Miscellaneous. 



854 



[October, 1910. 



manage a co-operative business success- 

 fully, has done a great deal to hinder 

 the growth of co-operation among far- 

 mers. But the results of co-operation in 

 the fruit and dairy business and in 

 other lines also, show that farmers 

 are awakening to the advantages of 

 co-operation. Co-operation among far- 

 mers may in some cases be hard on 

 the middleman, but no farmer will 

 begrudge a farm in any part of the 

 country, and there he can become a 

 producer himself. And also, we, as 

 farmers, do not stop to think that if we 

 were to band ourselves together we 

 might have four times as many farmers 

 in our Government Houses as we have at 

 the present time, and surely this would 

 mean the advancement of Agriculture, 



With the advent of rural free mail 

 delivery, the electric road, the tele- 

 phone, and in many sections the supply 

 of natural gas for fuel, the farmer cer- 

 tainly has a good many of the advan- 

 tages enjoyed by his city friends, and 

 without paying so dearly for them. All 

 these later additions to farm life un- 

 doubtedly make it more enjoyable, and 

 yet they appear to have brought with 

 them somewhat of the hurry and bustle 

 of the great city. And this makes it 

 more necessary than ever before, that 

 the farmer should be a man of educa- 

 tion, in order to compete in a business- 

 like manner with men in other callings. 

 There is no better place to secure this 

 education than at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College. It is not only the tech- 

 nical training which benefits the stu- 

 dent, but also the broadening of his 

 views along great lines, and that educa- 

 tion acquired by coming in contact with 

 many men who have come from places 

 where the conditions, manners and 

 customs are at least somewhat different 

 from those surrounding the individual 

 student in his own community. 



Not least among the benefits to the 

 experimenter is that habit of neatness 

 which is taught him while conducting 

 an experiment, and this, no doubt, has a 

 tendency to make the farmer more neat 

 in all his work, and in some instances 

 may even have an influence upon his 

 personal neatness. For I believe the 

 farmer has been in the past debarred of 

 his proper social position, owing to the 

 fact that farmers, as a class, are not 

 careful enough about their personal 

 appearance. He, no doubt, feels inde- 

 pendent, but I think that, as a rule, the 

 farmer would be more highly respected 

 if he wore a little better clothes. The 

 price of farm produce for the last few 

 years has been very good, and the 

 farmer will feel more proud of his call- 



ing if he shows the city and town people 

 by his manner and dress that he is 

 enjoying the better reward he is getting 

 for his labour. Ralph Connor's latest 

 book, " The Foreigner" in speaking of the 

 change that came over the little Galician 

 girl, wheu she discarded her Galician 

 garb and came forth as a Canadian 

 young lady, says : " For such subtle 

 influence does dress exercise over the 

 mind, that something of the spirit of 

 the garb seems to pass into the spirit of 

 the wearer." The farmer has certainly 

 no need to be ashamed of his calling, and 

 it is his duty to see that the calling has 

 no reason to be ashamed of him. 



Again, I extend to you all a most 

 hearty welcome to the Union meetings, 

 and invite you to ask any questions and 

 discuss the various topics freely. Let 

 us try to have a most pleasant and pro- 

 fitable session ; one that will make our 

 business more profitable and the ap- 

 proaching New Year happier and 

 brighter, because,, of our having met 

 here. And let us strive towards the 

 goal of perfect agriculture, and re- 

 member that, as a great man has said, 

 " Upon the rise and fall of Agriculture 

 depend the rise and fall of Empires." 



G. S. Henry : — I am sure it is a pleasure 

 for me to be here again at another 

 meeting of the Experimental Union, 

 and in a small way to take part in the 

 programme. My mind has been drawn 

 back this afternoon to the first day I 

 visited the Ontario Agricultural College. 

 After I had been here a day or two, in 

 talking with my room-mate, who was a 

 senior, while I was only a freshman, he 

 said : " There is a great deal of good done 

 here in one way and another and the 

 greatest things that are done by the 

 College are due to Charles Zavitz." I 

 had scarcely heard of Mr. Zavitz at that 

 time. It was evident to a third year 

 student at that time what great pro- 

 gress was being made along experi- 

 mental lines under the direction of Mr. 

 Zavitz, and I am sure we have every 

 reason to say, at the present time, that 

 double the work has been done and the 

 results are much greater than they were 

 ten or twelve years ago. 



I cannot see my way clear to criticise 

 the President's address except along 

 the lines of his extreme modesty. I 

 think it is hard for us to estimate the 

 results that have come from co-oper- 

 ative experiments carried on here by 

 the College. We all realise that agri- 

 culture in the Province of Ontario is 

 in the process of evolution. We are 

 changing from the old line of grain 

 growing, and the growing of what are 

 really called " raw materials," to the 

 production of the finished product. 



