No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 113 



that means something to the youngster. He thinks about 

 it, and that is the main tiling ; it fills his mind with ideas. 

 And, after all, ideas are the basis of education. 



I think we can test this matter. I have seen men who 

 graduated from colleges in different })arts of the country ; I 

 have seen graduates of agricultural colleges. Of course you 

 won't expect me to say anything but that the agricultural 

 bo\^s are a long ways in the lead, but I say it because I 

 believe it, most emphatically. And it is because they see 

 things they can understand, and it awakens ideas in their 

 minds. I have had numerous opportunities to see these 

 young men come into contact and competition with each 

 other in a business way, and, while it is very hard to strike 

 an average in such things, it has always seemed to me that 

 the boys who were trained by coming into contact with 

 things they understood have the preference. They are better 

 educated men when they get through than if they took the 

 classical education. I don't want to speak slightingly of 

 the classical education, because I think it was a good thing 

 — a hundred years ago. I speak as I do because these 

 things give an education. They are the best sort of things 

 to train the man, to train the mind. So I think we would 

 have a certain justification in putting agriculture in the com- 

 mon schools, because it trains the mind, and not for a mere 

 sentimental purpose. 



Mr. S. H. Reed (of West Brookfield). I would like to 

 speak a good word for the public school teacher. I see 

 evidences all along, here and there, in Massachusetts, that 

 there are scattered about teachers interesting their pupils in 

 nature stud3^ They commence with the birds, and then 

 take the flowers and plants. I know when one of my 

 daughters was in school the scholars were all anticipating 

 spring, so they could take up nature study again. 1 had 

 some friends down in Virginia, and wrote to them, asking 

 them to collect twenty-five varieties of flowers, with their 

 branches, that were in l)l()ssoni at that time, which was in 

 March. They gathered them, and soon after they were 

 taken to that school, and the children commenced about 

 four weeks ahead of time that year. 



