A TALK TO THE PUPILS OF THE AUBURN 



SCHOOLS. 



By Hon. Geo. T. Powell, Ghent, N. Y. 



It certainly gives me great pleasure to be able to drop in here 

 this morning. 



Your president has asked mc to say a few words upon the 

 subject of education which will be of particular application to 

 the school children, the pupils of your public schools, who have 

 come in here to attend this session of the Annual Meeting of 

 the Pomological Society this morning. I think it speaks well 

 for Auburn, that your educational department finds itself today 

 in sympathy with the line of educational work which this society 

 is doing. It speaks well for the present and the future, when 

 the young people of this vicinity come here and attend this spe- 

 cial session this morning, to get, if possible, some new thought, 

 or perhaps some broader thought, in connection with their edu- 

 cational work. 



We are confronted at the present time with some of the most 

 momentous problems which have met our country at any time 

 in its history. We see throughout the length and breadth of 

 our land a phenomenal growth of cities, and at the same time 

 there is a somewhat diminishing population in the rural districts. 

 In some sections the rural population has fallen away very 

 largely. Now this brings up some momentous problems. What 

 is to be the future of the young people when they find them- 

 selves, perhaps, forced into our cities to find occupation, busi- 

 ness, support in life? Inevitably the future means that the 

 great majority, the masses of young people, to secure employ- 

 ment must go to our cities to find it. Now, in the meantime, 

 is there opportunity yet, are there fields promising to young 

 people in the country, on the farms, in general agriculture and 

 particularly along the lines of fruit culture? There is no ques- 

 tion or doubt but that one of the reasons why the cost of living 

 is so high at the present time is because of the concentration so 

 largely of people in the cities, with the diminution in the pro- 



