ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 23 I 



of this mistaken and immature beginning. All of this is not offered in 

 criticism, but as an allustratlon of what has been accomplished in the 

 past third of a century in the development of agricultural education. 

 Of the instructors of those days be it said that "they did the best they 

 could," and the student of that day got the best there was at the time. 

 Some of those instructors have since risen to prominence and occupy 

 foremost positions of honor in the University, and have reputations in 

 their professions that are world wide. 



Learning and labor was the watch word then as now and from this 

 humble beginning has come a system of instruction in the class room 

 and field laboratory that has caused the building of this immense struc- 

 ture for carrying forward the cause of agricultural education. We wel- 

 come the dawn of a better day along this line, more intelligent methods 

 for investigation and instruction means better method in the treatment 

 of our soils, our crops, and our live stock. It means a better home for 

 the farmer, a higher standing in the social and economic life of the 

 farmer, in his association with people engaged in other pursuits. The 

 intelligent farmer of the future will occupy such position as he carves 

 out for himself. The opportunity is his. If he respects himself and 

 his calling others will respect him and it. Today we hav^e reached a 

 point where we can see that agriculture at the University of Illinois 

 is what we make it. If it is popular it will be because the instruction 

 is of the best, the instructors enthusiastic in their work and the 

 methods of such a nature as shall interest and instruct intelligent 

 students who "want to know" and want to know by the quickest and 

 best route. From one or two text books you now have many; from one 

 or two instructors you now count them by the dozen; from one room 

 shared with other interests you have developed into an immense build- 

 ing, all our own, equipped with the best apparatus for instruction in the 

 land. Agricultural education at the University of Illinois has left the 

 past behind and must now press forward to the future. The methods of 

 today while perfect as compared t o early beginnings will be cast aside and 

 regarded as obsolete in the near future. We cannot stand still, we must 



