ficulty in some sections and at some times of the year. Now, briefly, 

 Secretary Wilson touched on this so clearly that I need not mention 

 it what is the cause of cheap farms in New York State, and the 

 fact that so many persons are not looking with favor upon agriculture 

 in this State? I believe there are two leading causes: First, 

 the opening of a great West, when from twenty to forty years 

 ago it was possible for farmers of the East to find fertile 

 farms merely for the asking. The result was that large numbers 

 of our farmers left for those Western regions, even at a sacrifice 

 of their own home farms. Then again, the industrial activities East 

 have been going forward by leaps and bounds, and they had to have 

 labor at any cost ; and many a young man at the farm has felt it to 

 his advantage to change from the country to the city in order to 

 secure larger pay. I will not attempt to discuss whether it was in 

 his interest to do this or not; the fact is that many of them did it. 

 The farmers of the East have been going to the West and to the cities. 

 The farmers have made the cities. 



"Now, many of the thinking men in agriculture have realized 

 the changing conditions and the serious problems that have been 

 cropping slowly upon us. There are to-day in the State of New 

 York twenty-one different organized agencies working for the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture. There is our State College of Agriculture ; 

 and you need go nowhere else if you would find evidence of increasing 

 interest in our agriculture. That college when established in 1868 

 enrolled scarcely a hand-full of students, and the number of agricul- 

 ture students was conspicuous because of its small size year after 

 year up to 1895, an< ^ at the same time entries in the mechanical courses 

 were increasing in number rapidly. But in 1895 a change was in- 

 troduced. Then there were 55 students in the State College of Agri- 

 culture. This year, in round numbers, how many are studying agri- 

 culture exclusively agriculture in our State College of Agriculture? 

 One thousand, compared with 55 in 1895 A. thousand young men, 

 with a few young women, compared with 55 about fifteen years ago! 

 And our State recently has established free schools of agriculture, 

 and we find great interest being manifested by the young men in the 

 localities of these schools. Their classrooms in some instances are 

 not large enough to hold the students seeking instruction. This is 

 evidence of a changing condition. We have a State Experiment 

 Station. We have a State Department of Agriculture, conducted in 

 the farmers' interests. And within the last few days a new force 

 has come into the field which bids fair to exercise a strong influence. 



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