STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 103 



perhaps — felt the influence of the wonder-working instrumentalities 

 offered by the industrial idea in education, so now science, chemistry 

 and capital, are the arbitrators in the readjustment of the old order 

 with the new. 



Under the old regime, drifting was the ideal in progressive indus- 

 try*, if such can be called progressive. But drifting is not prou;ress. 

 Inanition never transformed an atom or molecule into matter. Action 

 is the law of progress in the natural world and must be in the physi- 

 cal and mental. 



But the thought should not be entertained that this transition state 

 is confined strictly to the agricultural class. It may be more appar- 

 ent in this class because the last, perhaps, to become involved in a 

 change any way. 



The world of ideas is moving on in all departments, and changes 

 are apparent in all departments of thought and research. Look at 



EDUCATIONAI, METHODS 



of the present day as compared with twenty-five years ago. Then 

 the youth of the farming districts were largel}' at the mercy of cir- 

 cumstances, and the intellectual obliquity of the farmer's baj' or girl, 

 was condoned and viewed as cause for pity and commiseration, on 

 the part of those brought up under more favorable circumstances. 



But to-day there is no excuse for the delinquent in intellectual 

 training. The privileges accorded by our good commonwealth for 

 the boy or girl to acquire an education are as free and almost as 

 copious as the gracious sunlight which daily floods the universe. 



There is culture and culture. The common school has been 

 the foundation upon which this country has builded capacity and 

 character, but as well as the work has been done, the change inci- 

 dent to industrial environment calls for a change in methods of mind- 

 training. There must be a re-adjustment and a coalition, so to 

 speak, of educational and industrial ideas. We are now on the edge 

 of that time. 



The older system needs to be supplemented b}* industrial and 

 manual training. The Maine State Grange, and the Board of Agri- 

 culture joining hands, started a grand enterprise which culminated 

 in the compilation of that grand little work by Prof. I. O. Winslow 

 of St. Albans, this State, called the "Principles of Agriculture," for 

 common schools, whereby the rudiments of agriculture are taught. 

 This gets down to the root idea, and makes possible the orderly 



