EDUCATION FOR THE FARMER 89 



special winter courses of from ten days to four- 

 teen weeks. These are patronized by thou- 

 sands of young men. So in many ways are the 

 colleges meeting the need. We all agree that it 

 is desirable for a young man to take a full col- 

 lege course, even in agriculture. But it is better 

 to have a half -loaf than no bread. Yes, better 

 to have a slice than no bread. The colleges fur- 

 nish the whole loaf, the half -loaf, and the slice. 

 And young men are nourished by all. 



One reason why agricultural education has 

 not made more rapid progress is because the 

 children of the country schools have been taught 

 in such a manner as to lead them to think that 

 there is no chance for brains in farming. Both 

 their home influence and their school atmos- 

 phere have, in most cases perhaps, been working 

 against their choice of agriculture as a vocation. 

 It therefore becomes important that these chil- 

 dren shall be so taught that they can see the 

 opportunity in farming. They must, more- 

 over, be so trained that they will be nature 

 students ; for the farmer above all men must be 

 a nature student. So we see the need of intro-j 

 ducing into our rural schools nature-study for 

 the young pupils and elementary agriculture for 

 the older ones. This is being successfully ac- 



