78 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



out some of them, obtain an egg-tester, hold the eggs up to the light 

 and let those boys and girls look at them, they will realize that here is 

 something they did not know before, something they did not understand 

 before. If you will break open one or two of the incubating eggs and 

 show them what is going on on the inside they will learn a lesson that 

 they never learned before, a lesson that they cannot get out of text 

 books. I have looked through a great many books and encyclopedias, 

 and have hunted far and wide for a definition of "Life." I have 

 never found a scientist or a philosopher, or any other wise man who 

 was able to give me a definition of the word "Life." It is something 

 I cannot explain to you — I do not believe you can explain it to me, 

 and yet it is the most wonderful thing in the world. Take that egg 

 and let it develop by incubation and show it before the egg-tester to 

 those children. Open the egg in a glass and show the little pulsating 

 life beginning there, show it at the different stages, and then take those 

 eggs on the eleventh day, and prove to those children that in eleven 

 days a chick has been perfectly formed. They will begin to realize 

 something of what life is. I know of no better way. Huxley said 

 that the development of the embyro in the egg was the most wonderful 

 thing in the world. You might say it is a miracle — the perfect forming 

 of all the parts, in the eleven days, — the miracle of life. Do you think 

 that any pupil in any kind of a school will fail to be interested in that 

 little life story? And Avhen he has become interested in that story he 

 will become interested in the chickens. The next thing he will be 

 asking his father for the care of the chickens, and soon he will have 

 charge of the flock. He will become interested in them because they are 

 beautiful birds and have beautiful feathers. After a while he will be 

 getting a little pocket money because poultry, in the hands of an inter- 

 ested farmer boy who is willing to work, is profitable. Next that boy 

 will have pure-bred chickens on the farm and be making good money 

 from them. May be later he will have a large poultry farm and give 

 all his time to the business. When the father gives that boy his flock 

 of chickens he tells him he must keep accounts, and if he does not know 

 how he will get some one to show him. That boy will keep account of 

 all money spent and what ho received by the sale of eggs and chickens, 

 and at the end of the year he will be able to tell how much he has 

 gained. Thus he has become a business man. If he leaves the farm 

 and goes to the city, engages in commercial business, or takes up any 

 other calling, he will have had that foundation training in the keeping 

 of accounts which will go with him and make him a more systematic 

 man all through his life. 



The bee-hive is all right, too. A nice way to arrange it is to get 



