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discouraged mothers, and their mental feebleness unfits them 

 to command advantages which the world offers. But the 

 greatest obstacle is a want of proper instruction, the want of 

 some elementary training in the principles of science to afford 

 a foothold for independent investigation and self culture. The 

 whole theory of agricultural education is based on the idea 

 that farmers' boys and the young men must be educated by 

 attending some agricultural college, so called, for a term of 

 years ; but the farmers themselves, the real workers in the 

 field, may be left to obtain light and help from the profitless 

 disputes and endless discussions, common in farmers' clubs 

 and institutes. This is manifestly all wrong, and I am cer- 

 tain, gentlemen, you will sustain me in so judging. It is an 

 erroneous view that men in middle life, and those further 

 advanced, are incapable or not willing to be instructed 

 accurately in those branches of scientific knowledge which 

 give to modern husbandry all its important advantages. The 

 young men may attend the agricultural colleges, or any other 

 institutions of learning, and be greatly benefitted by a pro- 

 longed course of study, but we need another kind of college — 

 2i. farmer'' s colleg-e, where the practical workers can be gradu- 

 ated without diplomas, at the end of a brief course of instruc- 

 tion extending over a few days or weeks. 



The language of science and its methods seem to most as 

 unintelligible and very difficult to be learned. It is so to a cer- 

 tain extent, but abstract science need not belearned. It would 

 be absurd to attempt to teach a middle-aged workingman fully 

 regarding chemical symbols and formulas, but you can teach 

 him how to estimate the money value of a fertilizing com- 

 pound offered for sale in the markets. How few the purchasers 

 who are competent to sit down in a store before a bag of that 



