230 Bureau or FAinrKRs' Institutes. 



records it as a fact that the successful men and women are the 

 busy ones." 



I was impressed with this fact when recently reading the biog- 

 raphies of the new representatives in Congress, who took their 

 seats for the first time on December 4th. Many of these new 

 members are emphatically self-made men. The number of coun- 

 try-born members representing city districts is surprising. It 

 brings to memory, says the Buffalo Express, the fact that most 

 of the presidents of the United States — in fact most of the coun- 

 try's greatest men were country born. Truly, many, very many, 

 of the most useful men and women the world has ever known 

 have passed out from the culture and quiet of farm homes to 

 mingle with the world — thereby ennobling and enriching all with 

 whom they came in contact. 



In a recent publication I noticed this article: Among the moss- 

 grown, stereotyped jokes in the great cities, none is more popular 

 than that which refers to the farmer as a " hayseed," and makes 

 sundry more or less humorous reflections on his ignorance of 

 worldly ways. But when you come down to the solid facts, the 

 city chap is not so torrid after all; and what he does not know 

 about the most simple and natural things would fill a book. 

 Even in cultured Boston, the " Hub of the Universe," where wis- 

 dom abounds and knowledge has its home, this ignorance is 

 astounding. Some time ago a large number of school children 

 were examined on various subjects, and some of the results were 

 startling. Thirty-three per cent, of these children on entering 

 school had never seen a live chicken, 51 per cent, had never seen 

 a robin, 75 per cent, had never seen a growing strawberry, 71 

 per cent, of the Boston children had never seen growing beans, 

 even in " bean-eating Boston." Their school text-books are basea 

 on country life, and the city child knows nothing in the large 

 cities of the real life there. In the face of these facts one can 

 readily understand how it is possible for many of our farm boys 

 and girls to compete fairly and often outstrip those bred in the 

 city, when placed side by side with them, which is a conceded 

 fact by many of our best educators. 



The knowledge gained by daily association with the flowers 

 and plants, the birds and bees, the fields and the animals feed- 

 ing quietly therein, broaden and enrich the childish minds, and 



