The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-08-23
President Rooseyelt,s Address.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the
Michigan Agricultural College, the
oldest one in America, President
Roosevelt made an address directly
to the farmers. Like all of his adj
dresses, this one is full of practical
thought. Among other things, he
says: "If there is one lesson taught
by history, it is that the permanent
greatness of any State must ultimate
ly depend more upon the character
of its country population than upon
any thing else. We can
not afford to lose that pre-eminently
typical American, the farmer who
owns his own farm. He must not
lose his independence, his initiative,
his rugged self-sufficiency; and yet
he must learn to work in the health
lest cooperation with his fellows"
The farmers of to-day have the
heartiest support and encouragement
of all our best statesmen and edu.
Gators. Their advice no longer can
be ignored on account of any lack of
former years. Our great men are
boiling down the essence of wisdom
and giving it to us free. President
Roosevelt has coupled two ideas
here, to which we have given much
thought. We recognize that the day
of cooperation is here; also that if
our farmers avail themselves of its
power as they should, that it will
secure to them untold good. But
we, too, admire and stand for indie
pendence and individuality, which
alone can make marked and lasting
impress upon ones home and farm
management. God can do much for
u.s. our people and surroundings can
do much for us; natural and artificial
advantages can do much for ue, but
there always remains the prime mo
tive force within us that none OF
these can override, and at last these
only help we'll the man who helps
himself We love and admire the
farmer who makes his individuality
felt upon his land-his crops, his
family and community. To secure
all this you must have man who
owns his farm; who loves his soil;
who has sought to discover the laws
of nature for himself and who shapes
his course by these laws, but pre-
sG-yes his own individualism and
force as "the potter with his clay, }"
giving design and scope to all the
crops that come under the touch Of
his hands. 1t is true that the farmer
of to-day is called upon to lead
wider life. Our relations are becom-
ing daily more complex; our intellec-
tual, social, business and political life
has broadened, but do not let us be-
come too 'promiscuous" or scatter
too much. Standing as individuals
with a fixed radius and a definite
purpose, let the complex relations
come to and centre in us, instead of
our attempting to follow the various
directions of all these contending
forces. Well-directed labor-home
improvement-more fertility to the
soil, more bountiful the yields, more
varied the products, the more con-
tented to live within the sphere of
our paternal acres these things must
always go into the makeup Of a
truly successful farmer. We rejoice
in all these outward influences that
would help our calling; we would not
repel a single one, our plea is, only
that they should be like conyerging
rays of Gods own life-giving sun
shine, focusing themselves upon a
centre-upon an Ego, that will re-
ceive their strength and unite it into
a definite purpose of increasing the
productiveness of Gods green earth.
C. II. Hunnicult, in the Southern
Cultivator.