160 SEVENTH REPORT. 



below the 8th (8 to 11 years), and these are the subjects: Botany, zoology, chemistry, 

 physics, mineralogy and geology, in addition to the other common subjects, namely, 

 reading, writing, composition, arithmetic, history, geography, drawing, English grammar, 

 dictation and spelling. This is a fairly good load. 



Now, one of the strongest arguments in favor of teaching agriculture in the rural schools 

 is that it would inculcate in the farmer's boys and girls a love for farm duties, a love for 

 farm life. This is an important point, and if it does serve the purpose of retaining 

 to any extent farmer's sons and daughters on the farm, it deserves the most fa^'orable 

 consideration. But does it? Does any advocate of agriculture for rural schools really 

 believe this? To understand this we have to look a little at the conditions existing both 

 in the school and on the farm. 



What could a teacher do, actually do, of farming operations? She might grow some 



Elants, perhaps, recognize some weeds, study the life histories of some insects, dig a little, 

 oe a little and rake a little. But is this farming? Is it any very serious part of farming? 

 Let us ask oureslves for what purpose people carry on the operations of farming. What 

 is the main purpose? What are the subordinate purposes? Are they not all to make a 

 living, to make money? Where then would be the proper place to gain some useful know- 

 ledge about this? Surely there can be no place that can at all appioach the home and the 

 farm in the matter of acquiring a knowledge of such things. I am convinced that very 

 many of those who urge that school gardens be introduced, that agriculture be placed upon 

 the public school curriculum, have not had the experience which some of us have had. 

 What are some of the duties which the farmer's boy has to do at home as he learns farming 

 in the ordinary way? Allow me to enumerate a few. He carries swill to the hogs twice a 

 day. He drives cows to and from the pasture-fields and many a time in the fall of the 

 year in his bare feet when the frost is still on the ground in the morning he seeks a warm 

 spot where the cows have lain during the night to warm his feet. He has occasionally, 

 in the summer, when cattle or horses break through into the grain fields, to wade through 

 grain or hay all wet with dew or rain till he is wet all l)ut his hat. He has to wheel out 

 manure from the cow-stable or the horse-stable daily for many months. In the summer 

 he has weeds to pull, thistles to cut, potato bugs to pick, hoeing to do, fences to fix and a 

 hundred other things to do which none could realize except those who had experience in 

 such things. Now, send such a boy to school to a female teacher who, the boy is certain, 

 knows absolutely nothing of farming as it really is, as he knows it. Ask this teacher'to 

 teach this boy to farm scientifically, to inculcate a love in the lio}' for the work of the 

 farm, for farm life. The situation is sufficiently plain that little further explanation is 

 needed. 



These were some of the difficulties with which I met in carrying on the operations of 

 my school garden. The boys who might be of any use to work in the garden, or to un- 

 derstand the operations or the results to he obtained from them were such as had too 

 much of such things to do at home, and I knew fairly well what each boy had to do at 

 home before he started to school in the morning, and also in the evenings and on Satur- 

 days and other days when he did not go to school — vacations and the like. 



People say that the present high school education tends to draw the boy away from the 

 farm. It is certain that it opens the door to other things, and I often think that this is 

 one of the great blessings of the high school. Would the addition of agriculture to the 

 high school curriculum be likely to induce the farmer's boy to choose' agriculture? Not 

 at all. He soon learns that not every boy has to get up in the morning at h^lf-past four 

 to go out in the wet grass to bring home cows for the milking, to carry swill to the hogs, 

 to split wood, pump water, wheel out manure until the very smell of the farm is odious to 

 the boy. Why, the high school shows his emancipation from his slavery days. There are 

 probably many men now living in this State who are inwardly congratulating them- 

 selves on the opportunity the high school offered them to break away from the farm, from 

 the delightful chores of farm life. 



But now we see a wav to develop a love for farm work and farm life in the farmer's boy, 

 and to develop it in him scientifically. Just send him to school to a female teacher of 

 twenty years of age or so, to learn the ojDerations, to have him taught (as the Ontario 

 Government is about to do), physics, botany, chemistry, zoology, geology, mineralogy, 

 etc. Talk about there being no royal road to learning. ^Miy, knock out the bung and 

 let the "science" liquor flow that the farmer's boy may drink freely. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



