No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Ill 



whether that is wise or not, I am not going to say. Of 

 all the subjects that are now before the farmers in the 

 country, I believe those that are uniformly awakening the 

 most interest are the ones that have to do with questions 

 of education ; because the farmer has come to think that, 

 unless he has the same intellectual opportunities that any 

 other man has in the community, he cannot hold his own. 

 In other words, agriculture is put upon an intellectual plane ; 

 and the young people must feel that the school and all the 

 interests that make for better country life recognize the im- 

 portance of the agricultural affairs in the same way that they 

 recognize the importance of any other subject that makes for 

 the weal and the welfare of the nation. 



The Chair. This subject is now open for discussion, and 

 we shall be glad to hear from any one who feels like taking 

 part in it. 



Mr. B. P. Ware (of Marblehead). You all know that 

 it has become a fad for public speakers on agriculture to 

 encourage the introduction of agriculture in our common 

 schools as a remedy or answer to the question, What shall 

 we do to keep our boys upon the farm ? I have never felt 

 in sympathy with this fad, because, in the first place, it is 

 impractical. Agriculture is too broad a subject to be handled 

 by our children ; it opens a field for the practical application 

 of all of our natural sciences. Yet, while we should not 

 introduce agriculture as such in our common schools, our 

 reading books, our arithmetic examples, might have an agri- 

 cultural tendency. I do approve of the introduction of 

 nature-study, teaching nature's laws. This may be made 

 very simple and exceedingly interesting to children. The 

 lecturer spoke of the importance of the different methods 

 of education, lie spoke of drawing as an important study 

 in our schools. I am aware that many feel that it is only 

 for the idea of developing artists, but he tells us, and I 

 know from my own experience, that it is a valuable method 

 of expression. 



"Prof. F. A. Waugh (of Amherst). In the State of Kan- 

 sas the superintendent of instructors goes about from school 



