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was a peculiarly fortunate one, in that tlie Association "would have the help of a 
wise counselor, and especially that those of us who should he ahle to attend this 
convention would have the pleasure of hearing an address from one who has had. 
long and remarkably successful experience in the management of an institution 
which has peculiar features and in which we all feel a deep interest. Very recently, 
to my entire surprise, and I need not say regret, I learned that he would not he here, 
for the sad reason given. Recognizing that the time was very short to do it in, I 
wrote urging that he would at least prepare an address. He replied that the same 
cause which prevented his heing present would prevent him from preparing an 
address, and requested me to deliver an address in his stead. I therefore stand, as 
"best I may, in his place, and will read you such words as I have been ahle to prepare. 
"The test of national welfare is the intelligence and prosperity of the farmer." 
These words by the graceful essayist, thoughtful student, and friend of his country 
and his kind, George William Curtis, may well stand at the head of an address 
before this Association, which owes the possibility of its existence to the belief by 
the people, represented by Congress, that the institutions it represents would be 
helpful to the national welfare; and this by adding directly to the intelligence of 
the farmers of the country by giving them the best special education for their work, 
and thus aiding their prosperity, and by directly advancing their prosperity by 
communicating to them the results of research and investigation as to methods by 
which they can most profitably conduct their business. 
We may not easily overestimate the extent and importance of the work this Asso- 
ciation represents. No longer with boastfulness and exhilaration do thoughtful 
Americans speak of the vastness of our country and the problems that confront us. 
As a nation we have passed beyond the buoyancy of spirit and impulsive confidence 
of youth to the cares, anxieties, and thoughtfulness of maturity. And so, not 
boastfully nor flippantly — perhaps almost appalled, but rather, let us hope, stimu : 
lated to increased effort by the vastness and importance of the field of labor — we 
recognize the fact that the interest we represent is, by far, the chief material inter- 
est of this great nation; the one on which millions of our citizens directly depend 
for their livelihood, and the one the prosperity or adversity of which most quiekly 
and most directly affects the welfare of all classes. Not more honorable than other 
needed industries, agriculture is the great basal industry of the world on which 
others peculiarly depend. 
This great industry shares the depression which has affected all the working 
forces of our land. Aside from this, as we hope, temporary depression, American 
agriculture is in a transition stage, and none of us may with certainty predict the 
outcome in all directions. In a degree greater than ever before the American farmer 
is feeling the effects of direct competition with a vastly increased number of his 
fellows in his own land and of many millions in many other lands. In the sale of 
his products he is made aware of the fact that whether or not modern civilization 
has made all the world more akin in kindly feeling and mutual helpfulness, it has 
brought all people closer together in the competition of trade. He realizes that mod- 
ern means of transportation have made the supply of an agricultural product almost 
anywhere in the world an appreciable factor in supplying the demand for that 
product almost anywhere else in the world. If he be thoughtful he must recognize 
the fact that in the future he must work on a narrower margin of possible profit 
than in the past. He sees that economical methods of production are the founda- 
tion essentials to success; and he is asking more earnestly than ever before how he 
may most wisely dispose of and distribute the products of his farm. He is begin- 
ning to ask not only for new or better methods of production, but whether there be 
not new crops he may wisely produce, or whether there be not new uses for old 
crops, and thus the stress of competition in supplying t'.ie old wants be lightened. 
As we look over the field we see the commencement or the full progress of agri- 
cultural changes, the outcome of which we await with interest if not with anxiety. 
L 
