FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 207 



but I luive no doubt you will fitid as a rule that the inoti chosen to fill positions 

 ill the executive, judicial and legislative departineuts of govenimetit are selected 

 in the largest ratio from those occupations or professions, as a preparation for 

 which a liberal education is regarded as indispensable. Now, if there is any- 

 thing in farming which necessarily deprives the men who engage in it from 

 becoming as thoroughly acquainted with the science of government and its 

 application to the affairs of the state and nation as the men engaged in other 

 pursuits, then it is not such an occupation as we have always considered it, and 

 our bright and intelligent young men should be encouraged to turn their backs 

 upon it and be congratulated when they succeed in launching out into some- 

 thing else. None of us I presume will admit that tliis is the case. I am very 

 sure it is not tlie case, but practically it has been so regarded. 



AVhat would nine out of ten of you farmers be likely to do if you had two 

 sous and one of them chose a profession and the other chose to be a farmer? 

 The one that chose a profession you would send to the high school as soon as 

 he got through with the district school. xVfter spending three or four years 

 there you would send him to college or to the university, where he would take 

 a four years' course. Here we shall say are seven years after leaving the dis- 

 trict school in which he has been having the thorough discipline of study with- 

 out any reference to a professional course afterward. With all the development 

 of mental power which these years of discipline have given him, he turns his 

 attention to law, theology, medicine, engineering or some specialty connected 

 with the natural sciences. No matter what the specialty to which he may turn 

 there can be no doubt of his success, so far as mental discipline is a factor in 

 the securing of it. If he were a boy of good health and fair ability to begin 

 with, behold what a power he is fitted to become ! The foundation has been 

 well and truly laid and we shall expect to see a noble structure rise upon it. 

 We expect to see as the result of this mental discipline and liberal culture a 

 man likely not only to succeed in his chosen avocation, but who will also be 

 able in any emergency that may arise to marshal his powers to meet the 

 demand, as a general would his army to concentrate them upon the enemy. In 

 the meantime how is it with the other boy who is to be the farmer? He goes 

 to the district school, perhaps a short time to the higli school, and here and 

 there is one who goes to the Agricultural College long enough perhaps to get 

 some idea of botany and chemistry and such studies as bear directly upon agri- 

 culture. That would be considered by most men a specially good education 

 for a farmer. On the part of many, any education not bearing directly upon 

 agriculture would be regarded as so much time lost. These ideas are practi- 

 cally held and acted upon even by the more advanced class of farmers, and 

 from this very cause it is as difficult to eradicate the idea that farming simply 

 means labor, as it is to destroy a patch of Canada thistles. "The fault, dear 

 Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings." I hope 

 the day is not far distant when it shall be regarded as equally important that 

 the boy. who inherits the farm and chooses agriculture for his occupation should 

 have the advantage of as liberal an education as the bov who chooses a nrofes- 

 sion. Then and not till then will agriculture hold that predominant and 

 commanding position in the affairs of the state and nation which rightfully 

 belongs to it. Then and not till then will it maintain the ascendency and the 

 honor witli which it was originally crowned, when tlie ''Lord God planted a 

 garden and there he put man, whom he had formed, to till it and dress it." 



I do not suppose that you all agree with me in some of the positions taken 

 in these remarks, and perhaps some of you would like to ask a question, which I 



