No. L] DAIRY ECONOMICS. 171 



On this question of farm education permit me to say that 

 the State of Wisconsin has taken an advanced position. By 

 act of the Legislature, six training schools for teachers of 

 country schools and two county agricultural schools were 

 provided in the past year. This is to the end that eventu- 

 ally the elements of agriculture may be taught in all the 

 country schools. We hope thus to instill into the mind of 

 the farm boy a love for the study of agriculture, and conse- 

 quently secure his retention on the farm. A small plat of 

 land will be attached to each school-house, and every boy 

 will be given a rod or so of ground, in which to study how 

 plants grow. Thus farm botany will be taught practically, 

 and to some purpose. The boy, the farmer that is to be, 

 will learn more in a month of the laws which govern plant 

 growth than he usually does by years of ordinary usage on 

 the farm. 



In the county agricultural school we hope to bring the 

 agricultural college close to the farmer in a way he can see 

 and understand. In the county training school the teacher 

 of the country district school is to be trained how to teach 

 ideas and judgments of things that belong to the future wel- 

 fare of the farm boy, as such. There is a great wealth of 

 knowledge here that needs to be imparted, if the farmer of 

 the future is to be any improvement over the present, and 

 the State be seined with a broader and more useful agricul- 

 tural citizenship. 



There is the highest conception of economics in such an 

 idea of farm education, and I am glad that I have lived to 

 see the practical thought of the age commence, at least, to 

 grapple with it. 



A study of this question leads us out in a great variety of 

 ways. AVhat shall be done to educate the producer to in- 

 crease the quality and healthfulness of dairy food, so that 

 the public shall have increased confidence in its use. What 

 shall be done to educate the consuming public into an 

 understanding of the value of milk, butter and cheese, — 

 not as a luxury, but as a most desirable and economical 

 food? AVhat shall be done by the farmers, as a great politi- 

 cal force to turn the power of public sentiment and law into 



