The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-15

The sessions commenced at 4 O'Clock
Wednesday afternoon, the first meet
ing being held at the office of. Secre-
tary Coburn IN the south wing of the
state house. The attendance is very
large and promises to break all prev
tous records.
Secretary COburn read his annual re-
port, which reviewed briefly the work
done during the year, the nature of the
reports prepared, and the facilities
which have been afforded for the work.
He thanked the legislature for taking
such good care of his department in
the matter of printing and new quar-
tiers.
The following committees were ap-
on credentials-F. P. Mcclure of
Hutchinson T. NJ. Potter of Peabody
and George A. Blair of Mulvane.
On resolutons-L L. Diesem of Car
den City, D. w. kingsley Of Indepen-
dence and e. Harrington of Baker.
The credentials committee reported
that the list of members as read by
Secretary Coburn previously was O. h
President White, of the Oklahoma
state board of agriculture, was present
and made a short speech in which ne
highly complimented the work of the
Kansas department, and said ne was
trying to make the Oklahoma depart
ment just like it.
EVENING SESSION
At the evening session, a committee
composed Of Ex-Governor Click, T. A
Hubbard and J. II. Churchill escorted
Governor Bailey to the hall, and he de-
livered an address Of welcome to the
members.
On behalf Of the city of Topeka. May
or Parker welcomed the delegates with
q short talk
President Edwin Taylor of the board,
responded to these addresses with
brief address, in which he said in part:
ION behalf of the state board of agri-
culture. ] thank you for the cordial
greeting you have given us. In return,
7 bid YOU and all citizens who may be
interested, a warm welcome to all our
meetings and / invite you to participate
in our deliberations. We shall be dis
appointed If those deliberations do not
prove entertaining and profitable to
whatever audience may attend upon
them: and we shall be still more dis
appointed if the discussions held and
the papers read, as they viii appear in
the public press and in the reports Of
our secretary, do not carry both in
gtruction and stimulus to that far great
or audience which, though absent in
person is with US in the spirit that
seeks to increase the prodtableness Of
husbandry and add establishment to
country life.
There have been directors Of this
board in the past who have professed
20 regard us as an aggregation of de-
cayed office seekers. and who have i'm
proved the occasion of our annual meet
ings to magnify their expense and to
speak lightly of our purposes and re-
suits.
1T is true that some members of the
board have, from time to time. shown
intermittent signs of political activity
but none of us have gone beyond the
bounds of one of the dearest preroga-
tives of the Kansas man, which is
when an office stalks abroad to seize it,
If some one else doesn't beat him to it.
AS for the cost we OCCASION no seed
corn ever planted by the state of Kan
Bas has yielded farther in excess of the
scriptural maximum of one hundred
fold than the planting which was made
when the state board of agriculture
was instituted. The machinery then de-
vised and set in motion for gathering
farm statistics and other data to be
tabulated and published by the secre-
tary of the board has resulted in a con-
tinuous fund Of information with re
spect to our dOings and our standing
such as has been possessed by no other
state The injunction Know Thyself
is as imperative upon the community
which 'aspires' as upon the individual.
And the reports issued from time to
time, under the authority of the board,
upon a great variety of subjects, now
covering the leading crops we raise, the
principal breeds of our live stock and
the latest methods of farm procedure
are commonly conceded to have been a
positive force in pushing Kansas for
ward to the very front rank of agricul-
tural commemorative.
I'VE have more than once had expe-
rience with governors who were skilled
'agriculturists. as the word is some
times used over in Copeland county,
but now we felicitate ourselves that we
have in the gubernatorial chair an ac-
tual, bona fide farmer. / trust I shall
not seem TO transgress the prOprieties
of the occasion if I take advantage OF
this opportunity to say to our fellow
craftsman. the governor. that while We
have deep interest in all our state edu-
catiOnal institutions, and desire them to
be furnished forth and enlarged upon
with generous hand, yet we have an
especial affection for the agricultural
college at Manhattan. We love it, for