22(3 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Such ail education will qualify the son for the wise selection of the 

 pursuit which liis taste, his genius, his ai)titudes or other considera- 

 tions will indicate. When such an education has been acquired, 

 and the business of life determined upon, then the special training 

 api)ropriate to his calling will be sought and speedily obtained. 

 This claim, on behalf of the parent, of a right to prescribe such a 

 course of study as will prevent the son from leaving the farm, while 

 it interferes with the natural right of the child, will never accom- 

 plish the end sought. The children of the rural population never 

 have been and never will be depriv^ed of the privilege of seeking 

 new locations or pursuits. 



While no man more highb' appreciates the dignity, the usefulness, 

 the advantages — physical, mental and moral — of the farmer's life, 

 and none would more urgently commend young men to the business 

 of farming when circumstances do not forbid, still I would regard 

 the exclusion of the country population from towns and cities as a 

 serious calamity to the whole countr}-. The agricultural population 

 would become disproportionately large, and the civic population, 

 while it would be hardly self-sustaining in numbers, would physic- 

 ally, mentally and morally retrograde. The truth is, that our agri- 

 cultural population is the great source of supply from which the 

 more important elements of soundness of body, vigor of mind, 

 purity of character, and reliable habits of industry and economy 

 must be obtained for maintaining, building up and successfull}" carry- 

 ing on the affairs of city population. I would desire to express the 

 strong conviction that in our cities ma}' be found the highest types 

 of commercial integrity, faithfulness, industrj' and enterprise. But 

 it is still insisted upon that farmers' sons must not be educated out 

 of the business of larming. Is our couutiy less prosperous, less 

 renowned, because some men prefer to spend their lives on the 

 tumultuous ocean wave as explorers, or in carrying on the com- 

 merce of the world, rather than in the quiet and the securitj' of a 

 country home ? 



If farmers are to have their interests duly cared for or promoted by 

 either State or National legislation, the}' should have more represent- 

 atives who take a livel}- interest in their welfare. If the\' hope to 

 have representatives from their class, the}- must see to it that they 

 select educated, competent men, who in some degree may be able to 

 comprehend all the questions affecting their interests, as connected 

 with the interests of other classes of men. An individual is not 



