104 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



office, whose educatiou, business, or inclination will pcimit him to accept it. 

 We believe the territory under the jurisdiction of the superintendent ought to 

 be extended so as to include, let us say, a representative district. This would 

 make it possible to pay a suitable salary and secure competent persons for the 

 otlice. We believe the autliority of the superintendent should be somewhat 

 enlarged so as to make all the schools of each district more directly under one 

 general and uniform management. 



These defects and these demands of the district schools, I have ventured to 

 bring before you, very imperfectly I fear, but yet with a conscientious purpose 

 to lead your minds, if possible, to dwell upon these important themes; and 

 these suggestions 1 have offered with a conviction, based upon a careful study 

 of the subject, of the pressing need of doing something immediately to remedy 

 the evils of the school system. The union schools of this State are the pride 

 of her citizens. The district schools, alas, are sadly deficient, although the 

 prosperity of the State depends upon the work of the rural schools equally as 

 much as upon the schools of the towns and cities. 



Farmers of Michigan, shall this condition of affairs continue, or will you apply 

 the remedy? The State legislature will probably enact the proper laws bearing 

 upon the matter, provided you bring your inlluence to bear upon them. Shall 

 our noble State have her district schools managed systematically, economically, 

 %nd at the same time efficiently, or will you allow them to go on in their weak- 

 ness and inefficiency? Shall they become the training-places of the educated 

 farmers of the future? Will you have the facilities for educating your chil- 

 dren brought to your own doors, or will you continue to send them abroad to 

 be educated? Do you wnsh to make the farm attractive to your children so 

 that they will not be impelled to leave home as soon as possible, in order to 

 satisfy their natural longings for knowledge? 



AVith you I leave the decision of these questions. 



FORENOON SESSION. 



Mr. Dorr read a paper on Horticulture, of which we have not the manu- 

 script. 



In the discussion that followed Mr. Dorr's paper Mr. Corey doubted whether 

 it ever paid a farmer to keep a garden. It required a good deal of attention 

 at a time when other work was crowding, and a few dollars would purchase for 

 family use all that farmers usually get out of their garden. 



Mr. F. A. Gulley thought every farmer should have a garden properly man- 

 aged. He thought it would pay as well as anything on the farm. It was not 

 best to attempt to raise everything, but to raise the usual variety of vegetables 

 and small fruits in sufficient quantity to supply the family. 



Mrs. Samuel Cushnian read the following i^aper on 



HOME INFLUENCE. 



Home is of divine origin, and only reaches its true character and full signifi- 

 cance when it conforms to the original appointment of the Greater; when it 

 becomes the place of honor, of love, of authority, of obedience, and of a per- 

 manent, beneficent, formative influence. Like all institutions, home has its 

 external form and internal power, has its memberships, father, mother, broth- 



