334 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



gardless of party, have joined hands to further legislation which we 

 believe to be detrimental to the best interests of American agriculture- 

 Only the organized farmers are effective in the fight for fair treat- 

 ment and a square deal. 



There is a growing dissatisfaction amongst country people with 

 the eurricnhiiii and the product of the country school. ^Vith all the 

 clash and jangle over the new school code, little or nothing has been 

 done to meet the needs of the rural schools. Nearly all the atten- 

 tion both of the commission and the legislators has been directed to 

 the cities. This is partly due to the fact that no concerted, popular 

 demand was made by rural people. We have not agreed as to what 

 we want and brought it forcibly to the attention of the authorities. 

 It is time we stop pretending that we believe a proper school course 

 is one scheduled to begin with the primary school and ending with a 

 college degree. However desirable it might be, we find it to be im- 

 practicable. An investigation conducted by the Sage Foundation 

 recently, shows that out of 18 children in the First Grade Grammar 

 school, only five reach the eighth grade and only one the High School. 

 In the rural districts alone the proportion is much less. \A'ith all 

 our anxiety about the young people leaving the farm, fully 90 per 

 cent, of them remain in the country, and all -the education they ever 

 get is in the inefficient country school. Like all other questions of 

 rural uplift and rural jjrogress, improvement of the rural schools 

 must originate in and be made by the rural people themselves. So 

 it is the duty of competent teachers and speakers to lead in the de- 

 mand and recommendations of such changes as will bring to the 

 country child advantages for an education that Avill fit him for his 

 life's work and make of him a contented and efficient man. For fear 

 that we might ''consign him to the farm" by giving him an education 

 suited to his needs, our leaders have, in the past, by an unfitted 

 school curriculum, consigned him to a life of inefficiency and poverty. 

 An education no longer uieaus an equipment enabling one to live 

 without work at the expense of the ignorant, but a real education to- 

 day means that training of the head and hand and will Avhich fits the 

 sttident for the fullest and most efficient life. Why then should not 

 rural schools fit rural people for rural life? The necessary increased 

 production of the American farm must come, not from extended 

 acres, for there are few more, but it must come from the present 

 farms more intelligently farmed. The future farmer must know 

 how? and when? and why? better than his father does. 



One valuable result of the Institute work, together with other 

 agencies, is that the farmer's respect for his own business has been 

 increased. There are ifewer discouraged, complaining pessimists 

 than there were a few years ago. This is mainly due to the fact that 

 his greater knowledge of his business makes him feel more fully that 

 he is, in a measure, master of the situation- As he realizes his 

 blessings and his possibilities, he envies less his city brother; that 

 although his cash receipts may be smaller, he enjoys a thousand 

 things for which his city brother must pay cash. 



So this is a lesson we may well continue to teach. The Institute 

 speaker who, while showing up errors and fallacies, fails to leave a 

 message of hope and cheer, who leaves his audience in the gloom and 

 despondency of pessimism, does more harm than good, though he may 

 have the wisdom of a sage on technical agriculture. On the other 



