342 MINNESOTA STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Europe and America — because there is no secondary school in the 

 country or in any country that has done so much to build up a school 

 system upon such a type, a type which I hope will multiply in great 

 numbers. 



In some respects the problem is much easier in teaching - these 

 practical things in city schools than in country schools. • There is 

 better organization, but we are attempting to organize country 

 schools. I believe consolidation will help to solve the problem in 

 our country schools. Consolidation may mean too much the taking 

 of the country school into the village and making an academic high 

 school of it. 



Now just a word in regard to the subjects to be taken into the 

 country school. I will only suggest these matters for you to con- 

 sider. Suppose Prof. Green and the entomologist and Miss Shep- 

 herd, the teacher of cooking, were to prepare such a paper, for in- 

 stance, on the subject of the apple. Prof. Green could tell all about 

 its origin, the planting, the grafting and its care ; the entomologist 

 could tell how to get rid of the insects that prey upon it, and Miss 

 Shepherd could tell some valuable things about cooking the apple. 

 These things are not so remote from the country children as we 

 might think, and you would be surprised to know what some of our 

 pupils could teach in the last year of the college course. Another 

 subject that might be taken up is flowers, and something about 

 crossing wheat, the growing of wheat, the rotation of crops, and 

 Prof. Snyder could take them through the milling process, Miss 

 Shepherd could take them through the cooking process, and in this 

 way a very interesting little booklet could be made for the teacher. 



The problem is with the teacher. How are we going to in- 

 terest them? It looks now as though the main effort should be 

 made through the county institutes. I have talked from the stand- 

 point that suggested itself to this committee, and this committee and 

 the dean of agriculture are open to your suggestions. 



Mr. O. M. Lord: The remarks of Prof. Hays brought to my 

 mind an object lesson that occurred to me last season. While the 

 fruit was ripe, the plums, apples, grapes and other fruit, I had a 

 couple of visitors from Chicago, three or four of them. Among 

 them were two very bright, active, intelligent girls of about twelve 

 years of age. I will not attempt to describe the delight and the re- 

 marks of those children in viewing the grounds about my premises. 

 Neither of them had ever seen an apple growing upon a tree, a 

 grape upon a vine or a plum upon a tree. They had tasted those 

 fruits in Chicago, but had never, seen them growing, and had not 

 the least idea how they grew, and it was an object lesson to me I 

 never expect to see repeated in this country. It was impressed upon 

 me what a deplorable condition exists in the education of a good 

 many of our city children, and it impressed me also with the value 

 of the teaching in our agricultural schools where they come in con- 

 tact all the time with the practical applications of this knowledge. 



Mrs. M. M. Barnard: I was especially interested in Prof. 

 Hays' remarks in regard to the agricultural school, for I feel deeply 

 interested in that, and I have been especially interested in school 

 gardens, and I only wish that such a garden as Prof. Hays' model 



