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but I know enough about up state dairy conditions to tell you 
that when you attack the producer you are treading on dangerous 
ground. It takes a long time to breed a good dairy. You can’t 
persuade people to engage in business that does not give them a 
fair return on investment. As soon as the business of producing 
milk becomes unprofitable the farmer will dispose of his dairy. 
Many have already done so. The price of milk to the consumer 
may be too high but you will do well to ascertain whether the 
fault lies with the producer or elsewhere. This is somewhat of 
a digression but it does not seem to me to be entirely out of place 
in the discussion of a subject which has to do with food 
production. 
If work in school gardens helps to teach boys and girls of the 
villages and cities some practical lessons in agriculture and to 
give them a better understanding of its problems, it, for this 
reason, is educational and is worth while as a part of the school 
program. 
It has been my purpose to treat “The School Garden as a 
Means of True Education.” Undoubtedly there are many other 
reasons that could be given to show that school gardening has 
educational value. Sufficient have been mentioned, however, to 
justify the statement that the work has a place in the school 
program. 
It is only when we consider education in a proper sense and 
according to Plato’s definition that we can understand the value 
of work of this kind. 
The school garden is a means of education because it helps to 
give to the body and to the soul the perfection of which they are 
capable. It helps to draw out and develop the mind and the 
character of the boy and the girl. This must be the object of the 
school program; otherwise it fails of its purpose. 
I like to think of the school as a great cooperative institution 
comparable somewhat to those institutions in business which are 
cooperative in their organization. The cooperative business is 
one in which certain persons have joined to carry on business of 
one kind or another with efficiency and at low operating cost. 
It may exist for the purpose of manufacturing cloth, or some 
