Agricultural Extension Law. 333 



the best method of teaching the people in agriculture. We be- 

 lieve that the most efficient means of elevating the ideals and 

 practice of the rural communities are as follows, in approximately 

 the order of fundamental importance : ( i ) The establishment 

 of nature-study or object-lesson study, combined with field- walks 

 and in incidental instruction in the principles of farm-practice, in 

 the rural schools ; (2) the establishment of correspcndence- 

 instruction in connection with reading-courses, binding together 

 the University, the rural schools, and all rural literary or social 

 societies ; (3) itinerant or local experiment and investigation, 

 made chiefly as object-lessons to farmers and not for the purpose, 

 primarily, of discovering scientific facts ; (4) the publication of 

 reading bulletins which shall inspire a quickened appreciation of 

 rural life, and which may be used as texts in rural societies and 

 in the reading courses, and which shall prepare the way for the 

 reading of the more extended literature in books ; (5) the send- 

 ing out of special agents as lecturers or teachers, or as investi- 

 gators of special local difficulties, or as itinerant instructors in 

 the normal schools and before the training classes of the teachers' 

 institutes ; (6) the itinerant agricultural school, somewhat after 

 the plan of our horticultural schools, which shall be equipped 

 with the very best teachers and which shall be given as rewards 

 to the most intelligent and energetic communities. 



In conclusion, it must be said that the farmers, as a whole, are 

 willing and anxious for education. They are difficult to reach 

 because they have not been well taught, not because they are 

 unwilling to learn. It is astonishing, as one thinks of it, how 

 scant and poor has been the teaching which has even a remote 

 relation to the tilling of the soil ; and many of our rural books 

 seem not to have been born of any real sympathy with the farmer 

 or any proper appreciation of his environments. Just as soon as 

 our educational methods are adapted to the farmer's needs, and are 

 born of a love of farm life and are inspired with patriotism, will 

 the rural districts begin to rise in irresistible power. 



