4 50 JJureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



sensitive young minds, is in clanger of defrauding tlie intellect 

 and draining the vital power of the coming generation. The 

 orthodox brethren of onr schools sometimes are as reluctant to 

 recognize new thought as are certain portions of the Presbyterian 

 church to discard those statements of creed which few believe. 



We are told that there are no text-books for use in teaching 

 rural science and that these are essential. The answer to this is, 

 that when the commercial opportunity for such books arrives or is 

 ever seen in the distance, they will be forthcoming. There are 

 within my circle of acquaintances several men entirely competent 

 to write primers on the soil, the plant, the animal, bacteriology, 

 insects, milk and its products, and so on, and I feel sure that pub- 

 lishing-houses would render greater service to this day and gen- 

 eration by employing these or other persons to write new school- 

 books on new and living subjects rather than to continue to un- 

 necessarily multiply ways of presenting old subjects. 



It is also asserted that the teachers of onr country schools are 

 not fitted to teach rural science. Many of them are not, perhaps, 

 and they never will be until snch teaching is required. One of 

 our wise men remarked to me not long since, " The only way to 

 do a thing is to do it." I see no reason why a demand for such 

 service might not develop teachers for our high schools and 

 academies at least, who would be competent to instruct in the 

 simpler facts of science in their relation to agriculture and the 

 home. Such instruction would be useful in every calling from 

 the farmer to the lawver. 



If there is a school official in this audience I can imagine him 

 saying, " These views are all very good as a theory, but the speaker 

 does not appreciate some of the practical difficulties in the way 

 of reorganizing public school instruction. He has not had actual 

 experience with untrained teachers, lack of proper text-books, in- 

 sufficient funds and extreme conservatism. He is like so many 

 who advocate reform, he condemns what exists without offering 

 something better which it is practical to adopt as a substitute." 



I am well aware of these obstacles to progress. I am convinced, 

 however, that a beginning can be made in providing school in- 

 struction better adapted to the needs of our rural people. 



In 1876 I was a teacher of a high school in one of the country 

 villages of Maine. During the winter term there was among the 

 pupils several young men who were a problem to me. They had 

 " ciphered " and studied maps and dissected the English sentence 

 until they were tired of it all. The problem was, What shall be 



