404 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



THE RELATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO AGRICULTURE. 



BY JOHN K. KIMUALL, OXFORD. 



Agriculture i.s a constant factor in the world's economy. 



The theatre of its exercise may shift, its conditions may 



change, its interest may fluctuate, but it can never become 



obsolete. 



" Age cannot wither lier, nor custom stale 

 Her infinite variety," 



for, as man sprang from earth and returns to earth, so from 

 the earth his nourishment must largely be derived. The 

 I'ace, then, has a })ermanent interest in the culture of the 

 soil, and each succeeding generation inherits this interest, 

 with its benefits and responsibilities. 



Public schools are schools of the people, and collectively 

 stand for popular education on primary, secondary or higher 

 levels. In the constant readjustments made necessary l)y 

 our advancinir civilization, the manifest trend is towards 

 extension in time, expansion in sco})e and wiser adaptation; 

 or, as some one has expressed it, " bringing schools into 

 parallelism with life." 



By these postulates the query embodied in the sid^ject 

 assumes this form, "How is po})ular education, beginning 

 in the kindergarten and ex})anding into all the possibilities 

 of university extension, related to those industries which are 

 immediately dependent u})on the product of the soil ? " 



To insist u})()n what has l)een so pithily expressed in that 

 truism, " The best ])ro(luct of the farm is found in its boys 

 and girls," would ])e to l)cg the question ; but it is a fact 

 which nmst not foi- a inoiiuMit be lost siu'ht of in considering 

 the bearings of the educational problem. 



