No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 231 



Now, it is not given to us all to do great things in our lives, so 

 let us gather up the fragments of our little courtesies and little 

 duties that fill our lives, and when at last we see God's design, we 

 will find these things the beautiful mosaics in His temple. Each 

 one of us has our part, and every day that helps some one is a 

 great deed. Mothers, to you especially is entrusted the great duty 

 of caring for the little ones given into your charge. If at times you 

 would like to do a great work, think of the importance of training 

 these children to take their places in the world. It has been 

 said that if the world is ever saved, it will be by home training, 

 and nothing else. If at times your tasks seem hum-drum, think 

 of the story of "The Other Wise Man," who started out with the 

 three Wise Men to find the King, but was detained again and again 

 by the opportunity — the necessity of helping a fellow mortal — 

 until the Christ had always left the places in which he searched 

 for him, before he reached there, and he went on, serving and 

 searching, for thirty long years, and only found Him when Death 

 came to call him while he was helping another, and then he found 

 that in serving humanity he had served the King; in doing these 

 little hum-drum tasks of the daily life he had won the commenda- 

 tipn of the Master, who told him "Inasmuch as you have done it 

 unto one of the least of these my children, you have done it unto 

 Me." Let us then seize every opportunity of service, however small, 

 knowing that in serving humanity, we are serving the Master. 



RURAL EDUCATION. 



By Db. a. C. True, Director Experiment Station, U. S. Dept. of Agri., Washington, D. C. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to come 

 to Pennsylvania and, in some slight measure, get in touch with your 

 Farmers' Institute work. You have given me an important subject 

 to discuss, but I shall hardly undertake at this late hour to more 

 than touch upon certain phases of it. 



Fortunately, we have had brought before us tonight already the 

 three great elements that enter into education — the church, that 

 appeals to the spiritual life of man; the school, that teaches him 

 how to think and act as a rational being, and the family, wherein 

 he works out day by day the plan of life. All these things must 

 enter into life, and unto the education of the man on the farm, 

 as well as the man in town. 



Before taking up the question of normal schools, we will look 

 at the training of the different branches of these educational insti- 

 tutions. Rural education is a particular subject, and we must have 

 different kinds of institutions to make a full system of rural edu- 

 cation. Within the past week I have attended the semi-centennial 

 of the first agricultural college of this country, and we have had 

 brought before us very vividly the cause of forwarding the work 

 of our agricultural colleges, which stand at the head of our system 



