Xo. t.] PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND AGRICULTURE. 409 



our republican institutions and so dear to the heart of the 

 averaoe American citizen. 



University education may be defined according to adapta- 

 tion its that suited to adults, and in kind as not only higher 

 but broader than that recjuired during the period of youthful 

 development. 



University extension, as defined by one of its leading 

 apostles, is " university education for the whole nation, 

 organized on a basis of itinerant teachers." It is an effort 

 to bring to the very doors of the masses those advantages 

 for knowledge and culture which have been res^arded as 

 the exclusive privilege of the favored few. In the language 

 of an official description, "The purpose of the university 

 extension movement is to provide the means of higher edu- 

 cation for persons of all classes and of both sexes engaged 

 in the regular occupations of life. It is, in fact, an attempt 

 to solve the problem of how much of what the universities 

 do for their own students can l)e done for persons unable to 

 o;o to a universitv." 



It is fitted to meet the wants of a free people, dependent 

 upon personal exertions for a livelihood, for it is purely 

 voluntary, unlimited as to requirements of age and range 

 of subjects ; hence it is that supplementary feature which 

 brings the educational process into " parallelism with life." 



Its relation to the interests of ao:riculture becomes mani- 

 fest in its very definition. It proclaims to farmers every- 

 where that their craft does not necessarily divorce them 

 from the pleasures and advantages of intellectual culture, 

 with all which that culture implies, but brings to the veriest 

 churl the achievements of the hiii'hest intelligence in his 

 own special field, and invites him to a free participation 

 in its benefits. It says to every man, woman and child, 

 regardless of age, color or social condition, wdiether drudg- 

 ing in poverty or surfeited with the luxuries of wealth, — 

 " Come up higher." 



This movement is still in its infancy, but it is an infancy 

 of exceptional promise, and therefore claims the fostering 

 patronage of those who are prominent in the interests of 

 agriculture ; for the idea upon which its plan is formulated 

 renders it specially adapted to benefit those wdio are devoted 



