THE STORY OF BREAD 



27 



ROAD acres cultivate broad visions. 

 Before one can do big things, one 

 must think big things. Big farms 

 followed the reaper. The cry of 

 "Westward Ho!" was heard. Civil- 

 ization answered the cry, and 

 farmers watched their acres 

 broaden to "as far as the eye can see." 



Men were set thinking. They mixed brains with 

 seeds. Soon they found that hard thinking pays 

 better than hard labor, and agriculture had its rise 

 from "the phases of the moon" to an exact science. 

 The study of soils, seeds, fertility, insect pests, 

 and the like was taken up, and farming became less 

 a gamble with nature, and more a matter of know- 

 ing what to do and how to do it. 



Ferdinand Kinderman, a Bohemian, regarded as 

 the father of industrial education, introduced the 

 study of agriculture into his schools in 1771. At 

 about the same time France gave some small at- 

 tention to the study of agriculture. The first agri- 

 cultural school in America was the Gardiner Lyceum, 

 established at Gardiner, Maine, 1821. None of these 

 schools, however, did very much for the advance- 

 ment of agriculture. 



The world was waiting for the reaper. With its 

 coming, and the improved farm machines and im- 

 plements which followed, agricultural education 

 slowly rose to a place of genuine appreciation. 



