254 ■ MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



but now, with many, very many, added opportunities, we realize 

 that, however broad a foundation the noble Greek andLatinclaaaica 

 may be for the intended literary or scholastic career, however 

 valuable the ability to express thought clearly may be to all men, 

 the foundation is a very narrow one upon which to begin what we 

 may call the common and most necessary articles of life, and not 

 only is this so, but its influence is ever away from that close connec- 

 tion which should always exist between knowing and doing — a 

 training of the thought at the expense of the executive capacities. 



We understand that the classics are not so popular as formerly, 

 that even among the best students, who do not desire to shirk 

 hard work, there is a growing disposition to turn to other lines 

 for mental discipline. This seems to us both well and natural, and 

 we think that when the agricultural course has been fully developed 

 there will be no line of training which will offer so complete a dis- 

 cipline of all the faculties that go to make a perfect man. 



Time was when education seemed for the few and, in a sense, to 

 enable these few to maintain a precedence and tyranny over the 

 many. It is the peculiar glory of all modern educational methods 

 that they reach down to the needs and abilities of the many and en- 

 deavor to overcome every natural obstacle between them and the 

 enjoyment of the highest privileges. The management of the 

 Minnesota School of Agriculture has been most felicitous in this 

 particular, as it has not only succeeded in interesting the young 

 and arrayed its work to suit the time the pupil may have at his dis'. 

 posal, but has, through its published bulletins and the outside work 

 and efforts of its teachers, made even the fathers and mothers feel 

 that they are not too old to learn. 



In one of the recent issues of our country paper, I was pleased to 

 read the notice that at a late meeting of our local dairy association 

 there was a discussion of the best time and way to organize an ex- 

 cursion to the School of Agriculture. Such straws show a very dif- 

 ferent wind from that which blew, not many years ago, when the 

 suggestion of a trip, a hundred miles from home, to see how profes- 

 sors of "book farming" carried on their work would have been met 

 with uproarious ridicule. While we may thus enjoy the good days 

 that have come to us and the pleasing prospects of the future, we 

 must not forget that there remains for us yet very much land to be 

 possessed. When every intending farmer enters his career with 

 such special training and preparations as are considered necessary 

 to the man who enters a profession; when our horticultural society 

 numbers on its roll every orchardist and gardener; when that grand 

 school for older heads, the farmers' institute, gathers to its stimu- 

 lating instruction every farmer in the state; when every rural home 

 is provided with those comforts and attractions which we expect to 

 find about the city residence, then, perhaps, may we rest content, or 

 look about and sigh for other worlds to conquer. 



My friends, this is our day, this is our field in which to labor. 

 There is none fairer nor more worthy of our toil. Let each till well 

 that portion allotted to him, until the shadows gather, the dews 

 begin to fall, and the " Night cometh when no man can work." 



