The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-24

ness. pr.A ...,. ....--.oers of them each to give him expert advice and aid on some one point indispensable to his busfness He finds this man usually in Some graduate of technical school or college in which he has been trained for his life work.
 Tn just the same way the farmers should benefit by the advice of the technical men who have been trained in phases of the very work the farmer does. am not now speaking of the man who has had an ordinary general training. whether in school or college. While, there should undoubtedly be such a training as a foundation tex- tent differing according to the kind of work each boy intends to do as man). it is nevertheless true that our educa- tional system shoud more and more be turned in the direction of educating men toward and not away from the farm and the shop.
 During the last half century we have begun to develop system of agricul- tural education at once practical and Scientific. and we must go on devel- oping it. But after developing it it must be used. The rich man who spends a fortune upon a fancy farm with entire indifference to cost does netsdo much good to farming; but, on the other hand. just as little is done by the working farmer who stolidly re- fuses to profit by the knowledge of the day. who treats any effort at improve ment as absurd on its face. refuses to countenance what he regards as new fangled ideas and contrivances and jeers at all book farming"
 I wish could take representatives of this type of farmer down to Long Island. where live. to have them see what has been done. not as philanthroe py. but as plain business proposition. by men connected with the Long Is- land railroad. who believe it pays to encourage the development of farms along the line of that railway. They have put practical men in charge of experimental farms. cultivating them | intensively and using the best mod | ern methods not only in raising crops.
 but in securing the best market for | the crops when raised.
 The growth has been astounding. and land only fifty miles from New,
 York which. during our entire national I lifetime has been treated as worth | less has within the last three or four years been proved to possess really
 high value.
 Interest to Farm Life. The farmer. however. must not only make his land pay. but he must make country life interesting for himself
 and for his wife and. his sons and | daughters. Our people as a whole should realize the infinite possibilities
 of life in the country. and every eff | fort should be made to make these | possibilities more possible.
 From the becinning of time it has
 been rhe man Raised in the country
 and usually rhe man born in the coun- 1 try-who has been most apt to ren- | der the services which every nation
 most needs. Turning ito the list of American statesmen. it is extraordi- nary to see how large afproportiOn
 started as farm boys. But it is | rather sad to see that in recent years | most of riese same boys have ended | their lives aS men living in cities.
 It often happens that the good con l ditionS of the past can be regained not I by going back. but by going forward | We cannot recreate what is dead; we | cannot stop the march of events, But 1 we can direct this march and out of ! the new conditions develop something
 better than the past knew. Henry Clay was farmer. who fived all his
 life in the country: Washington was 6
 farmer. who lived and died in the | country. And we of this nation ought
 to make it our business to see that the
 conditions are made such that farm | life in the future shall not only de
 velop men of the stamp of Washing ton and Henry Clay. but shall be so at | tractive that these men may continue | as farmers. for remember that Wash | ington and Henry Clay were success | full farmers.
 | I hope that things will So shape l themselves that the farmer can have
 great career and yet end his life as
 farmer. so that the city man will | look forward to living in the country l rather than the country man to living | in the city.
 Farmers should learr how to com
 bine effectively. as has been done in
 industry I am particularly glad to
 speak to the grange. for heartily be-
 !ieve in farmers organizations. and
 we should all welcome every step | taken toward an increasing cO-Opera-
 ton among farmers. The importance
 of such movements cannot be over
 estimated. and through such intelli- 1 gent joint action it will be possible to | improve the market just as much as
 the farm.
 Equal Terms With City Folks. Country life should be as attractive
 as city life. and the country people