FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



In the preface to the agricultural primer used 

 in these schools, reference is made to the fact that 

 the population of the country is practically drifting 

 towards the towns, and it is pertinently asked : 

 " Is it not the duty of every man concerned in 

 the well-being of his country to educate the young 

 to fight against these false ideas, and to establish 

 in the minds of the children a love of the country 

 and of rural prusuits ? " It is further observed 

 that, " in order to give children country tastes 

 and encourage them to understand and love 

 agriculture, we teach them at school such subjects 

 as may interest them in and attach them to the 

 land." 



It is a pity that in our own rural elementary 

 schools some similar course of instruction is not 

 adopted. We teach the children by pictures what 

 a lion or a whale may be like, in case they should 

 meet either of them on their way home from 

 school ; but we do not teach them the difference 

 between turnip-seeds and charlock, how to graft 

 or prune, or any of the hundred-and-one different 

 subjects which would make agricultural life more 

 attractive to them, and help to retain them on 

 the land. 



One could not fail to be struck with the promi- 

 nent part played by the Church in all the pro- 

 ceedings. The village priest was in evidence 

 everywhere. He it was who organized and con- 

 trolled the village associations, which collected 

 and arranged the exhibits sent up for competition 

 to the meeting of the parent Society. Then he 

 shepherded his flock, and personally conducted 

 them to the exhibition, improving the occasion 



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