NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 727 
ing instruction in farming and home malving in agricultural secondary- 
schools, with branch experiment stations, instruction in the non-agricul- 
tural industries and in home making in city secondary schools, and in 
providing teachers for these vocational subjects in state normal schools. 
Just before his death Ian MacLaren said: 'I'll tell you, the problem 
of Iowa is not a political or industrial one — it is the problem of the 
bairns scattered over our prairies." It is well, at this time, to carefully 
consider this bit of good advice. If the training of our boys and girls 
does not bring out the very best there is in them; if it does not fit them 
to deal intelligently and successfully with the problems they are to meet; 
if it does not fit them to make the best use possible of the soil and 
climate; if it does not teach them in fact the ennobling principles of 
agriculture, then it is time that we made it such. 
AGRICULTURE IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 
MRS. MAX DAX. 
' (Before Kossuth County Farmers' Institute.) 
Every thinking man and woman will concede that the development of 
the country schools is not in proportion to the development of the coun- 
try in other lines. The country school is practically the same today as 
it was twenty years ago, with perhaps a few exceptional cases. In a 
great measure this is the fault of the farmer, though a mistake of the 
head rather than of the heart. We have been, so occupied, some of us, 
adding to our material possessions, some of us striving to meet our ob- 
ligations, that we have given the school little attention, beyond keeping 
the children at school and supplying the necessary material. It is only 
recently that agriculture as a life work, has received much consideration. 
It was regarded as a means, not an end. Parents were content to work 
the farm long enough to secure a competence that would allow them to 
move to town, or perhaps remained on the farm to provide the means to 
educated the sons and daughters, that they might escape the drudgery 
of the farm, forgetting that w^ork is drudgery only when it is work we 
do not like to do, be it on the farm, in the office, shop, or school. But a 
reaction has set in, a new era has begun; we realize that the farmer as 
the main producer of wealth, needs a special training quite as much as a 
follower of a profession or a trade; that it takes skill to make a success 
of farming on high-priced land; and that to be a producer of fine crops 
and fine animals is an object well worth aspiring to; and since a very 
small per cent of the farm boys ever go to college, we must look to the 
rural schools for their training. 
With the country schools as they now are, all we can hope to do is to 
arouse the ambition of the pupils and patrons that they may desire a 
better knowledge of agriculture; if this can be done, fewer and better 
equipped schools will follow. We have heard it said that no child can be 
taught till it has a disposition to learn; this is also applicable to children 
of a larger growth and rural schools will be made of more practical value 
to farm boys and girls when the majority of farmers demand it; and 
they will not demand it till they feel the need. 
