FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 333 



KEEPING BOYS ON THE FARM. 



HIRAM RIX, JR., WILLIAMSTON, AT INGHAM COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



1. Study your boys' natures and do not insist on any of them staying on the fams 

 when they seem to be better adapted to something else. 



2. Those who belong on the farm should be taught that to be a true farmer, suc- 

 cessful and progressive, requires as much or more common sense, energy and brain 

 work as does any other vocation, and that the opportunities for breadth of culture 

 and the development of true manhood are fully equal to those in any other pro- 

 fession. 



3. That it is easier *for a farmer to be honest and upright in his dealings if he 

 wishes to be, than for those in some other professions, notably doctors, lawyers, and 

 merchants, as he is not subject to so many temptations to sharp practice and 

 crooked work. 



4. That a farmer's life is most independent in its nature and in respect to his rela- 

 tions with his fellowmen, from the fact that his business and financial prosperity 

 does not depend upon his popularity in society nor his currying favor with any one. 

 Consequently he can accept or reject dogmas in religion and politics in accordance 

 with his best judgment and the dictates of his own conscience, reaching out into any 

 line of investigation and progressive thought, without reference to its effect upon 

 his popularity or business. 



5. It is our duty to so arrange the financial system of this nation that it will not 

 take so much of the products of the farm to buy a dollar as it does now. 



6. That a proper limit to the ownership of land is a prime necessity of the times; 

 thus abolishing the monopoly of land, and making it possible for our boys to pro- 

 cure farms. 



7. That we must rouse from our apathy, throw off our partisan chains, learn that 

 we the people are the government, cease to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and 

 go to work in earnest for justice and human rights. 



THE UNAPPRECIATED SIDE OF FARM LIFE. 



FLORA C. BUELL, ANN ARBOR, AT WASHTENAW COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



How are you preparing your girls and boys for the fullest and noblest life? Are 

 you instilling into them the purity and holiness which is so abounding? A mind 

 filled with pure and lovely images does not crave the impure, coarse, and vulgar. 

 Are you living with them in their discoveries and leading them to see that nature 

 possesses nothing that is not of interest? Do they know that the dirt colored skin 

 of the earthworm itself bears the hues of the rainbow? Do they know which way 

 its bristles point and why? How many rings he has, does he always crawl with the 

 same end forward? Did they ever hold the small pale worm in the light to see the 

 circulation? It is said "To learn all the interesting things about an angleworm is to 

 receive a liberal education." 



Supply the home with books and papers which will be suggestive. Let the chil- 

 dren have botany, geology, ornithology, clubs; encourage the teaching of these sub- 

 jects in your schools. Take them witlx you for walks and drives. A visit to. an art 

 gallery can not surpass a ride on a joyous spring morning, or on one of the year's 

 delightful holidays-^a rich, tranquil day in October, when the "air is potable with 

 gold," the atmosphere is visible sunshine, the woods rich and splendrous in their 

 "robes of praise" and when the 



"Scarlet oak and goldenrod 



With blushes and with smiles 

 Lit up the forest aisles." 



Nature appeals to the best in man. When communing with her in form of the rol- 

 ling ocean, gigantic trees or tiny flowerets, she ever speaks the same of the littleness 



