No. 6 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 195 



Tiie problem j^iven her simply recorded a commercial transaction of 

 no importance. The cow query would have insinuated into her child- 

 ihh mind the notion that cows {i;ive diU'eit^nt (juantities of milk. Sub- 

 traction would show how much less Spot gave than Bettie, and mul- 

 tiplication how much more Bettie gave in a year than did Spot, and 

 so onad mfi7iitum, instilling in this devious way agricultural truths 

 of prime importance into the young mind without taking a moment's 

 more time. 



Then, too, why not agricultural readers? There is probably truth 

 in the contention that public school curriculums are overcrowded; 

 there is room for question as to choice of studies; and many be- 

 lieve that too little of too many things are taught. Perhaps agri- 

 culture should replace some branch now taught; perhaps not. I 

 shall not argue the matter to-day. The notion I have here advanced, 

 borrowed from one of America's brightest dairy writers, does not add 

 an hour to the school life or lessen the time given to or the usefulness 

 of other studies, but by indirection and insinuation teaches some- 

 thing of agriculture. Surely the art which feeds and clothes man- 

 kind is not unworthy of attention in the lower schools. It is coming! 

 It is in the air! Nature studies in the schools, young naturalist' clubs, 

 domestic science, university extension courses in agriculture, read- 

 ing courses, dairy schools and the like are all preparing the way. 

 New York and Minnesota are leading the procession among the 

 States. Teachers, scholars and parents alike are attracted. When 

 the child learns to look upon the farm not merely as a place of drud- 

 gery, but as a scene of great possibilities; when he knows that the 

 handful of soil is not simply dirt, but that it is rock pulverized in 

 Nature's mills, watered by the sun, that it is not inert, but full of life 

 and energy; when each bird and bush and blossom tells its story to 

 his quick eye and active brain; when Nature's secrets have been 

 taught to him in the schoolroom and in rambles afield with his class, 

 and he can see and know and understand the whys and wherefores; 

 then will he be the more apt if he stays on the farm — and he is far 

 more likely so to stay — ^to make a success of its management, to see 

 ''Sermons in rocks, books in the running brooks and good in every- 

 thing." Have I gone afield myself? Have I strayed from my topic? 

 I think not. The milk-making of the twentieth century will be in 

 the hands of the children of to-day. Let us remember that not 

 gluten meal nor silage is as necessary to success in that calling 

 as is intelligence; that the cultivation of one's acres is of less import- 

 ance than that of one's brains. 



II. BETTER COWS, BETTER KEPT; BETTER MILK, BETTER 



SOLD. 



Here is a big proposition, a betterment all along the line. Better 

 cows, better kept; better milk, better sold. A poet some time back 

 {(Ointed out the folly of attempting to gild refined gold or to paint the 



