292 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



imitators should not be overlooked. If they are surrounded by 

 bright cheery natures, good manners, kindly courtesy and unselfish- 

 ness they will acquire the same habits in a measure. Robert Savage 

 Landnor says: 



"Children are what the mothers are. 

 No fondest father's proudest care 

 Can fashion so the infant heart 

 As those creative beams that dart 

 With all their hopes and fears upon 

 The Cradle of a sleeping son." 



The duty of parents is not merely to feed, clothe and supply the 

 material wants of their children, but to feed and train the mind 

 as well. Teach them to think, and help them build beautiful char- 

 acters, interest them in the higher ideals of life which will mean so 

 much to them in later years. Next to the love of God teach them 

 the love of nature, which is God's handiwork. Show them the 

 beauties of the firmament, and the day breaking over the hills, and 

 you will implant into their very being a love of the country that 

 will go far toward keeping them on the farm, and will instil into 

 their hearts the love of the true, the good and the beautiful. Teach 

 them that the essential elements of the human character are truth- 

 fulness, integrity, and goodness. But while teaching principles of 

 honesty by precept, let us be consistent and not teach the opposite 

 by example, as the story is told of a farmer, who was the owner of 

 a lot of fat steers, which were ready for market. He was giving 

 vent to his indignation on account of the manner in which the beef 

 trust was robbing the producer. He gave it as his opinion that 

 the trust magnates and robbers ought to be in the penitentiary. 

 Then turning to his hired man he said, ^'Fred, those steers are to be 

 ready for that cattle buyer tomorrow morning. See that they 

 don't have any water today, but give them all they want to drink 

 about a half hour before they go on the scales," and the hired man, 

 who was good at figures, estimated that those steers drank some- 

 thing over 8,000 pounds of water that morning for which the honest 

 cattle raiser pocketed 5c a pound. 



Now, if we can have the principles of truth and honesty instilled 

 into the child's heart he is ready and safer for the school training, 

 and I regret to see how much at fault our public school system is 

 in the education given the children on the farm, for it all tend* 

 away from the farm instead of to it, and no wonder the child does 

 not have a love for the farm for he is taught nothing of growing 

 plants, chemistry of soils, etc. If he would be taught the beauty 

 of every growing thing from the germination of the seed to the tiny 

 spear of green, followed by the unfolding of leaves to the maturity 

 of the plant, he would attain a love for the work, and would not be 

 so eager to leave the farm, and farm life, but would take such an 

 interest and pride in the work that he would be glad to be able to 

 say, "I am a farmer," and he will dignify the profession. 



I can express my meaning regarding schools in no better way 

 than by quoting a few words of President Roosevelt's: 



"We should strive in every way to aid in the education of the 

 farmer for the farm, and should shape our school system with this 

 end in view, and so vitally important is this that, in my opinion, 



