The Educational Needs of the American Fai'mer. 115 



men that other professions put into the field ? How can the farmer hope to 

 be effectually represented in the legislative halls of the states, or of the 

 nation, while the bulk of the men occupying these influential positions (and 

 that by virtue of the farmers' votes) are taken from the ranks of other pro- 

 fessions? The very fact that farmers themselves habitually select persons 

 from other walks of life to represent them in the legislative councils proves 

 conclusively that they do not at present find within their own ranks men 

 sufficiently well qualified, otherwise than by good intentions, to uphold the 

 interests of their fellows against the well-trained advocates of other interests- 

 If the agricultural colleges were to do no more Ihan to furnish an adequate 

 supply of such well qualified leaders— leaders in agricultural progress as 

 well as in the councils of the nation— they would render the greatest service 

 to the farmiijg population that, with their means, it is possible to accom- 

 plish. But more than this: They should, and rfo, supply the much needed 

 contingent of teachers who are trained not only in the ways of the old-time 

 schools, but are imbued with the spirit of industrial science and progress, 

 and will infuse that spirit into their teachings, whether in the colleges them- 

 selves or in the public schools. 



Cornell has, in the last report of its regents, given a verjf striking exem- 

 plification in the latter direction, showing among its graduates not fewer 

 than twenty-nine men who have gone out as teachers of agricultural science 

 in the several j:;olleges, and most of whom have made their names well 

 known to and appreciated by the farmers of the United States. It is a strik- 

 ing example of the little leaven that leaveneth the whole mass, and has done 

 vastly more to promote agricultural progress than ten times the number of 

 " farm school" pupils could have done. 



But while nothing short of the broadest culture is desirable for the 

 graduates of the agricultural colleges, whatever may be the opportunities 

 afforded by them to those not aspiring to future leadership, what shall be 

 done for the rank and file of the farming population — the millions who can 

 not go to college, or, in fact, to anything beyond the public schools ? 



The problem is a formidable one. But while various methods may be 

 suggested by which the public schools might be made more sitisfactory in 

 respect to the education specially needed by farmers in this country, there 

 can be no question that a change in that direction is pressingiy called for. 

 In fact, I contend that the dissatisfaction expressed by farmers with resi^ect 

 to the agricultural colleges should much more appropriately be directed 

 against the public schools. It is there, next to the farm itself, that the bias 

 unfavorable to the pursuit of farming is formed and confirmed, long before 

 the young man reajhes the agricultural college. The latter is too often 

 called upon to undo what parents and teachers have done (or more gener- 

 ally left undone) at the critical time when the mind of the young is most 

 impressionable, and when the taste or distate for manual labor, and the 

 habit of using the senses to the best advantage, are either formed and con- 

 firmed or else left to fall into disuse. The fact is, and we may as well face 



