The Problem of High Prices Analyzed 69 



the latter there were 151, which handle enormous quantities of 

 milk daily, while there are besides several thousand small slaugh- 

 ter houses, some 70 large abattoirs with all modern equipments, 

 their competition preventing combines." 



"So everywhere then, professor," said Mr. Keeler, "there 

 seem to be associated the two problems, first scientific methods 

 applied to farming, and second, the associating of a group of 

 farmers, as with the cheese factories here, if not to produce, 

 at least to buy and sell through cooperating." "Exactly so," 

 said the professor. " But," said Mr. Keeler, "is there no other dif- 

 ference, for if this is so easy, it is very strange that our farmers 

 have not done this already? " "Well," said the professor," it does 

 seem very strange and I am free to confess that it is a problem 

 which you probably can get nearer to the solution of than my- 

 self. Perhaps there is something different in the fundamental 

 basis of education on this western Continent. For instance, 

 if the population of Ontario is half rural and half urban, there 

 ought to be at the farmers' superior colleges and schools as many 

 students as at the universities, which lead to professions. Now 

 I recall the fact that the Guelph Agricultural College has stu- 

 dents of the regular class, numbering only some 600, while 

 Toronto University has alone some 4,000 non-agricultural 

 students. The other universities in Ontario really have no 

 agricultural course at all. As regards the primary schools, I 

 remember a short address recently made by the head of one 

 of our Normal Schools on this very point. He said, 'The pres- 

 ent courses of study for rural schools are made by city men, 

 text-books are written by city men, and the teachers of the 

 normal schools live and teach with city ideals/ He pointed out, 

 that, when science is really applied to agriculture, it will mean 

 that each farm will grow ten times its present amount and sup- 

 port ten times as many people. He further indicated that proper 

 teaching must begin through rural teachers who know how 

 to teach the most valuable parts first, so that the country child 

 should learn and do those things at school, which are a part of 

 his preparation for his future life work. This would mean a 

 normal school with its experimental farm, where many lessons of 

 the course are taught in the gardens and orchards, and it also 

 means a country school with its adjoining farm supervised by 



