FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 39 



that good nursing has more to do with the recovery from disease than 

 medicine. We shall have our girls learn invalid cooking and things of 

 that sort. All of these things have been tried abroad and with the great- 

 est success and I think they will succeed with us. 



Another point about these county agricultural schools. They will 

 become a sort of center for the farmers of the county. The superin- 

 tendent of such schools must be a man competent to speak with authority 

 about agricultural matters. There will be experimental plots of ground. 

 The children will not only learn practical things, but they will take home 

 to parents advanced methods. 



So to sum up the thoughts I leave with you for the improvement of our 

 rural education: First, consolidation of schools; second, transportation 

 of pupils ; third, the county training school for teachers ; fourth, the 

 county agricultural school. 1 do not claim that these movements will 

 solve the problem, but I do claim they are helpful, and that they can be 

 done, for the}' are being done. 



THE RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEM IN MICHIGAN. 



HON. DELOS FALL, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, LANSING. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — 



I am very glad to be present at this meeting tonight to give welcome 

 and, if I can in any way, to assist in the very excellent work which has 

 been done by my distinguished brother superintendent from across the 

 lake. He has so thoroughly covered the question of the rural schools, and 

 so completely to my satisfaction, that I would be glad if we could dismiss 

 the meeting just at this point and go away from it, thinking seriously 

 and earnestly upon the questions growing out of the suggestions which he 

 has made to us; and I'll only spend a few minutes in trying to emphasize 

 some of the points which he has made. 



I want, however, to speak of another source of pleasure at being present 

 tonight at this round-up farmers' institute, and I only wish that the 

 members of the Michigan Political Science Association could have seen, 

 as I have, in a dozen or fifteen counties of the State, the large assemblages 

 and the enthusiastic discussions of the questions which come close to 

 their homes. I do not think it can be equalled anywhere on the face of 

 the earth,^ — the enthusiasm, the intelligence, the earnestness with which 

 the farmers of Michigan have been applying themselves to the discussion 

 of the economic questions which surround them in their everyday life. 

 It is money well expended. The State is carrying on a great work of 

 education in its liberality, in the support which it gives to these farmers' 

 institutes, and I am glad, also, to record that when this subject of the 

 rural schools is on the program the audiences did not seem to diminish. 

 On the other hand, I think I observed that the audiences increased rather 

 than diminished when the rural school question was to be discussed. 



I wish to make reference to one address in particular. That was on 

 the topic, 'iThe Best Product of the Farm." Now, the best product of the 



