192 BOAED OP AGEICULTURE. [Jan., 



loth to part with it. There can be no such personal interest in any 

 savings hank account as in the calf or colt the child cares for and 

 feeds and sees grow. 



I cannot follow this contrast further, but 1 have by no means 

 exhausted this line of thought, each of you can call to mind other 

 phases, and the more you study it, the more marked it seems, and 

 the more you will see that the natural tendencies of a farm educa- 

 tion is towards thrift, is to self-sacrifice to-day for a reward in 

 the future. 



Again, there is the education in habits of industry, which has 

 been incidentally alluded to several times before. Success in life 

 depends upon overcoming difficulties rather than in the avoidance 

 of them, on industry rather than on genius, and the education of 

 the farm is towards habits of industry. Even the small child can 

 do something useful on the farm, not work made for him to keep 

 him out of mischief, but something that needs to be done. And 

 the most of this is not like the routine work in factories and shops 

 ■ — it is varied, interesting, useful, and healthful. In no other voca- 

 tion can the child be so trained to habits of industry without detri- 

 ment to his health and intelligence. This very work educates his 

 sense of worth and importance, it educates him in accepting respon- 

 sibilities, he learns early that the mere pursuit of pleasure is not 

 the great aim of life, but that each person has responsibilities laid 

 upon him and duties to perform. 



In contrast with this, what can a city child find to do ? I speak 

 feelingly on this point — with house on a populous street, neighbors 

 close on every side, a yard but a few feet wide, the only other range 

 is the street, — what is there useful that our children can do ? They 

 cannot share with us our labors; there is no such round of useful, 

 light, healthful labor they can do ; what things we find for them to 

 do are few aijd so painfully evident that the work has been contrived 

 to make them do something, that its educational value is lost. Then, 

 too, there is so much to distract; boys all around to entice away. 

 There is so little that the child can do to help along the home work, 

 he feels that he is in the way, that he is an expense, he is noisy, he 

 is not wanted about — indeed, in these times, the country seems the 

 only place where children are really wanted. There is no demand 

 for children in the city; there is in the country. Only a few days 

 ago I picked up a paper containing a long report of the operations 

 of the Children's Aid Society of New York. I need quote but a 



