17() STATE BOARD OF AGKICULTUf^E. 



well was really a better teacher than most of oiir teachers today, who might be 

 tlescribed as sutferins- from mental indigestion. 



The immense advantage of thoroughly knowing onr English language can be 

 brought before you in many ways. To teach civil government, physiology and 

 botany to district pupils before they know English is like trying to cut down a 

 tree with a hoe. This is the point at which so many farmer-boys get discouraged 

 and give up education entirely. The teacher not knowing mathematics or English 

 himself leaves the students stranded just where they need a strong pull to fetch 

 them over. If one does not know the meanings of words or if the thouglit is too 

 hard for the reader he gives up in despair, progress into broader fields of knowledge 

 is closed. In other words mathematics and English are the key to all education 

 with us, and Avitliout them the other subjects never can be mastered. The only 

 way to overcome this fault is to cut the number of subjects demanded from teach- 

 ers upon examination square in two and then double the requirements for these 

 branches. 



More than one great man has warned us in late years against 



AN ARISTOCRACY IN EDUCATION. 



If you draw a fast and hai'd line against the uncultured class, telling them that 

 <-ulture is forever l)eyond them, tliey will rebel and with the ballot in their hand 

 will overturn tlie fabric of republican goveiiiment. The cesspool of politics is cor- 

 rupt and hopeless. The school alone is the final hope of reform; the way to the 

 masses of humanity. And the school system, too, in the hands of men masking 

 behind a superficial education, has likewise fallen a prey to the political monster. 

 T^et men v»'ho deem the political machine too hard for them to bear look to it. lest, 

 by their neglect, the masses be irretrievably lost. We call ourselves a practical 

 people. That word sounds well to our ears. Men boast about our ability in accum- 

 mulating money. 



We plan to get ahead, no matter how. This jiractical spirit will ruin the republic; 

 will reduce society to classes which can never be broken. Business, politics and 

 even religion are used for the indescribable scramble for money, affluence or honor. 

 Lastly, this spirit has taken hold of that be.-iutiful creature of Avestern republican- 

 ism, our school system. If you want to enthrall tlie masses, to make them forget 

 "their manhood, to dull their intellects and their ambitions, then take culture from 

 them, put them into the hands of superficial, jtractical teachers and the way is 

 short and soon traveled. If the son of the farmer is to have an equal chance to 

 rise to the sphere to which his ability entitles him, then this so-called practical 

 teaching must lose in the conflict. We don't want men like one legged stools, that 

 <'an't stand alone, but thinkers, readers, intelligent and moral citizens. From the 

 f^xperiences of the past I trust we have learned our lesson and it is to be hoped 

 that we, casting aside false systems with enticing names, will follow the only path 

 which will avoid a threatened doom to the common people. 



EDUCATION OF FARMERS' DAUGHTERS. 



MRS. MARY SHERWOOD HINDS. Stanton, at MOXTCALM COUNTY Institute. Lakeview. 



We discuss in our Farmers' Institutes and meetings unjust taxation and other 

 economic questions Avith becoming tenacity. We hear the oft repeated lesson of 

 balanced rations for cows, care and exercise of breeding animals. But just how 

 we .shall best equip our girls and boys that they may meet effectually the great 

 responsibilities that must shortly rest upon them, is only a secondary matter. It 

 •seems more needful that we look to this important question in our gatherings. A 

 statistician recently informs us that, in New York City for example, 9G out of every 

 100 of the recognized successful men, including bankers, railroad presidents, large 

 manufacturers, vessel owners, doctors, ministers, etc., sp-ent the first twenty-five 

 years of their lives on farms or in small villages. Do we as parents think seriously 

 nnd with the earnestness which the subject demands, that the destiny of the whole 

 world must soon be given over to the youth and little children of the present, and 

 that they will become the great and learned men and women on whom shall rest 

 the burdens of the nation's life for weal or ^\oe'i Do we realize how important 

 a work there is for us to do, In molding and shaping their characters, that they 



