state? It is not the university of the regents who govern it, nor of the faculty who teach in it. It is the university of the state of Minnesota. To the state of Minnesota, therefore, I look with confidence for such wise and liberal action as shall preserve the University from mutilation, shall enable it to keep abreast of the age in its learning and teaching, and shall make it an institution where all sound learning may be gained, where the rich and the poor may meet together on equal terms and may secure an education good enough for the highest while not too good for the lowest. And for the accomplishment of this I appeal to you, gentlemen, as intelligent members of the most powerful body of workers in the commonwealth, to give it your hearty and effective support.

ADDRESS ON AGRICULTURE *

The Agricultural Fair of Minnesota which opens to-day is without doubt the most notable agricultural fair held anywhere in the country. In the variety and excellence of its exhibits and in the number of people who visit it, this Fair has no equal. To visit the Fair is at once a pleasant recreation and a means of education, not only for the farmers, but for all citizens who are interested in the welfare of the state. The prosperity of Minnesota is dependent in so large a degree upon its agriculture that no one, whatever may be his occupation, can afford to be indifferent to the success of this great industry. And it is for this reason that the Fair is annually visited by so many thousands who are not engaged in farming. The Fair has an ideal location between the Twin Cities and in close proximity to the Experiment Station and the agricultural department of the University. Ample provision can be made by the cities for the entertainment and comfort of visitors however numerous, and opportunity is afforded alike to see what the farmers of the state are doing as shown by the wonderful display of farm products both vegetable and animal, and to become familiar with the equipment of the Experiment Station and the meth

*Delivered at the Minnesota State Agricultural Fair, September 2nd, 1907.

ods of investigation and experiment there pursued. The great variety of farm products on exhibition of a very superior character is a just occasion for pride not only to the farmers but to all the people of Minnesota. And the not inconsiderable influence which the work of the Experiment Station has had in placing the farming of the state upon a scientific basis and making possible such a display as we see around us, is a tribute both to the wisdom of the national government in its liberal appropriations for the establishment and support of Experiment Stations and to the ability and zeal of the officers of the station through which knowledge of the most valuable character has been disseminated in all parts of the state. The willingness shown by the farmers to follow the methods pointed out by the scientists of the Experiment Station as wise, is a matter for hearty congratulation and has much to do with the enormously increased wealth and production of Minnesota in the last few years.

The prosperity of a nation depends upon two things: the character of its people and the productive industry of its people. A people of high character will cherish high ideals and will make laws that shall operate impartially in the interest of all. If to this be added high productive industry, it means a general dissemination of wealth with comfort and possible happiness for all. Poverty, vagrancy, hunger are all unnecessary among such a people and, if found at all, they will be justly attributable, not to the laws and not to the conditions either social or economic, but to the negligence, idleness, or waste of those who suffer these things. Of course men who enter into business for themselves take risks and

may be unfortunate and fail, and, as a consequence, may suffer much inconvenience and experience much unhappiness. Neither high character nor general prosperity can insure success in business to any man who has not the qualifications necessary for conducting the business. And as a fact we are told that a very large percentage of those who engage in business do fail; the lesson of which is that every man should qualify himself for the business which he undertakes. This is no less true of the farmer than of the man of any other occupation. Fortunately

much of our land is rich and the most unintelligent farmer who is not sparing of his labor, can hardly fail to derive at least a comfortable living from mother earth. But his more intelligent neighbor, by his superior knowledge of soils and their adaptation to various crops, may harvest wealth from land no richer than the other's which produces a bare living.

This is an immense country. It has taken nearly three centuries to bring it to its present measure of cultivation. Millions of immigrants have come to secure cheap lands, and it has been possible to be fairly comfortable without careful and scientific farming. But the day when this is possible is fast passing away. The public lands are rapidly passing into the hands of individual owners. The rich lands of the West for which so many farmers have abandoned less productive farms in New England and New York, are not now to be had for the asking as they once were; and it is now a live question in New England and especially in New York, how the abandoned farms can be reclaimed and made to add their just share to the production of the country. This can only be accomplished by scientific farming and