116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the same rate of compensation that the required degree of 

 preparation and experience would command in other call- 

 ings, all difficulties will be not solved but put in the way 

 of a prompt and satisfactory solution. 



I Avould not have this kind of instruction take the place of 

 other necessary subjects, but interweave and incorporate it 

 with them. I would especially have the child's mind early 

 familarized with the great masterpieces of literature which are 

 among the most precious possessions of the race, and I would 

 raise his sense of the beaut}^ and attractiveness of rural life 

 and rural homes, and kindle in his breast a nol)le pride and 

 enthusiasm, by showing him that the greatest masters have 

 always kept closest to the heart of nature. Such instruction 

 and such influences, though mentioned here with special 

 reference to the formation of a basis for the broadest and 

 most advanced agricultural education, are equally desirable, 

 nay, more, are indispensable as the sound basis of all educa- 

 tion. I merely emphasize the fact that the natural sur- 

 roundings of children in the rural communities give them an 

 immense advantage to start with, whatever is to be their 

 subsequent calling in life. 



It may be interesting at this point, by way of illustration, 

 to present a skeleton outline of the facilities provided by 

 the French government for agricultural education in all its 

 phases from the lowest to the highest. The statement has 

 kindly been furnished to me by President Goodell of Am- 

 herst, translated from a recent French document : — 



A true polytechnic school of agriculture ; a national school 

 of forestry ; four secondary schools of sylviculture ; three 

 national schools of agriculture ; three national veterinary 

 schools ; one national school of horticulture ; one national 

 dairy school ; two national schools of agricultural industries ; 

 sixteen farm schools, intended for farmers and superin- 

 tendents ; forty-one agricultural orphan schools ; two model 

 sheepfolds ; a school of horse breeding ; tifty-one practical 

 schools of agriculture, viticulture, drainage, irrigation^ 

 cheese making ; a large number of professors of agriculture, 

 whom you might term itinerant instructors ; sixty-two agri- 

 cultural stations and laboratories ; several thousand fields of 

 demonstration ; twelve hundred subsidized associations ; 



