St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-08
can saw these things without conceir OF

can say these things without conceir or
blush, for am neither teacher or a
member of the institute work, and only
appear before you on this occasion for
the purpose of congratulating you vino
inaugurated the system in this state.
All will admit that agriculture is both
an art and science. The art of agricult-
ure is very old; almost as old as the
human race. The science of agricult-
ure is very young, almost as young as
some of you who hear me speak. Be-
fore the modern means of tranSpOrta-
ton were devised, and before commerce
had so placed all civilized nations into
one brotherhood, where regions, sepa-
rated from each other by even moderate
distance, did not and could not stand in
direct agricultural competition; when
agricultural methods were simpler, and
sOciety'S wants were also simpler
there the art sufficed very well
to feed and clothe the people as
they then lived. But now, when
distant regions stand in sharp
competition with each other in the mar
kets of agricultural product, the science
must play more important part. The
art still varies with the locality, with
the soil, climate, the traditions of the
,ditions which control the agriculture of
any particular place. The art is local
and chaDgeable, but the principles of
science are fixed and general. The art
must be changed or modified with each
new invention, with new facilities for
transportation or production, but Scien-
tific principles, remaining fixed, may,
however. be applied In new directions
with the new need or the new con-
ditions. or it can be applied in new
ways to remove old difficulties.
Before The use of steam and before
the modern means of transportation
were devised, the Eastern states and the
West stood in competition with each
other in feeding the seaboard cities; one
nation stood in no sharp competition
with another in this respect, and thus
the art sufficed. except in unfavorable
years when short crops produced local
distress, and if this was too severe then
local famine adapted the number of
mouths to be fed to the means of the
local region for feeding them. Our first
internal political troubles grew out of
the localization of agricultural prOduc
ton. The grain grown west of the AL
leghanses could not be piofitably car
ried across the mountains to Philadel-
phia and the East, except in the concen-
trated form of whisky-the people had to
have some commerce, something to sell,
or else relapse to barbariSm, and when
tax stopped their only chance of
marketing a Salable product, then came
an instruction, handed down to us as
the whisky instruction of 1901. How
changed now, when it costs less to
transport barrel of -four over that
same route than it practically does to
get it carried from the neighboring store
to our dwellings.
Within century embargOeS have
been laid in one state to prevent the
home grown wheat from being carried
into another. Now the wheat of Min
neSOta completes with that of Dakota
and California throughout the Union
and joStleS and crowds Russia and India
in the wheat marts of Europe. If, there
fore, Minnesota is to hold her own in the
struggle, it is because of the aids modern
science has given them, because the exact
and refined methods of science has
been introduced into this old Occupa-
ton, which has heretofore remained
but an art since Adam earned his bread
''by the sweat of mis- brow" If Mime
sofa will continue 10 compete with the
Black Sea or India in wheat, with the
natural pasturest of the West in stock
and wool, with the corn producing
states south of US, i'll swine, and ex-
poets to remain successful, it must be
because she brings superior knowledge
as we'll as superior aid to her side.
This, in a great measure, must be ac-
complished by the farmers institute. 1t
must eXpend the most of its strength i'll
advancing the science of agriculture
and in disseminating its knowledge
among those who till the soil or pro-
duce stock. In this work it will prove
an honor to our state and blessing to
our farmers.