102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



majority of schools, from the primer to the higher English, 

 and they are tinged with metropolitan thoughts and sympa- 

 thies. Lf any attempt is made to picture farm life and rural 

 scenes, they are wholly superficial and indirectly misleading. 

 More than this, very many of the writers of our text books 

 have not the slightest sympathy for the farm, or appreciation 

 of agriculture ; and thus the atmosphere of the school-room 

 draws away from the farm. Here is work for us who believe 

 in dignifying farm life. Agriculture must be popularized, 

 and the first step is to secure the introduction of text-books 

 having to do with natural things. The child must be led to 

 see the beauties, and, while in a receptive state, drink in a 

 knowledge, not directly of agriculture, but of the countless 

 beings and things it sees and handles daily. Doing this, 

 the mind will be disciplined, while leading the child up 

 to a comprehension of some of the wonderful mysteries of 

 nature, — mysteries which crowd in upon the farmer on every 

 hand, massing about him for his glory and relief. He can- 

 not touch an object of his care but a miracle is manifest ; he 

 cannot plant a seed but a miracle is wrought ; and, because 

 we have ploughed, planted, and harvested, grown our stock 

 and products without reaching after these mysteries, and 

 seeking to come into a knowledge of their significance, we 

 find agriculture wanting one of its grandest compensations. 



My thought is this, that it is both possible and practicable 

 to lead the child, at school, to a love for and interest in 

 the natural things we meet in farm life, and at the same 

 time train and educate for practical business life ; and that, 

 doing this, we shall find that farm life will have added 

 attractions, the bays will go out of our common schools with 

 appetites whetted by a familiarity with natural things, and 

 enter our agricultural colleges to learn more of the mysteries 

 of the soil and of plant growth. Then will the corps of 

 earnest workers find classes multiplying, and graduates will 

 go out upon the farms, and the wilderness will blossom as 

 the rose and the waste places be made glad. Seventy-five 

 per cent of the scholars drop out of the common school into 

 active life. How necessary that the early training be such 

 as will be most helpful, and that our schools for special 

 instruction reach down a helping hand, and lead these boys 



