364 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Then the books are to be studied by the school children. The grown 

 voimg people enjoy a book of literature, travel, history or adventure. 

 Books are numerous and can easily be obtained, but we must make 

 a good choice. We may journey to the ends of the earth with trav- 

 elers the most observing the world has produced. Or suppose 

 science. This subject has been made easy by books and can be 

 studied by any one at home. The courses of study sent out by the 

 State College afford good instruction for the country student. The 

 course of nature study cannot be overestimated. Do we know what 

 knowledge has been learned by the evening fireside in past centuries? 



Our grand and good statesmen and patriots so noted in our nation's 

 history, worked hard during the day and at night would be delighted 

 to read some book on science or history. They eagerly perused their 

 books late at night. They were not hurried off to college to receive 

 from the professors every light and explanation on the sciences. But 

 by hard study and brain work they acquired the grand principles 

 which governed their lives and our country. 



"It is from the farm and the country districts that the great brain 

 power of the country has come, is coming to-day, and must come in 

 the future," wrote Edward Bok, in the Ladies' Home Journal. "In- 

 stead of deprecating country life, and saying that 'to live in the 

 country means to live out of the world,' intelligent people know that 

 the free, untrammeled life of the country unquestionably gives 

 broader views. The human mind always grows to suit its outward 

 surroundings. Originality and a development for great things has 

 naught to check its growth where one can look with earnest eyes 

 from nature up to Nature's God. To speak of 'the ignorance of the 

 rural regions' is to stamp one's self as an ignoramus, not the country 

 people. 



"There is a soundness of core and an intelligence in the back coun- 

 try of this nation of ours that people who live in cities and think 

 themselves wise never suspect. We can talk all we like of 'social 

 revolutions' and kindred evils that are supposed to threaten our 

 nation. When they do threaten our institutions the danger-signal 

 will not come from the back country. Such thoughts are born and 

 fed amid the foul atmosphere of the cities. In the clear country air 

 of the farm, nothing threatens this country, and when anything in 

 the shape of anarchistic or socialistic revolution does menace this 

 land the true voice which will stamp it out will come from the coun- 

 try. The backbone of this land rests in the country and on the 

 farm." 



