No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 101 



influence of the teacher, a graduate of the city high school, 

 who went to the countr}^ school on Monday morning and 

 went back again on Friday night, who dressed as the city 

 l)erson dresses, and who talked in glowing terms of the city, 

 until the general drift of the school was cityward rather 

 than country ward. This may l)e perhaps an exceptional 

 i)ictare. It may not be true in Massachusetts ; it is true in 

 some parts of New York State. 



I read a very interesting address, a few" days ago, in 

 regard to universities. The speaker, who is of national 

 reputation, put the influence in the universities not on the 

 study of the subjects, but on the general drift of sentiment 

 which was in the university, — the consensus of opinion on 

 life ; the moral, intellectual and spiritual tone of the whole 

 institution. If you have a sentiment leading in any one 

 direction, that sentiment determines the character of the 

 institution. And I am sure that all of you who are school 

 men will believe that that sentiment is tremendously impor- 

 tant in the school. 



1 can conceive of a rural school in Massachusetts or New 

 York State which is putting the children in intimate touch 

 with farm life, which does not teach one bit of technical 

 agriculture. Whether or not it shall put the children in 

 touch with the actual problems with which they live, will 

 depend largely upon the influence of the teacher conscien- 

 tiously directing their attention to the real things with which 

 they are to grapple. IIow many of our schools really touch 

 so very much of the actual life of the child '? The child lives 

 in one sphere, goes to school in another and goes to church 

 in another. I wonder whether these are not all phases of 

 one type of existence, — whether one ought to emphasize 

 more i)articularly one part of the life which the child ordi- 

 narily leads? 



When I studied geography, T began, as I suppose most of 

 the older ones began, with the universe ; then I came down 

 finally to the solar system ; and got down to the earth even- 

 tually. We did not get a very firm footing on the earth ; 

 we learned something of the political divisions of the earth, 

 and that was about all. Now 1 am wondering whether our 



