1905.] DISCUSSION. 239 



has been done in the State of Connecticut. In our town we 

 have three large 'buses conveying the children to a school 

 where we teach all branches. Our board of education has tried 

 year after year to get the country towns to adopt this system, 

 believing that it was the salvation of the country towns, and 

 so to have better schools, but some towns have not seen fit to 

 adopt it. We have worked hard in our town to improve our 

 educational facilities, and in every town, so far as I know, 

 where this system has been adopted, the schools have improved. 



It seems to me that the real question here this afternoon is, 

 what can we do in a practical way to create a sentiment and 

 create sympathy on the part of our young people to study 

 agriculture ? 



Secretary Brown. I wish to say, right here, that Mr. Hine 

 was engaged to lead the discussion upon this subject, but later 

 he found that an engagement previously made would take him 

 out of the city this afternoon, and he called up, at my request, 

 Mr. Burr, principal of the State Normal School at Willimantic, 

 who agreed to act as his substitute. Later, I received a letter 

 from Mr. Burr confirming our conversation over the 'phone. 

 I cannot explain Mr. Burr's absence this afternoon. Mr. Hine, 

 however, wished me to say, and to say with emphasis, that he 

 was in favor of the teaching of agriculture in our public schools, 



I think the greatest obstacle that we would encounter in 

 teaching agriculture in the public schools would be the one 

 which President Hadley intimated that they encountered in the 

 teaching of English. He said that the great difficulty in teach- 

 ing English was that they could not find teachers to teach it. 

 The great difficulty we would have in teaching agriculture in 

 the public schools would be in finding teachers that could adapt 

 themselves to the conservative position which I think our first 

 speaker, in the opening of this discussion, very properly took. 

 It seems to me that instruction in the fundamental principles 

 of animal and plant life is one of the best things that could be 

 taught our children, and there is no better place in which to 

 begin to teach them than our public schools. 



