226 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



purpose, and backed by numbers, by intelligence, by fixedness of purpose, 

 and by standing as men of affairs, the influence wielded is immense. 



Agriculture has never been accorded the position or received the 

 recognition from our state government that its magnitude and import- 

 ance entitles it. Farmers have been slow to assert their rights to push 

 their claims. 



Merit and justice have availed little or naught against united and 

 organized effort. 



The development of the past few months with reference to the pow- 

 erful influences that can be exerted for the shaping and controlling of 

 public policy or organizations, even of farmers — hayseeds if you like — 

 Is no less important than the objects already accomplished. The latent 

 powers and possibilities of the people have been revealed and the feasi- 

 bility of their employment demonstrated. 



Through the influence and by the assistance of the agricultural or- 

 ganizations, Illinois can today boast of one of the finest, best equipped, 

 and most thououghly up-to-date agricultural colleges and experimental 

 stations in the world, and if there is anything lacking to place them 

 clearly in the lead they have only to make their wants known, for those 

 organizations that are of the people and for the people, are enlisted in 

 their services and behalf for all time to come. 



The College of Agriculture belongs to the people and more particu- 

 larly to the farmers of Illinois. It is their special institution of learning 

 and source of inspiration — the place where the future husbandmen are 

 to be disciplined and grounded in the fundamental principles of their 

 calling and fitted for their life work. It is the fountain from which may 

 be derived the latest information in regard to all farm operations — the 

 place for study and investigation of all farm problems and experiments. 



The farmers of Illinois, through their various organizations have 

 assumed the right to say what kind of an institution it shall be and they 

 have elected to say that from this time on it shall fitly represent the 

 agricultural interests of Illinois, which means that it shall be second to 

 no institution of the kind in the land. 



