No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 709 



Though well meaning, perhaps, he labors under a very mistaken 

 idea of the fitness of things; aod to my mind, one of the most im- 

 portant purposes of the Farmers' Institute should be to help such 

 to a better understanding. 



As farmer men and women we all agree that a farm life is an 

 exceedingly busy one. Its continuous round of duties leave small 

 margin of time for reading, recreation or other lines of usefulness. 

 Yes, the farmer's business is to farm, as it is the merchant's busi- 

 ness to buy and sell, the preacher's business to preach, the architect's 

 business to build, the professor's business to teach, and so on the 

 round. But to be truly progressive they all need indeed must have, 

 the help derived from coming much in contact, not only with people 

 of kindred minds and opinions, but also with the advanced thoughts 

 and ideas of great men. This help must to a very large extent be 

 gained by reading. Not long ago a wide-awake and very success- 

 ful farmer made the assertion that if farmers and their wives would 

 read and think more, and work less, they would live longer, be hap- 

 pier, and in the full meaning of the term more prosperous. And 

 seems to me there's a mine of truth in what he said. 



Besides the indispensible county newspaper, we think that the 

 farmer who would make the most of his calling or occupation, should 

 be armed with one or more farm journals or magazines devoted 

 specially to farm interests, and as farming is fast becoming, what 

 might be termed, a scientific occupation, he would do w^ell, in his 

 spare moments or through the long winter evenings, to study some 

 of the books on the ditferent departments of agriculture. A "city 

 daily" giving stock and grain market reports might often be a valu- 

 able help, as well as serve to keep him posted on the current events 

 of the day. In fact it seems to me that no one should have more 

 use for the daily than the farmer. 



As it is necessary that the successful, up-to-date, farmer should 

 have on his table agricultural fiapers and magazines in which to 

 glean how best to cultivate the soil and raise cattle, is it not just as 

 necessary to have educational journals and therein study how best 

 to rear his sons and daughters? With farmers, as with other classes, 

 it is out of the question that all shall accomplish a college course, 

 but in these days of excellent public schools and academies, con- 

 venient libraries and cheap books, there is small excuse for allow- 

 ing the rising generation to grow up in ignorance. As soon as our 

 children can read intelligently and with understanding they 

 should have a paper of their own. The Youths' Companion would 

 interest them and fill in many moments that otherwise would be 

 spent in idleness. As they grow older, they as well as we will find 

 pleasure and profit in reading our church periodicals, the Christian 

 Herald, or such as tend to direct the thoughts into higher channels. 



A wide-awake temperance journal on our tables would show our 

 acquaintances where we stand, and if read and commented upon 

 around the home fireside would surely have an influence toward en- 

 listing our young people on the sid(^ of temperance and sobriety. We 

 would have our boys grow stalwarth in defence of home and native 

 land, unswerving in their loyalty to the cause of humanity and 

 valiant in the warfare of right against wrong, and to my mind one 

 of the best ways to accomplish our desires, next to precept and ex- 

 ample, would be to keep before them a paper that is not afraid to 



