FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 103 



prosperity of tlie whole world depends largely ou you farmers of America. 

 You are not, like the peasantry of Europe, ground down under the yoke of 

 oppression and povery, but you are the chief, the governing element in Ameri- 

 can society. 



How, then, can you escape the responsibility of educating your children in 

 a manner becoming their future stations? Let us, then, consider briefly the 

 condition of our district schools, where the most of your children receive their 

 only education. Are they doing what they ought, or what they might? Are 

 they an object of pride to you to-day? Do you cheerfully pay your school 

 taxes to support them? Do you go to great pains to secure good teachers for 

 them? to build and equip comfortable and pleasant school-houses? Do you 

 visit the schools, and do all in your power to encourage the teachers and chil- 

 dren in their important work ? I will leave these important questions for each 

 person to answer for himself. It has been my lot to learn something of the 

 wants of district schools, and I have been led to feel deeply the pressing need 

 of reform in the district school system, or, more properly, the want of system. 

 Indeed, time will not permit me to enter into a detailed account of the mis- 

 erable inefficiency of the present method. It is a disgrace to the farming com- 

 munity, which, let us hope, is caused largely by inattention to the subject and 

 not through any positive indifference to education, and I believe if the subject 

 is fairly brought before their notice, it will be remedied. Let me, then, briefly 

 call your attention to a few leading points which call for reform : First, The 

 want of uniformity of text books. It needs no argument to prove the impor- 

 tance of classification and system in any kind of business, and especially is it 

 true of school work. Second, Want of a graded course of study, that shall be 

 uniform throughout the township at least. There is no reason why the district 

 schools of each township should not possess a graded and uniform course of 

 study that shall embrace the first eight years of the child's education, giving 

 him a thorough knowledge of the common branches, including reading, writ- 

 ing, spelling, geography, grammar, practical arithmetic, XT. S. history, and the 

 elements of book-keeping, and doing the work as efficiently as the union 

 schools of the villages and cities. Such a course would do away with the 

 necessity of sending your children to town to school unless you desire them to 

 take a high-school or collegiate course. Third, The number of months in 

 which school is taught each year should be lengthened and the terms should 

 correspond to those of the union schools. The present custom in many dis- 

 tricts is to have four months school in the winter, and three in the summer, 

 with such long intermissions between tlie terms that the children forget, dur- 

 ing vacation, a large share of what they have learned the preceding term, as 

 well as lose all interest and ambition for study. Fourth, The schools should 

 be better supplied with necessary apparatus. You cannot expect the pupils 

 will make much progress without maps and globes, any more than you can 

 expect to carry on your farms without plows and drags, reapers and mowers. 

 Fifth, Good teachers are especially needed. If you employ girls of IG, or boys 

 of ]8, to mould the minds and form the characters of your children, how can 

 you expect satisfactory results? To iiire the cheapest teachers is generally the 

 poorest kind of economy. Sixth, The townsliip superintendency does not 

 accomplish for the schools what it ought. The compensation is not, and 

 under the nature of the circumstances cannot be sufficient to enable the super- 

 intendent to devote much time or attention to the duties of his oflice. In 

 many townships it is well-nigh impossible to secure a person for this important 



