THE TEAINING OF FARMERS 



this is true. It certainly will not be trne 

 when they constitute part of a well-organ- 

 ized extension-teaching scheme. The na- 

 ture of their work will change from year 

 to year, as any other living work changes ; 

 but it will always be necessary to instruct 

 the farm people at their homes. It will be 

 increasingly necessary to substitute dem- 

 onstration and laboratory work for much 

 of the lecturing. We must develop a new 

 type of institute man, unlike the college 

 professor on the one hand and the so- 

 called practical farmer on the other. These 

 men must be trained for this kind of public 

 work, as carefully as other men are 

 trained to be chemists or engineers. They 

 should live for at least part of the year on 

 the land, and they should also be connected 

 with an institution that can keep them in 

 touch with the best and latest information. 

 In other words, they should be farmers as 

 well as students, and students as well as 

 farmers. The regular college or experi- 

 ment-station specialist will be called on 

 here and there when expert knowledge of 

 a particular kind is wanted, but his main 

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