182 KUEAL LIFE m CANADA 



material way for the fanner. A recent social survey 

 near Ithica, ISTew York, covering a county, revealed the 

 fact that the annual labor income of farmers having a 

 high school education was $304 larger than those hav- 

 ing only a district school education. The high school 

 course vv^as for them equivalent to an endowment, at 6 

 per cent., of $5,066. The annual labor income of 

 farmers with some agricultural college training was 

 larger by $588. For these the high school and college 

 training was equivalent to an endowment of $9,800. 



We might speak of what intellectual entertainment 

 has done at Hesperia, Michigan, to bring satisfaction 

 at home, renown abroad, and to bestow world leadership. 

 Twenty years ago an annual school convention began to 

 gather farmers and teachers to discuss their problems 

 and entertain one another. Orators of world-wide fame 

 now feel honored by being asked to speak at Hesperia. 

 The county is sending forth from her own sons educators, 

 statesmen, and authors to serve their generation and 

 bring fame to their birthplace. We should remind 

 men that the defects of country life are of a kind more 

 readily remedied than are the defects of city life ; that 

 the means of immediate betterment along some lines are 

 quite at their command ; and that to flee from environ- 

 ment instead of improving it is to confess failure, to 

 be swayed by circumstances instead of ruling fate. The 

 country needs a vision of its own felicity. 



Again, we must preach that the very function of hus- 

 bandry, which is to furnish man's daily bread, lays 

 upon men a duty. It imposes an obligation similar 

 to that lying upon a soldier at his post. 'Not upon all 

 persons. Of the youths growing up in a rural com- 

 munity one may be markedly mechanical in his tastes. 



