No. 4.j PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND AGRICULTUIIL. 407 



One of the most interesting features in the Worcester-East 

 fair of the hist autunni was the disphiy of class work from 

 the school children, — not so nuich for its extent, variety or 

 excellence, as for the possil)ilities which it suggested. That 

 this Board is not insensil)le to this advantage is evident 

 from its recent action: " Voted, That the societies re- 

 ceiving a 1)()unty from tlie State l)e requested to oft'er 

 annually to the school children a sum of not less than 

 twenty dollars in prizes for her))ariums of flowers, grasses 

 and ferns, and for collections of the diilerent varieties of 

 wood grown in New England," — an advance step in the 

 right direction worthy of all praise. Between the simplest 

 specimens of handiwork in the kindergarten and the best 

 achievements of the senior class in the high school there is a 

 ramje of latent force which aaTiculture miaht enlist as one 

 of its most potent allies. 



In the increasino; demand for trainino' which bears more 

 directly upon the arts of life, drawing has become a recog- 

 nized essential, and here nature's types furnish at once 

 model, ideal and inspiration. Leaf and plant forms, in 

 whose study and imitation the sense of beauty and symmetry 

 is awakened and tin}^ Angers are first trained, may later 

 supply specimens for the more skilful hand, which, under 

 the exhaustive analysis of the compound microscope, is to 

 enrich science by its contributions. Nor does the work stop 

 here ; these same forms, combined, grouped and convention- 

 alized, minister to our a?sthetic sense in the art features of 

 architecture, household furnishing and decoration. 



If in the pul)lic school of the future some form of manual 

 training shall become an essential, as it is now an incidental, 

 feature, its relation to the work of repair and construction 

 incident to farm life will be too obvious to require com- 

 ilient. 



But such exercises, fitted to develop artistic and mechan- 

 ical skill, are not only related to and valuable in agricultural 

 life, but they open the way to useful and remunerative em- 

 ployment in other lines, and, as such, are entitled to repre- 

 sent the work of students as a class. Let the earnest work 

 of our boys and girls be fairly represented in competing 

 industries and there will be less demand for those cheap 



