184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



business sagacity and social reform ; and our agricultural system 

 has been eminently adapted to breed and develop tbis class. 



For the conservation of political institutions and the creation 

 and preservation of material wealth, it is best that as large a 

 proportion of the whole population as is possible own real estate, 

 particularly their own homes, and this our system of land tenure 

 and land" ownership encourages. For peace and the suppression 

 of warlike impulses, as well as for thrift, it is best that as large a 

 proportion of the population as is possible be at work for them- 

 selves rather than for hire, and for this our system of farming 

 furnishes the opportunity. It is also best for the race that as 

 large a proportion of the population as is possible have facilities 

 in their vocation for the education and rearing of families in 

 virtue, intelligence, industry, and thrift. 



For such education, no other industrial occupation is so emin- 

 ently adapted as farming, as this vocation is carried on in the 

 most of this country. In no other vocation is there exercise 

 for so great a variety of faculty and so varied exercise for the 

 judgment as on a farm growing a variety of crops, producing 

 domestic animals, and using the latest machinery and labor-saving 

 devices. Here the child has a greater variety of object-teaching 

 than can possibly occur in any other common form of home life. 

 Here there is so much he must see that interests him — crops grow, 

 animals are reared, so many natural laws and natural phenomena 

 are related to the daily work; the seasons have more significance 

 than merely heat and cold, and the weather more than merely 

 pleasant skies or gloomy days. In no other vocation can the child 

 be so trained to habits of industry without detriment to his health 

 or intelligence, no other place so well adapted to sound education 

 for intelligent citizenship. 



The great advance in human knowledge during the past hun- 

 dred years has been in the direction of the natural and physical 

 sciences, and the utilization of this scientific knowledge has led 

 to the wonderful growth of the industrial arts and all kinds of 

 manufactures, and is the real source of the recent enormous 

 increase in the material wealth of the world. Because of the 

 beneficent applications of science, human wants are better sup- 

 plied, human life lengthened, comforts increased, and happiness 

 promoted. 



