156 The State and the Farmer 



reach out and take in the essentials. Then 

 training by means of agriculture will take its 

 rightful place as a part of a normal and natural 

 school system, by which all the people every- 

 where — and not alone in some isolated school 

 — may benefit. Education by means of agricul- 

 ture is public education. 



And the separate agricultural schools? Well, 

 we may prophesy from the experience of the 

 separate agricultural colleges. These separate 

 schools will be wonderfully effective, so far as 

 they are in the hands of men who are not tied 

 to old points of view. For some years they 

 will hold the leadership. They will develop 

 public sentiment. They should always remain 

 most effective agents for certain kinds of 

 teaching. But they will always be more or less 

 special schools. They will not satisfy all the 

 needs for school training by means of agricul- 

 ture. There will be some states and localities 

 that will not establish them, and these locali- 

 ties will be considered to be behind the times. 

 Moreover, such isolated schools are likely in 

 the long run to deaden initiative in the many 



