254 Bulletin 159. 



Washington, Montgomery, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Broome, 

 Chenango. Cortland, Steuben, Alleghany. About 75 factories 

 were visited. A report upon these factories will soon be pub- 

 lished in bulletin form (see page 250). 



Aside from these schools and inspecting tours, the members of 

 the staff are in demand as lecturers before various rural societies 

 and meetings. Such demands consume much time and energ3\ 



n. THE RISING GENERATION. 



" My ducks are dying. Please tell me what to do." This is 

 the gist of an inquiry received at the Experiment Station a few 

 days ago. This type of appeal is common, and of course we 

 cannot help the questioner. The difficulty is that the person does 

 not observe closely, does not search for causes, does not see the 

 world intelligently. He does not know a duck ; or if he thinks 

 he knows it, he does not see it. All this failure is the fault of 

 his early training : the person was not educated. 



However much we may experiment and teach the farmer, we 

 are not striking at the root of the rural problem. We must 

 begin with the child. Teaching the grown-up farmer is pro- 

 ductive of great good, but the crop of grown-up farmers is con- 

 stantly recurring. The time to educate is when the person 

 is young. Education is then more efficient and cheaper. 

 The first course in our chimney should be laid at the bottom, not 

 at the top. 



As the result of five ye'dvs of effort and enquiry, we now 

 believe that we should endeavor to help the farmer in every way 

 possible in his present-day difficulties, by means of experiments, 

 investigations, bulletins, itinerant schools, institutes, inspection 

 of his place, but that the greatest and most persistent effort 

 should be expended in training the rising generation. The only 

 complete and permanent success is that which takes hold of the 

 very root of the difficulty. 



We assume that every one will agree with this proposition. 

 The only discussion will come on the means of touching the 

 rising generation. How shall we reach the children? To this 

 question we have given much thought, and every scheme which 



