FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 101 



DISCUSSIOK. 



Mr. Fellows said he had faith in the utility of hedge fences, but doubted 

 whether the method of cultivation recommended by Mr. Corey would result in 

 a fence that would be a sufficient barrier to cattle. 



Mr. F. A. Gulley said they were experimenting at the Agricultural College 

 with a variety of hedge plants, but hitherto they had not been successful with 

 the osage orange ; it did not grow well there. 



Secretary Baird said that so far as he had observed comparatively few of 

 those who had attempted to raise the osage orange hedge in the eastern part 

 of this State had been successful. A few had persevered and succeeded to 

 some extent, but more had abandoned the attempt after a few years. He 

 hoped that before our timber had become so scarce that it Avould be difficult to 

 have fences of rails or lumber, farmers would have discovered that fences were 

 not necessary to any great extent. 



Mr. Corey expressed his confident belief tliat a good hedge fence could be 

 grown in from 8 to 10 years. 



Mr. C. F. Field, principal of the Manchester union school, read the follow- 

 ing paper on 



EDUCATION. 



The topic which has been assighed to me is one eminently appropriate to an 

 occasion of this kind, whose every tendency and influence is educational in its 

 results. Indeed institutes of this character may not inappropriately be called 

 " Schools for the farmer." The interests and demands of education deserve 

 to be thoroughly considered and discussed by the farmers of the whole nation. 

 Nothing can be presented to your minds of more practical importance, or more 

 vital to your true interests than the question: '"'How shall your children be 

 educated and prepared for life's duties?" The broadness of the tojjic will 

 prevent its complete discussion, comprehending as it does, the common school 

 and the university ; the home training and the preparation for business life ; 

 the religious training, and the industrial school, nor would it be desirable, at 

 this time, even if possible, to enter upon so broad a discussion. Permit me, 

 then, to limit this paper to a consideration of that part of the subject which 

 will be of most service to them in life. And this will lead us, first to ask 

 the question : Are mental qualifications as requisite to the farmer as to other 

 avocations in life? This may be a fair question to consider at present, but the 

 time is rapidly advancing when there will be no doubt of the importance of 

 education to the farmer. The rapid strides now making in the science of agri- 

 culture, and which such meetings as this tend largely to promote, demand 

 more and more the skill and the administrative ability of educated minds. 

 Even now, if we look around us upon the farmers of our acquaintance, to 

 ascertain which of them are really successfnl, we shall invariably find it to be 

 the men who stand above their neisfhbors in education and culture. Is it not 

 the educated farmer Avho makes the most improvements, who produces the 

 largest and best crops, who wields the most influence and commands the most 

 respect, who holds your public offices, performs your public business and leads 

 in all public enterprises? And when I use the term ''educated farmer,"' I 

 would not be understood as referring particularly to the education acquired 

 in the school-room, however desirable that may bo. There are many success- 

 ful farmers whose school-days were few, and whose knowledge of text-books 

 small. But they are nevertheless educated in the true sense of the word. 



