FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 255 



numhev who attend school and the showing for the country is very good. 

 Now consider time of attendance. Of the number of children of school 

 ages, 14 per cent in the country and 3 per cent in the cities attend less 

 than five months; 30 per cent in the country and 7 per cent in the cities 

 attend less than eight months; 42 per cent in the country and 11 per 

 cent in the cities attend less than nine months ; 20 per cent in the country 

 and 26 per cent in the cities attend nine months, and only 8 per cent in 

 the country and 26 per cent in the cities attend ten months. The average 

 time of attendance in the country is seven months, and in the cities nine 

 months. The average time of attendance in the country is lengthened 

 by the large number of pupils, mostly boys, who attend three of four 

 months "in the winter. The country outside the cities includes all vil- 

 lages. Could the statistics of the exclusively farming districts be 

 obtained separate from the village statistics, it would be found that the 

 time of attendance in the farming districts is very short. 



ILLITERACY. 



The statistics of illiteracy naturally come next in order. The whole 

 number of illiterate persons 10 years of age and over in the State is 

 95,037. In 1890 the number was 95,914. In 1894 the number who could 

 neither read nor write was 70,772. The number who could read but not 

 write was 24,265. Of the 70,772 who could neither read nor write, 24,660 

 are native and 46,112 foreign-bom. The foreign-born illiterates are 

 unable to read or write their own languages as well as the English lan- 

 guage. Of the native inhabitants 21, and of the foreign-born 84, in each 

 one thousand are unable to read or write. In the cities the native inhab- 

 itants unable to read or write are 14, and the foreign-bom 84, in each one 

 thousand. Outside the cities, the native inhabitants unable to read or 

 write are 24, as compared with 14 in the, cities. Of the native males of 

 voting ages, in the State, 28, and of the foreign-born, 92, in each one 

 thousand, are unable to read or write. In the cities the numbers are 18 

 and 90 respectively, and outside the cities 32 and 93 respectively. In one 

 thousand native voters in the country there are fourteen more unable to 

 read or write than in a like number in the cities. 



FARMS. 



As this is a farmers' meeting, it certainly is proper to introduce some 

 statistics of the farms. Here are a few facts that will interest you. In 

 the southern four tiers of counties, in the ten years from 1884 to 1894, 

 there was an increase of 3,678 in the whole number of farms. In this 

 same section and period there was a decrease of 2,858 in the number of 

 farms cultivated by owners. All of the central, and all but four of the 

 northern counties show an increase of farms cultivated by owners, but in 

 23 of the 28 counties in the southern section there is a decrease. In one 

 of the five there is neither gain nor loss, and in four — Berrien, Kent, Mon- 

 roe and Ottawa — there is an increase. All of these four are fruit and 

 market garden counties. Beginning with 1880, in each one thousand farnis 

 in the State, the number cultivated bv owners at each census was as fol- 

 lows : 1880, 900 ; 1884, 880 ; 1890, 860,' and 1894, 838. These figures force 



