No. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 253 



enough for all to do. My great hope is, and the thing that I en- 

 deavor to help as much as I can in my weak way is this; I believe 

 when all the forces that are engaged in this proposition that we are 

 discussing here to-night, or when all the forces now in existence or 

 which may come into existence that are engaged in tliis proposi- 

 tion of carrying this message, this information from the various 

 sources to the people, are working hand in hand and in close co- 

 operation, the work is going to be done more efiSciently than now, is 

 going to be done more rapidly and with greater success ,not only as far 

 as the work is concerned, but as far as the co-operating agencies are 

 concerned. I believe, my friends, that that is one of the great prob- 

 lems facing Penns3'lvania today and I trust we will be able to see 

 our way clear for ever}' force to increase its efficiency without los- 

 ing its identity, and I think a close co-operation will help to bring 

 that about. 



Now where does the public school figure in this agricultural de- 

 velopment? I want to say here, in passing, that I do not believe 

 tlint it is the function of the public school to participate in indus- 

 trial movements for tlie improvement of agricultural conditions un- 

 less it can do it very largely through the rising generation, because 

 there is its business. The business of the public school is to give 

 the boy and girl, that comes into that school, the type of training 

 that that boy and that girl ought to have. It is a question as to 

 whether we have been giving the most efficient form of education. 

 I say it is a question. I hardly think it is a question at the present 

 time. I think we have come to the conclusion that our present sys- 

 tem of education must be modified, not eradicated, not thrown away, 

 but modified to some extent so that with the training of the head, 

 we may give some practical training of the hand. T believe that 

 every boy has a right to expect, when he enters the doors of the 

 school room, that when he comes out of that school room, at the 

 end of a term of years, he shall be better able to earn his daily bread 

 and butter as a result of the education thnt he receives there in 

 that school. The education that he receives should be an education 

 for work instead of an education aicai/ from work. I sincerely pity 

 the boy that grows up without any opportunity to work, without any 

 chance to work. It has always been my conviction that every boy, 

 regardless of where his home is or what he expects to do in the 

 future, would be much better off if he could spend one to three 

 years on a farm. Every city boy would be better off from the stand- 

 point of his physical condition, his mental condition, stamina, and 

 growth of all kinds and his outlook on life, if he could take three 

 years of his life and go right out in the country and live on a farm, 

 not board on a farm, not be a guest, not be a student on that farm, 

 but be one of the young men who live there and work there and play 

 there. I believe that every boy would be better off. T have been 

 thankful many and many a time that it was my privilege as a 

 boy to live on a farm, and s:ef that very experience which I would 

 not exchange for many dollars, regardless of the work I am in. 

 Every lawyer would be a better lawyer, I believe, and every doctor 

 would be a better doctor, if, during his boyhood days, he could live 

 through some such experience as that. 



