FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 113 



I think we might have heard some more very interesting 

 information in regard to Mr. Nielson. 



The toastmaster knew that it wouldn't do any good to 

 pass the hat in this crowd. He knew he wouldn't get rid 

 of the crowd in that way, so he called on me to make a 

 speech. 



I wonder if you boys here tonight know that in the 

 United States every year there are four hundred thousand 

 men every year that take up the business of agriculture 

 for the first time, and I wonder if you know, I know that 

 you have a very good conception at least, as to how many 

 of those men and the men who are already engaged in the 

 business of agriculture are technically trained for the job 

 which they have undertaken? 



I am mighty glad tonight to be able to say that I am 

 connected with the movement which has for its aim the 

 business of teaching this new crop of farmers which are 

 taking up the business of agriculture every year, putting 

 across to them the technical education which will help 

 them to do the thing which Mr. Glover very aptly ex- 

 pressed today on the floor of the convention, that of farm- 

 ing from the collar up as much as from the collar down, 

 and that is the thing which the farmers of today and the 

 future are going to have to do if they expect to make a 

 success of their business. 



Perhaps you know boys, you do know, that vocational 

 agriculture in the United States is helped by appropria- 

 tions from the Federal government under a law passed in 

 1917, known as the Smith-Hughes Act. Under the bene- 

 fits of this Act any community may employ an agriculture 

 teacher and be reimbursed to the extent of half his salary, 

 providing they meet the several requirements, and those 

 requirements are very reasonable in the State of Illinois. 



In Illinois we have this year 167 vocational agriculture 

 departments. During the year 1925 more than forty-two 

 hundred projects were finished by boys who are enrolled 

 in these vocational agriculture departments, and the net 

 returns from these projects was very nearly two hundred 

 and fifty thousand dollars, more than the cost of voca- 



