AFRICA AGRICULTURE
venturous settlers and the wealth of the nations behind
them will result in exploiting the vast commercial
resources of the continents. (At celebration of
Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington, January 18,
1909.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 351-352; Nat. Ed. XVI, 267.
AFRICA, EAST. In the highlands of British East
Africa it is utterly impossible for a stranger to realize
that he is under the equator; the climate is delightful
and healthy. It is a white man's country, a country
which should be filled with white settlers; and no place
could be more attractive for visitors. There is no more
danger to health incident to an ordinary trip to East
Africa than there is to an ordinary trip to the Riviera. Of
course, if one goes on a hunting trip there is always a
certain amount of risk, including the risk of fever, just
as there would be if a man camped out in some of the
Italian marshes. But the ordinary visitor need have no
more fear of his health than if he were travelling in
Italy, and it is hard to imagine a trip better worth
making than the trip from Mombasa to Nairobi and on
to the Victoria Nyanza. (1910.) Mem. Ed. V, 123; Nat.
Ed. IV, 106-107.
AFRICA, EAST—FRONTIER CONDITIONS IN.
No new country is a place for weaklings; but the right
kind of man, the settler who makes a success in similar
parts of our own West, can do well in East Africa;
while a man with money can undoubtedly do very well
indeed; and incidentally both men will be leading their
lives under conditions peculiarly attractive to a certain
kind of spirit. It means hard work, of course; but
success generally does imply hard work. (1910.) Mem.
Ed. V, 32; Nat. Ed. IV, 28.
But they are generally cheerful, and when cheerful are
always amusing; and they work hard, if the white man
is able to combine tact and consideration with that
insistence on the performance of duty and lack of which
they despise as weakness. (1910.) Mem. Ed. V, 81; Nat.
Ed. IV, 70.
AGRICULTURE — BROADER PROBLEMS OF.
Our attention has been concentrated almost exclusively
on getting better farming. In the beginning this was
unquestionably the right thing to do. The farmer must
first of all grow good crops in order to support himself
and his family. But when this has been secured, the
effort for better farming should cease to stand alone,
and should be accompanied by the effort for better
business and better living on the farm. It is at least as
important that the farmer should get the largest possible
return in money, comfort, and social advantages from
the crops he grows, as that he should get the largest
possible return in crops from land he farms. Agriculture
is not the whole of country life. The great rural interests
are human interests, and good crops are of little value to
the farmer unless they open the door to a good kind of
life on the farm. (Letter of appointment to Country Life
Commission, August 1908.) Mem. Ed. XXII, 471; Nat.
Ed. XX, 405.
AGRICULTURE — DEPARTMENT OF. The
Department of Agriculture devotes its whole energy to
working for the welfare of farmers and stock growers.
In every section of our country it aids them in their
constantly increasing search for a better agricultural
education. It helps not only them, but all the nation, in
seeing that our exports of meats have clean bills of
health, and that there is rigid inspection of all meats that
enter into interstate commerce. . . .
The Department of Agriculture has been helping
our fruit men to establish markets abroad by studying
methods of fruit preservation through refrigeration and
through methods of handling and packing. . . .
Moreover, the Department has taken the lead in
the effort to prevent the deforestation of the country.
Where there are forests we seek to preserve them; and
on the once treeless plains and the prairies we are doing
our best to foster the habit of tree planting among our
people. (At Sioux Falls, S. D., April 6, 1903.)
Presidential Addresses and State Papers I, 303-305.
AGRICULTURE — GOVERNMENT AID TO. I am
glad to say that in many sections of our country there
has been an extraordinary
AFRICA. See also HUNTING; IMPERIALISM; UGANDA;
WILDERNESS.
AFRICAN NATIVES. The porters are strong, patient,
good-humored savages, with something childlike about
them that makes one really fond of them. Of course,
like all savages and most children, they have their
limitations, and in dealing with them firmness is even
more necessary than kindness; but the man is a poor
creature who does not treat them with kindness also,
and I am rather sorry for him if he does not grow to feel
for them, and to make them in return feel for him, a real
and friendly liking. They are subject to gusts of passion,
and they are now and then guilty of grave misdeeds and
shortcomings; sometimes for no conceivable reason, at
least from the white man's standpoint.
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