102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



notions about fanning. The city boy is more fortunate than 

 the country boy, in that the idea of industrial education is 

 gaining a footing in city schools, where manual training 

 departments are springing up rapidly. It is noticeable that 

 the city or town boy profits greatly by manual training, be- 

 cause his home experience rarely includes any training of 

 this kind. The country boy does not need this so much, or 

 at least he did not when I was a boy, for he gets daily prac- 

 tice in a great variety of manual operations, which giv^e him 

 skill, even though their performance is not always a source 

 of extreme pleasure. Instead of manual training, the coun- 

 try school should seek to inspire in its pupils an interest in 

 and love for rm'al life ; to show them how all of the common 

 farm operations have a scientific aspect ; to utilize their nat- 

 ural interest for collecting and experimenting in the study 

 of farm objects and phenomena ; to train them to under- 

 stand the value and profit of doing things correctly ; and to 

 help them to see the true beauty and interest of country life 

 before all other. Such school training, carefully and wisely 

 administered to our country boys and girls, would go far 

 toward changing their prejudice against farming as an occu- 

 pation ; it would plant in the minds of young people the 

 ambition to do things better, and would lead them in one 

 way or another to seek special training for a business in 

 which they would engage with real pleasure. 



This is what is meant by teaching agriculture in the pub- 

 lic schools, — not teaching the science of agriculture as such, 

 but the developing in the young people a respect for and an 

 interest in their environment, to the end that they may not 

 desert the farms, but, remaining, develop into a new and 

 enthusiastic race of trained farmers, who will bring to this 

 industry interest, energy, business capacity and training, in 

 the same measure as are considered indis})ensable in every 

 other industry. 



This is no fanciful scheme, but one in which tar-seeing 

 educators are already deeply interested. Industrial training 

 in the ])ublic schools is fast being established ; and that 

 [)hase which relates to the rural schools and to rui-al life is 

 the chief educational topic in the middle west, where country 



