724 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
in the days of development, when this great state was in semi-wild condi- 
tion, the occupation of farming was not without its hardships, and I am 
going to be frank with the older members of this institute and say that I 
trust they are not guilty of the indiscretions of their fathers, when he 
said to them that he hoped they would not have to toil and slave as he 
had. No doubt the old gentleman was well meaning and thought he had 
your best interest at heart, but when he said those words he planted the 
seed of unrest in your mind and turned your attention to other thoughts 
than farming. He taught you that farm work was drudgery and sought 
to fit you for some more elevated profession. I sincerely trust that the 
fathers of today do not sow such seed of discontent in the minds of their 
children. If they do, small advantage would result from introducing 
agriculture in our public schools. 
Of what particular value are our rural schools, and graded schools, for 
that matter, to the youth of the land in the way of fitting them for rural 
life? Rural schools are taught by inexperienced girls from eighteen to 
twenty-five years of age, who teach, not because of their special fitness 
or desire, but because they have not yet had an opportunity to marry — 
and they all prefer a dude from the city to a stalwart, manly country 
boy. For the most part the teachers have no sympathy with or interest 
in farm life. As at present taught the rural schools tend to drive the 
boys and girls away from the farm, whereas, one of their missions should 
be to teach at least the primary elements of agriculture. The same may 
be said of the graded schools. After a boy has spent four years in a 
graded school what is he worth on the farm? The primary object of the 
graded school is to fit for a collegiate education, and as a general rule 
only one out of three hundred ever reach college, and yet the state 
spends millions for that small percentage. Would it not be better wis- 
dom to spend, at least a part of that sum, for the equipment of a central- 
ized school devoted to the principles of agriculture, taught by teachers 
who make teaching their life profession and who would send your sons 
and daughters back to their homes thoroughly imbued with the import- 
ance of agriculture and with a knowledge that will enable them to engage 
in the w^ork with pleasure and profit. 
The work of these schools could be supplemented and augmented by 
the co-operation of the homes. No plan for encouraging agriculture can 
attain large success unless it includes provision for instruction in horti- 
culture and garden methods. As an ideal the public schools should pro- 
vide the instruction and the parent direct the training. At present 
neither school nor home is fitted for the task. A successful summer 
school of agriculture was conducted by the Massachusetts agricultural 
college last summer, and one is being planned for New Hampshire this 
year, and no doubt other states will follow. 
The education of the young men and women of today must be broader 
than was the education of their fathers and mothers in order to meet the 
problems of advanced civilization, and this education must be moral and 
social as well as intellectual. It must be the sort of education that will 
favor new social ideals and enable farmers to work together and stick 
together in their various co-operative undertakings. The farmer's strong 
individualism, combined with rural isolation has unfitted him for the 
