286 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



PIIACTICAL EDUCATIOK". 



Tlicrc is perhaps no nation on the face of the earth tliat is so intensely 

 practical as the American nation. We are practical in our thinking, in 

 our working, in our living, and I suppose I may safely say that we are 

 practical in our educatinq. "How much is anything practically worth?" 

 "how mncli docs it cost?" "how will it pay?" and a thousand other similar 

 queries are thoroughly American in their character and tendency. 



Many of us have undoubtedly heard the pleasing anecdote that is told by a 

 distingushed professor in one of our theological seminaries. He relates that 

 while traveling in Germany, he one day met a German, who at once noticed a 

 red-covered book in the hand of the stranger, which the German supposed to 

 be "Murray," and accordingly asked the stranger if he was an Englishman. 

 The professor replied, in German, that he was not. The conversation pres- 

 ently turned upon a work of architecture near at hand, and in the course of 

 their talk the professor raised the question of its cost. '•Oh,'' exclaimed the 

 German instantly, "you are an American!" "How do you know that?" 

 asked the professor. "Sir," continued the German, striking a peculiar atti- 

 tude, and assuming a tone of great solemnity, "upon the resurrection morn, 

 when we stand before the great white throne, the first question of every Amer- 

 ican in the whole assembly will be, "How much did that throne cost?" 



H this is one of the peculiar and unmistakable characteristics of the Amer- 

 ican people, it certainly is in place at a Farmers' Institute in one of the most 

 lovely counties in all America tluit the subject of practical education sliould 

 claim a share of our attention. 



What are we to understand, first of all, by education itself, and what do wo 

 mean wlien we speak of practical education? 



The true idea of education is to be found in the derivation and meaning of 

 the word itself, which is to draw out, or to educe. It is not cramming facts 

 into the young mind ; it is not learning dates of history and facts of science 

 so as to be able to repeat them at the crook of the parent's or teacher's finger; 

 it is not storing the mind with the principles of science or philosophy, as we 

 now store our ice-houses with immense blocks of ice; but education is the 

 drawing out of the intellect, the developing of the mental powers, and it con- 

 sists in the discipline of tiic intellect, the culture of the heart, and the devel- 

 opment of the reasoning faculties. 



By practical education we mean that development of our educable powers or 

 faculties which will fit men the better for the practical every-day work of life. 

 Such an education will "teach us rather how to think than what to think, — 

 rather to improve our minds so as to enable us to think for ourselves than to 

 load tlie memory with the thoughts of other men." 



Anything of a public character, ailecting public interests, and that should 

 reach tiie different classes of society must be brought down to the practical in 

 idea and character, — must be practical in its objects, in its tendencies, and in 

 its legitimate results if it is to be a pcrnument good to men. A religion that is 

 merely theoretical and not practical in its character would really be more of a 

 curse than a blessing, because its sure result will be to turn the lower classes 

 against religion itself and lead them to be irreligious. A form or system of 

 government tluit is merely an ingeniously constructed governmental theory will 

 surely prove a veritable hot-bed of corruption and fraud. Likewise, if educa- 

 tion will be a public national blessing it must be practical in its aim, in its 



