Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Ag Building [PAGE 15]

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13 are of the people and for the people, are enlisted in their service and behalf for all time to come. The college of agriculture belongs to the people and more particularly to the farmers of Illinois. It is their special institution of learning and source of inspiration—the place where the future husbandmen are to be disciplined and grounded in the fundamental principles of their calling and fitted for their life work. It is the fountain from which may be derived the latest information in regard to all farm operations—the place for study and investigation of all farm problems and experiments. The farmers of Illinois, through their various organizations have assumed the right to say what kind of an institution, it shall be, and they have elected to say, that from this time on, it shall fitly represent the agricultural interests of Illinois, which means that it shall be second to no institution of the kind in the land. I speak advisedly and know whereof I speak. I am aware that I am making the assertion in the presence of representatives of the best agricultural colleges in the United States, yet I have no hesitancy in saying to them, do your best—and We will go you on3 better. It has taken time to educate the farmers of the State to a just appreciation of the value of an agricultural education and to remove from their minds the old prejudice against book farming or scientific farming or any kind of farming that savors of anything but brawn and muscle—tireless and never ending drudgery, and a reckless waste of soil fertility. Again it has been the province and function of the agricultural organizations to bring the farmers and the agricultural college into closer communion and to a better understanding of the wants of the one and the benefits of the other. Through the agency and by the efforts of these organizations and embodying the ideas and suggestions of Col. Chas. F . Mills as expressed in resolutions introduced by him at the last meeting of the Live Stock Breeders' Association, it has bfeen provided by statute that the work of the Illinois Experiment Station shall be carried out on lines to be agreed upon by the Dean of the College of Agriculture and committees, representing the various branches of agriculture, to be selected by the