DAIRY MEETING. 1 57 



coming into the common schools? If we must have our present 

 system, I would erect in every county a high school of agricul- 

 ture and let that fit the boys and girls for the State University. 



I regret that for lack of time I must leave my subject thus 

 brokenly handled. I will take one moment to say that in my 

 review of the educational system of Europe I was struck by the 

 magnificent organization in Belgium. It is a country far under 

 the size of the State of Elaine, with very much inferior agricul- 

 tural resources but with a population of millions — I think sev- 

 eral millions. She has her system of education for the farmer 

 that places in every province — and a province is smaller than a 

 county in ]\Iaine — a lecture course each year in a series of fif- 

 teen lectures. In every one of these 250 provinces a professor 

 of agriculture is elected, with an assistant professor of agricul- 

 ture, whose busness it is not only to work with the school force, 

 but go out to the creameries and aid them, and also counsel with 

 the farmers as to fertilization and experimentation and aid them 

 with counsel in both the science and art of agriculture. 



This bears on the direct education of the farmers. Then for 

 her rural schools she has a primary school in agriculture and 

 horticulture, for women as well as men. Then she has second- 

 ary schools where a little broader agricultural education is 

 acquired, and then there is the central Agricultural College. 

 Were Elaine equipped as Belgium is equipped, you would have 

 scores of agricultural schools and a powerful state central agri- 

 cultural college. 



