The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-02-17
FARMERS INSTITUTE.

Thursday morning, Feb. 16, opened
up clear and balmy. The committee
Of arrangements for the Farmers Insti-
tute were early on the alert, making
final preparations for the interesting
proceedings to follow. At about half
past nine the farmers began to arrive,
and at half-past ten every seat in the
Court room was filled by the intelligent
tillers of the soil and their friends.
The meeting was called to order by
State Superintendent w. H. Robinson,
of Madison, who briefly stated the object
of the gathering and announced Mayor
Stemm.
Mayor Stemm welcomed the farmers
and the co-workers of the Institute to
Kenosha in few pleasant remarks, and
stated that though he was working
man, yet he never came no nearer being
a farmer than to marry farmers
daughter. The world needs workers
and not dudes-men with the calus on
their hands. That we were assembled
to get knowledge, and to get it from the
farmers themselves. He closed by re-
ferring to the next speaker. as the man
who had boarded up more knowledge
of farming than could be crammed into
four or five of some kinds of bodies, and
again extended the hand of welcome to
Mr.. w. D. Hoard, in response to the
Mayors welcome, referred to the unjust
prejudice that sometimes exists between
the country and city, and said it was
wrong, for there were no causes for
snch feeling of the one toward the
other. He was glad to see Kenosha
city came forward so willingly in the
cause of agricultural education. He re-
ferred TO the pleasure he felt when
crossing the Rocky Mountains to hear
the brakeman call out Kenosha hilP'
that Kenosha had reputation, even
in that far-away land; away up in the
Rockies there was Kenosha hill. In
speaking of the Mayors reference to
callus of the hands, he said he wanted
to see some callus of the brain as we'll;
that all the labor should not be done
with the hands, but part Of it by the
head. That education would enable the
farmer to do both kinds of work, and
these Institutes were for the purpose of
helping the farmer to that kind Of edu-
cation most needed by the practical
farmer.
Supt. Morrison, in few remarks, said
he had noticed an evidence of dissatis-
faction on the part of farmers, because
they were not making enough; that
farmers boys were leaving the farm be-
cause they hoped to make more in other
occupations. These Institutes were for
the purpose of showing them not only
how to make farming more profitable,
but more pleasant. He then announced
Mr.. J. w. Robertson, of Canada, who
would take the place of Mr.. Gould, who
had not yet arrived.
Mr.. Robertson deprecated the preju-
dice against education among the farm
ers. because education makes the man
industrious. Labor without it is mere
drudgery-slavery. The ideal farmer
dignifes his labor. He is not only a
business man, but tradesman and a
professional man. He must be bust
ness man to make it profitable; a
tradesman, that he may know what are
the best tools for his trade and how to
use them. The farmer has the care of
life, of the plants he raises and the ami
mails he rears, and he must profession
ally know their nature and need; and
thus he is a professional man. The
Farmers Institute is one of the farmers
colleges where he may learn of those
things which go to make the ideal farm
er. These are for the education of the
farmer and his boys. If the farmers
wanted an example of what farmer can
be, he had only to look at the career of
Abraham Lincoln, the farmer and the |
of the world, who was like |
the bird who scars the highest and the
bird that sings the sweetest-the eagle
and the lark.
The hour for dinner having arrived,