No. 4.] BOARDS OF AGRICULTURE. 25 



manual training is the most effectual remedy for physical 

 inactivity, sometimes termed laziness, — for nothing- stimu- 

 lates a person to greater activity than the ability to do 

 difficult things well. This intellectual culture is not the 

 need of the professional man merely, but of all men in all 

 vocations ; and, when combined with manual training, 

 makes the sailor go up from the forecastle to the quarter- 

 deck, changes apprentice to master, the mill hand to agent, 

 the laborer to employer, the journeyman to contractor, the 

 scavenger to capitalist. 



Education begins with the first spark of intelligence in 

 the mind of the infant, and ends only with the departure of 

 reason or life. It is the motive power .that raises man 

 above the brute creation, and, while it affords the means of 

 acquiring a livelihood and perhaps wealth, ranks higher 

 than wealth when subjected to a court of competent juris- 

 diction. However ornamental it may be, its usefulness 

 depends upon its character, and this suggests a train of 

 thought upon " practical education " which boards of agri- 

 culture should advocate for farmers' sons and daughters and 

 all other industrial classes. 



School days represent not the period of getting an educa- 

 tion, but the period of laying the foundation of life study. 

 It is asserted that but one person in thirty gets beyond the 

 common school in educational institutions. How important 

 it is, then, that our common schools be intensely practical 

 in their instruction, and at least furnish the pupil with a 

 correct foundation for life study and life work. 



I desire to call the attention of boards of agriculture to 

 an extract from an address on horticultural education, 

 delivered not long ago by one of the teachers of Boston. 

 He says: "A large majority of our public schools have 

 done little or nothing in the study of plants, insects, 

 minerals and soils, alleging that such studies are not practi- 

 cal. For years past we have been reaping the natural 

 results of a system of education that, intentionally or 

 unintentionally, turns all our young people for a livelihood 

 towards the occupations of teachers, college professors, 

 lawyers, physicians, clergymen, book-keepers, salesmen, 

 musicians, artists, agents and business men, under which 



