^0 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



free libraries place tlie best Ihouglils of the world before everyone who has a desire 

 to rpad them. Free jniblic sfhools, free colleges iind univer.siri^s nirtke it easy for 

 anyone with brains and ambition to secure an education. INIoral and religious 

 adyancement is exemplified in free churelies, free hospitals and all those coauforts 

 which help the weak and unfortunate. Fifty years ago there was not a Christian 

 on the Feejee Islands, and now there is not a heathen. 



With all this great progress come great obligations. How shall we prepare 

 the coming generations to meet these responsibilities? I know of no other way than 

 by education. Every boy and girl should be educated. The time is past when only 

 the few should receive such training. In the next generation there will not be 

 much room for the man who can simply work with his hands. This is a great 

 industrial age and it seems to me that our educational system should recognize 

 this fact and confoi-m to the new conditions. There is a strong tendency, I believe, 

 to educate young people away from industrial pursuits, and instead of fitting them 

 for the work of life they are sometimes unfitted for the sphere which they are de- 

 stined to occupy. There are too many who have an idea that the object of an educa- 

 tion is to be prepared to live a sort of genteel life, free from labor, and especially 

 free from manual labor. There are too many parents who would like to educate 

 their children so that they will not have to work for a living as they have been com- 

 pelled to do. If that is ail there is in an education, it is not worth striving for. The 

 person who goes through this world without work, and plenty of it, is not of very 

 mudh account either to himself or to society. The average school life in this 

 country, including those who attend high schools, is a little over four years, but 

 most of the children of our Avorkin* classes receive but a very little over three 

 years of school training. Seventy-five per cent of these never get beyond the third 

 reader. Of all the boys who have remained in school until they are twelve years 

 •of age, four-fifths drop out before they are two years older. Of every one hundred 

 youag men on this continent only five are prepared and equipped by education for 

 their occupation and business; ninety-five are not. 



Science and invention have been forces to relieve men of much of the toil and 

 drudgery of life, but to apply science and machinery to every day affairs requires 

 knowledge and skill. Everything in the shop and on the farm; in the counting 

 house and on the street, works according to fixed laws. If we work in accord- 

 ance with these laws all will be easy and success will usually follow, but when 

 through ignorance and the lack of education we disregard these laws, failure is 

 the inevitable result. 



By making practical work a part of our education, pupils will remain in school 

 longer. They will realize that they are preparing for the work of life. Give the 

 farmer boy some work which he and his parents can see Avill be of use to him after 

 leaving school and he will not drop out of school at the first opportunity. Science 

 can do as much for the kitchen as it hiis done for the workshop. Make the educa- 

 tion of the young woman bear some close relation to the life of the home. 



DISCUSSION. 



Andrew Campbell, Washtenaw Co.: We heard this afternoon that brain power 

 is necessary for success in farming. We have but limited brain power at best, 

 aud that must be developed to the full. In many cases this development is cur- 

 tailed because boys and girls are taken from school too early. How can this be 

 avoided? By bringing the high school nearer to us. If we had a township system 

 whereby in every township there should be a central high school which the chil- 

 dren could attend and at the same time board at home, it would go far to solve 

 the problem. i 



HOW TO INTRODUCE THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURE MOST 

 PRACTICALLY INTO OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



HON. GEO. T. POWELL. 



For many years there has been a marvelous growth of cities^, and the 

 tendency of population to migrate from our rural districts to cities has 



