THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE 81 



farm. In a certain rural school in New York 

 State of say forty-five pupils, I asked all those 

 children that lived on farms to raise their hands : 

 all hands but one went up. I then asked all those 

 who wanted to live on the farm to raise their 

 hands : only that one hand went up ! Now, these 

 children were too young to feel the appeal of more 

 bushels of potatoes or more pounds of wool, yet 

 they had this early formed their dislike of the 

 farm. Some of this dislike is probably only an 

 ill-defined desire for a mere change, such as one 

 finds in all occupations, but I am convinced that 

 the larger part of it was a genuine dissatisfaction 

 with farm life. These children felt that their lot 

 was less attractive than that of other children ; I 

 concluded that a flower garden and a pleasant 

 yard would do more to content them with living 

 on the farm than ten more bushels of wheat 

 to the acre. Of course, it is the greater and 

 better yield that will enable the farmer to supply 

 these amenities ; but at the same time it must be 

 remembered that the increased yield itself does 

 not awaken a desire for them. I should make 

 farm life interesting before I make it profitable. 

 These points of view are well expressed by 

 David Felmley, President of the Illinois State 

 Normal School, at Normal : " It is evident that 

 the argicultural experiment station will never 

 accomplish its purpose unless there is diffused 

 among our farming population an elementary 

 knowledge of the sciences relating to agriculture. 

 The rural schools and the high schools attended 



