196 



me for the best jackass, I am sure of taking the 

 premium." 



The farmer should be capable of holding office in his 

 town or county. He should know the history and 

 laws of his country. To sum it up in a few words, he 

 should be an ideal citizen. 



Now a few words on what the farmer should do : 



First of all, he should strive to give his children a 

 better education than he has himself. Competition 

 has become so great in every avenue of labor, intelli- 

 gence and careful preparation are so much in demand 

 in all trades and professions, that to attain the same 

 degree of success the son must of necessity be better 

 educated than his father. This is just as true of the 

 farmer as of any other profession. As the country 

 gets older and the soil more worn by crops, and insect 

 pests multiply, and fungi increase, a better knowledge 

 of the soil and of fertilizers is demanded. A knowl- 

 edge of insect remedies and vegetable parasites is 

 needed. The young man with no better education 

 than his father will be almost sure to make less of a 

 success in any line of business in which he engages. 



The farmer's son should not only have a good dis- 

 trict school education, but he should have a good busi- 

 ness education as well, and if the young man should 

 have any desire or inclination for it he should have an 

 agricultural college education. Ah, I see some of you 

 old farmers smiling at the idea of sending a boy to an 

 agricultural college to learn farming. Fifty years 

 ago you might have smiled at the idea, but it is a little 

 behind the times to do it now. A good many smart 

 people then did not believe in any kind of colleges. 

 A good story is told of Bishop Ames. While he was 

 presiding at a Western conference, in examining a can- 



