THE FARM DEMONSTRATION WORK 



devoted elder sister, his study of English masters in order to 

 be able to recite their contents to his mother, his graduation 

 from Union College, Schenectady, New York, and his experi- 

 ence of eight years in early life as professor in academies of 

 higher learning in the East, all had their effect in preparing 

 the man for the movement and responsibility. We can get a 

 slant on his processes of thought in the following quotation 

 from an address he delivered while president of Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College: 



"The masses of people fail to understand that eyes were placed 

 top of shoulders to see things. All along life's pathway from in- 

 fancy to the grave they are stumbling over the world and scolding 

 about their bruises. For threescore years and ten they pass in 

 and out of the doors of their houses and yet do not know how wide 

 nor how high they are. They never stopped to measure, nor 

 thought to ask the questions. 'They could not build a respectable 

 house, nor a bam, though building has been going on about them all 

 their lives.' The gates are open, the bars are down, the stock is 

 liable to do damage; they never notice it.' They do not know the 

 names of the flowers that bloom in beauty on their grounds, nor 

 the grasses that flourish in their fields, nor the forest trees upon 

 their domain, nor the birds that fill the air with melody. If they 

 want to know more about farming they buy a book; if they have 

 any pains or aches they send for a doctor. They refer all ques- 

 tions of law to the attorney and trust their salvation to the minister. 

 Some of the greatest needs of the world are eyes that can see — 

 eyes that stand out like the headlight of a locomotive." 



"There is, also, a vast difference between the knowledge of a 

 thing and that knowledge which enables us to practically make 

 use of the thing. A chemist somewhat distinguished for his 

 analysis and his lectures on foods tried to keep a cow for family 

 use. By spring the cow looked like the latest resurrection from 

 a boneyard, and in despair he came to me confidentially to learn 

 how to feed her. The same chemist had been delivering lectures 

 for some time on chemistry of domestic foods, when a little stranger 

 came to his house. He thought it would be so much better to bring 



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