186 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



your success depends largely on how closely you are able to follow nature's laws. 

 Don't buy an incubator unless you are able to see one in practical operation, or are 

 satisfied that the make of machine wiill do all that is claimed for it. An incubator 

 will require attention from at least twice ^.o a dozen times a day. Before you 

 buy a machine first know where you are going to put it; if you are thinking of 

 running it in the house cellar, first read your insurance policy. 



My first year's experience in running an incubator was not entirely flattering. 

 Each incubator contained 200 eggs; first hatch. 42 chicks; second, fifty; third, 52; 

 fourth, 47; fifth, 55 chicks. Or about 2.50 chicks from 1,000 eggs. Had I experi- 

 enced no trouble with moisture would have hatched at least 750 chicks from the 

 1,000 eggs. I do not lay result to machine or impracticability of artificial in- 

 cubation, but largely to my inexperience. 



BENEFITS OF EDUCATION TO THE FARMER. 



MISS SARAH M'KENZIE, Brockway, at ST. CLAIR COUNTY Institute, Capac. 



Religion, morality and knowledge are the corner-stones of any nation. Knowl- 

 edge will naturally follow religion and vice versa. The deeper man delves in the 

 mines of knowledge, the greater proof he obtains of the existence of a divine being. 

 Morality is the legitimate offspring of the other two. 



Remove these pillars from the foundation of this nation, and it matters not how 

 many islands she can hold, how many armies she can subdue, or how many iron- 

 clads she can sink. Remove these pillars, and our nation's days are numbered. 

 "It is finished!" will be traced upon the wall by the hand that traced Belshazzar's 

 doom. For have not the wrecks of empires strewn on the ocean beach of time 

 taught us that nations are not made great by lands, or ships, or treasures; but 

 rather by how righteously thej^ conduct themselves among the nations of the 

 world, how just their laws, how virtuous their people? 



How docs education l)enefit the farmer? One-half the population of this broad 

 land lives in the rural districts. The remaining half not merely depends on its 

 better half for sustenance, but for its Deweys, its Talmages— yes, even its success- 

 ful manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers are the products of the farm. 



If the nation cannot be powerful without education, existence would be impossible 

 without the farmer. 



Farming has got where it requires thinking to make it profitable. Whatever may 

 have been the case in the past, in this, the twentieth century, this era of enlighten- 

 ment and progress, the farmer who is not educated, the farmer who does not study, 

 is a back number. The farmer must be an earnest student, a deep thinker, a keen 

 observer; for he must bear in mind that a little learning is a very dangerous 

 thing. 



It is not every farmer who is fortunate enough to obtain a college education, 

 yet in these days of cheap education, cheap farm books, correspondence courses by 

 mail in almost every branch of knowledge, it is certainly a farmer's own fault if 

 he stays in ignorance. No school room is half so comfortable as his own fireside, 

 no fellow students half so pleasant as his own family. 



The study of those subjects that would invest farm life with a new interest and 

 uplift the general sentitiient *held in regard to it is of the most vital importance to 

 the coming farmer. He must be imbued with a nobler conception of the vocation 

 of his father and stop his mad rush for the city. 



The vital reinforcement of city life that leads to prosperity and progress and the 

 leaders and guiders of our republic must always come from the sturdy stock of 

 the farm; but we are not willing to see good looking, good natured, upright, intelli- 

 gent Jack and Tom, who should, by right training, become influential and success- 

 ful farmers, rush to the city to become mere "counter jumpers." 



The coming farmer should be taught bookkeeping as applied to farm accounts. 

 He should be instructed in biology, chemistry, and higher mathematics. Should 

 know something of practical mechanics. And above all, he should be led to love, 

 to appreciate the beautiful in nature, that he by such love and appreciation may 

 become beautiful in character. 



The coming farmer cannot be truly educated in the district schools of today; but 

 I apprehend that within the next two decades there will be a mighty evolution 

 in his education. We are on the verge of it now. Within the next twenty years 



