1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 181 



to his health or intelligence. No other place is so well 

 adapted to a sound education for intelligent citizenship. 



It has long been noticed that a large proportion of the 

 more prominent business men in all cities come from the 

 farm, or gained a part of their early education there. This 

 well-recognized fact is but the natural and logical result of 

 farm education. The child on a farm sees the business of 

 the father go on from day to day, as the boy in the city 

 does not. He sees what the work is, and what it is for. 

 Although very varied in character, nearly all the work is an 

 education in prudence and forethought. Most of the work 

 of the farm he sees going on or takes part in is for future 

 or unseen results rather than for immediate and obvious 

 uses. Each and every step is an education in forethought, 

 a making provision for the future. The ground is ploughed 

 and grain sowed for a future crop ; the winter's fuel is provided 

 for in summer ; fruits and vegetables are stored for use long 

 months ahead ; animals are anxiously cared for and reared, 

 requiring months of care before they have much value ; 

 orchards are set out which will not bear fruit for years to 

 come ; and so on through all the varied work of the farm, — 

 scarcely anything is for to-day, all of the operations are for 

 the future. 



The contrast between all this and the experience of a child 

 in a city is great. City children see or know little of the 

 business of their fathers, except in the most general way, and 

 they see the daily M^ants of the table supplied without obvi- 

 ous forethought. Then, too, there is so much to tempt 

 them to spend what little money they have, so few ways in 

 which they themselves can see an investment grow, that it is 

 no wonder that cities produce so many men without thrift. 

 The whole education of the farm is an education in habits of 

 industry and thrift ; education in providing for the future, 

 education in patience, in awaiting results. Success in life 

 depends upon overcoming difficulties rather than in the 

 avoidance of them, on industry rather than genius ; and the 

 education of the farm is eminently adapted to strengthen 

 children in these directions. Even a small child can do 

 something useful ; what he does is not merely work de- 

 vised to keep him out of mischief, but something that needs 



