1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 177 



The relative difference is now much changed. Modern 

 sanitary science, modern means of transportation of food, 

 and modern means of obtaining comforts and materials 

 (such as milk and fresh vegetables from the country), have 

 changed the relations somewhat, and indeed these have 

 made great cities possible. But for these contributions of 

 science to the arts of life, the great migration of men from 

 country to town, which marks the present time, would not 

 and could not have taken place. Nevertheless, the superior 

 value of the country over the city as a place for the raising 

 of healthy and stalwart men, a place in which at least the 

 childhood should be spent, has not been changed. Armies 

 may enlist men from the cities, but practically their strength 

 comes from the country. Then, too, in this country at 

 least, the farms have supplied the most of the statesmen, the 

 leaders in thought and the business men of the larger cities. 

 So common is this, that wherever we see a man who has 

 made great wealth in any of the cities, we take it almost as 

 a matter of course that he spent his boyhood on a farm. 

 And this brings us to the next point, — 



The Educational Iiifiuences of the Farm. 



I have, on another occasion and before another audience, 

 discussed this matter at more length than I can here. It 

 is a subject in which I have been intensely interested for 

 many years. The hope of a nation is in the children, and 

 therefore the most important business of a nation is the edu- 

 cation of its youth. This is especially so in a republic like 

 ours, where not only the prosperity of the country but the 

 stability and very existence of the government itself is in 

 the hands of the masses of the people, rather than in the 

 care of a special and privileged ruling class. 



Many factors are involved in the evolution of our govern- 

 ment and of our greatness as a nation, the most important 

 of which has been the social, the political and the intellectual 

 status of the farmers. My own belief is, that without this 

 the progress of this countiy would have been but little 

 better than has been that of Mexico, of Central America or 

 of the counti'ies of South America. In all of these coun- 

 tries the farmers have been rated as a peasant class, or at 



