon the fruits of his labors his conception of what 

 is involved therein. We want more pride, that we may 

 have larger conceptions. Read the artist thought and life, 

 not alone on the canvas or marble, but along the highways, 



