THE TRAINING OF FARMERS' 



remained; and it is to the great credit of 

 farming that it has sent so many good men 

 and women into the world. I hope that the 

 open country will continue to contribute its 

 due proportion of boys and girls to the 

 cities and the professions. 



Much of the teaching also has been book- 

 ish. It has been the avowed purpose of 

 teaching to teach by means of books. The 

 old colleges and academies rested largely 

 on this idea. The common schools copied 

 the colleges. The introduction into col- 

 leges of subjects that have relation to af- 

 fairs has changed all this. The mechanical 

 engineer is not educated primarily in books 

 and mere lectures, but in machines and en- 

 gineering problems. The teaching of agri- 

 culture also is similarly changing. More 

 and more, the students are studying cows 

 ^and corn, not studying more or less rele- 

 vant subjects about cows and corn. The 

 professors are men of affairs: they are 

 "practical." The consequence is that stu- 

 dents are put in touch with the actual vital 

 problems of the farm and the open country. 

 The college and the farm are now beginning 

 184 



