lO 



we are recording history so rapidly, when so many surprises 

 constantly open to us in nearly all fields of science, thought and 

 efifort, we are so bewildered by real achievements which become 

 actual and which we once thought impossible if we thought of 

 them at all ; that we forget the real inception and infancy of 

 important matters in life after they have attained prominence 

 and value, and after we realize we could not get along without 

 them. The early history of many important subjects so quickly 

 vanishes, that we should stop at all great days in the record, 

 and make a reckoning of what has been accomplished while 

 those who took part in them are with us to witness to their 

 truth. As for the future, results of the present lead us to 

 believe they will take care of themselves. 



The occasion you observe is one of those great days, and it 

 is well to recall the event that we may note the vast strides in 

 our better farming methods within the quarter-century. 



Although the act establishing the Experiment Station was 

 not approved until 1885, it is significant that four years previ- 

 ous to this, in 1881, the State Board of Agriculture called atten- 

 tion to the necessity "for legal action in the control, inspection 

 and sale of commercial fertilizers in order to protect our farm- 

 ers against fraud in their use"; while in 1882, the Legislature 

 being in session, the Board of Agriculture again recommended 

 the establishment of an experiment station at the State College. 



I speak of this action on the part of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture to show that it was that body of progressive men which 

 was really the Board of highest authority and influence in ad- 

 vanced farming in our State. They were the foremost to take 

 steps for improvement ; the originators of new schemes for 

 rural betterment; the first to aid whatsoever could make for a 

 more profitable agriculture. Those men wrought better than 

 they knew^for such work as they did then, would, in the light 

 of today, be given prominence as of superior value, approved 

 with greatest emphasis. 



Just here I wish to say that I believe a state organization 

 having an official connection with each county through a legally 

 recognized member who is paid for his services is the only true 

 society or board by which a system of public agriculture can 

 be best administered. Such a man should be a representative 

 farmer, widely acquainted with the physical features of his 

 countv. He should know the character of its soils; its im- 



