236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



perience, so that our teachers may be able to take up this work. 

 These lectures fnay be designed for the teachers, as well as for 

 the pupils, and designed in such a way that the teachers can 

 take up the topics and carry them out without adding too 

 much to the great work which many of them are carrying at 

 present. If that is done, then something may be accomplished 

 which shall be practical and beneficial. (Applause.) 



Mr. Sternberg. The subject, Mr. Speaker, under dis- 

 cussion appears to me as a very important one, and it also 

 appears to me that we should get right straight at the facts. 

 We do not come here today to devise or advocate means of 

 burdening our teachers with additional duties. We do not 

 come here to express our sympathies for overworked teachers, 

 but the subject of the discussion is simply this : Can we in- 

 duce in our children an interest that pertains, or that should 

 pertain, to agriculture? Now, it seems to me it can be done 

 with very small labor. In fact it is being done. It may not 

 be well known, but in this city is a school which is adapted en- 

 tirely to the teaching of horticulture. The school is largely 

 supported by some wealthy gentlemen of this city. The chil- 

 dren are put through a regular course. They are taught how 

 to grow plants. They are taught how, after a plant has come 

 up, to cultivate it, to develop it, and make it grow to the best 

 advantage. In fact they are taught how to raise flowers. 

 Now this same system is being carried on in quite a number 

 of our prominent towns of the state. The town I have the 

 honor to represent, and in which I live, the town of West 

 Hartford, has carried on this system for a number of years, 

 and has done so with good results, which you see around every 

 schoolhouse as you travel through our town. You will see the 

 little beds of flowers well taken care of by little fingers. They 

 have been taught to raise flowers, and to raise vegetables to a 

 small extent, and we believe it will be noticed that as a result 

 of that instruction our children are today entirely in love with 

 horticulture and agriculture. And there is the solution of the 



