LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 329 



in which we all learn life's lessons; our first commences before we are old 

 enough to enter the school room, our last closes only when we lay life's 

 burdens down. We receive our preparatory course in the district or graded 

 school, seminary or college as the case may be, according to our location, and 

 according to what our life work is to be. I would be glad if every farmer's 

 son and daughter could have a thorough collegiate education, especially if 

 they intend to make farming their profession. All have not the taste or 

 inclination to go through college. Some who would be glad of a higher 

 education, from force of circumstances, can not avail themselves of the advan- 

 tages to be gained by it, but by a judicious use of the odd moments can gather 

 up a fund of useful knowledge. 



Many of our ablest men acquired their early education at the district school, 

 and in some instances their advantages were very meager, often with the 

 privilege of only a few mouths, in winter, in the district school. Their school 

 houses were rude buildings, scatteriugly placed over the country ; their books 

 were few and often their teachers were self-taught, but they, by the discipline 

 received in acquiring knowledge, could better sympathize with and teach 

 those who were under their care and instruction. 



If by a practical use of knowledge, the fertility of the soil could be 

 increased so that farming would be as remunerative as other professions, we 

 would not hear so many remarks about book-farming. Au old man who was 

 a little daft was in the habit of cutting pictures out of newspapers and calling 

 them money. In reply to the lady's question whether they would pass for 

 money, he said : "Put a little silver with them, and they go first-rate." If 

 the farmer will put common-sense with his book-learning, it will have the 

 same effect the silver did on the pictures. There are none who so much need 

 common-sense, or need so much of it, as the farmers ; they, of all people, 

 should be highly educated for they are, of necessity, much alone, many times 

 without society only what is around their own fireside. If the farmer and his 

 sons have nothing to think of above the work in their hands, or his wife and 

 daughters no thought only of the drudgery of housework and the endless 

 routine of getting breakfast, dinner, and supper three hundred and sixty-five 

 days in a year, labor loses some of the "dignity" that many can see in it; if 

 uneducated, they can never escape ignorant company, but, with a cultivated 

 taste, they can take some book of travel and make a tour of the world with 

 the author for a companion, and enjoy the society of the learned in the old 

 world or the new. 



Farmers of to-day are not the isolated class they were fifteen years ago, 

 unless they remain so from choice. We have the Grange now where we may 

 meet and friend hold fellowship with friend. Those wlio are within the gates 

 know its educational and social privileges, but all who meet their members 

 must feel the refining influence it has exerted over the farmers and their 

 families. 



The physical education should not be neglected ; there is usually abundant 

 opportunity for full development on the farm without joining a college regatta 

 to insure it. Farmers' children are full of human nature, and in this respect 

 are much like the rest of humanity. I have not spoken of the financial rela- 

 tion existing between the farmer and the school, which is sometimes dearer 

 than all others, and may prove to be seriously dear if we have a few seasons 

 like the past one. If I thought it allowable to speak about our system of tax- 

 ation I would not feel justified in saying aught against it till I was prepared to 

 offer a better one. As taxation has seemed to be the most difficult subject of 



