THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 87 



that the first estimate comes nearer the facts in the case. Many 

 sections of Pennsylvania are equally as bad and in fact the same 

 might be truthfully said of the entire New England states. 

 Now why is this? It is for the reason, that they have pursued 

 the same plan of farming as you are pursuing here in this local- 

 ity. They have raised grain crops year after year and have sold 

 them until they have depleted the fertility of these farms to the 

 extent that they will not return a profit for the labor of working 

 them. These farms at one time were equally as fertile as yours 

 and the value of them was equally as high if not higher than 

 yours are, but today they can be bought anywhere from $25 to 

 $50 an acre. Lots of them can be bought for less than the 

 improvements that are on them, and I believe that a young man 

 today, with our present knowledge of restoring lost fertility to 

 the land (for which our agricultural schools are largely to be 

 credited) could do a great deal better to go East for a farm 

 instead of West. 



We do not properly appreciate the advantages of our State 

 institutions and especially our agricultural schools. It is through 

 these that we have been made aware of this drain on the fertility 

 of our soils and also the way to restore it when it is once lost. 

 As fine a sentiment as ever was uttered and one that must appeal 

 to the farmer and dairyman of this country, was that uttered by 

 James G. Hill, the empire builder of the West in an address 

 delivered at the celebration of his birthday, when he said, that if 

 he were directing the affairs of this Government, if he was appro- 

 priating the money from its treasury, instead of building three or 

 four battleships a year, he would build one and he would use the 

 other ten or fifteen millions of dollars in starting ten thousand 

 agricultural schools. We are waking up to the fact that the 

 farmer must be a man of brains and superior intelligence and that 

 the farming industry requires more intelligence and brains than 

 any other industry in the world in order to conduct it success- 

 fully. 



I want to talk to you now a short time upon the Silo ques- 

 tion and I deem this one of the most important questions that 



