354 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



A noted seedsman, James Vick, now gone to his rest, deserves great praise for 

 his generous offer continued by his successors, to send seeds free, for the plant- 

 ing of school grounds. This offer ought to be appreciated, as also a similar 

 one from D. M. Ferry & Co. of Detroit. 



For many j^ears James Vick helped to make thousands of homes pleasant 

 and attractive, and his name has become a household word throughout the 

 land, and will be long remembered. It would be an admirable plan to have 

 flowers in the grounds of every school-house in the country. The children 

 would be more interested in the study of botany, a truly interesting and useful 

 study, and they would carry tastes acquired here to the farm and home, mak- 

 ing the homes of the future more beautiful than those in the past. There is 

 no reason why farmers should not have the most beautiful homes of any class 

 of people. 



The home should be a constant source of experience to the child, and there 

 is no home that can equal the home on the farm. It is a mistake we are mak- 

 ing in educating so many of the sons and daughters off the farm — parents 

 should see that their children acquire a love for nature. They should encour- 

 age them in the study of natural objects, plants, stones, minerals, animals, and 

 insects. There is enough material within the reach of every boy brought up on 

 the farm, were it used, to make a laboratory or museum fit for the study of an 

 Agassiz. There is too much time wasted in schools over difficult arithmetical 

 puzzles, and in learning hard geographical names of places that are of no 

 special interest to the scholar, and probably never will be. The child is taught 

 that to be useful is a duty ; and just as many should be kept at home as possi- 

 ble, for enough will be drawn away without making any effort to push them. 



The farmer's home of the future will be not only the best place to be born 

 in, but a good place to live, and a good place to end one's days. Yet, I do 

 not lament that many of our boys do leave the farm. We continually hear 

 that the brightest, most energetic, and intelligent of the farmer's sons leave 

 the farm for business or the professions. If this is true, it is not a compliment 

 to the farmers. Brightness or business tact are not the only qualities needed 

 in the farmer; it needs patience, industry, and hard common sense. Too 

 many have the opinion that the brilliant lawyer, or the skillful physician, or 

 the successful business man has been lost to farming, but this may not be 

 true, and the fact of his leaving the farm may have made one less poor 

 farmer. 



The richest man in America was once a farmer, and no one ever heard that 

 W. H. Vanderbilt was any great success in farming ; but one said to be second 

 in wealth to Vanderbilt was born and bred on the farm. 



It is well-known that a large number of the most successful men and 

 women in all pursuits and professions are from the farm. Like New England, 

 it is a good place to emigrate from, and let us not bewail the fact that they do 

 go. They are needed to till the prominent positions in business, in law, medi- 

 cine, and literature ; they are needed for professors in our colleges and presi- 

 dents of our universities ; for governors and presidents ; in all the great 

 enterprises of life; and they form a link between the farming class and those 

 in other pursuits, that cannot be broken. Their early associations always have 

 their sympathy and support. In our own State the Agricultural college has 

 often had its best support from those in the Legislature that belonged to the 

 professions, and has received its most serious opposition from those who should 

 have been its best friends. 



But while we allow the boys to go from the farm and what many of them 



