Productive Farming 



INTRODUCTION 

 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 



The demand for the teaching of agriculture in the pubHc 

 schools is growing stronger all the time. In many States 

 of the Union and several provinces of Canada the subject 

 has been introduced into schools very generally. Not only 

 has the subject been taken up in the high-schools, but also 

 in special schools started for the avowed purpose of teaching 

 agriculture, manual training, and domestic economy. 



This is in response to the very general demand for more 

 practical instruction. The feeling exists that the schools 

 have been doing work too remote from real life; and that 

 where the work has touched the hfe at all, it has been the 

 city side or the commercial side rather than the productive 

 side and the industrial side of life. Such training tends to 

 lead all, or nearly all, young people away from rather than 

 toward the industrial and productive callings. The census 

 reports indicate that this tendency has aided in building 

 up the cities and actually decreasing the population in many 

 of the rural districts. 



The interest in rural life should be kept up by the train- 

 ing received in country schools, and in all schools. A proper 

 conception of the opportunities afforded in the country 

 should be in the minds of all young people — whether they 

 live in cities or in the country. The productive wealth of 

 the nation is from the country, not from the city. This 

 wealth should be used to improve rural life rather than city 



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