INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 219 



which is only possible in the country, with the intel- 

 lectual stimulus which is only possible in the city. But 

 this union of forces can only have healthy and enduring 

 development where a basis of physical stamina is in- 

 sured, and this basis is in the country. Then we must 

 come to the conclusion that whatever tends to make one 

 great division of the human family exclusively brain- 

 workers, and another great division exclusively manual 

 laborers, is producing a false and dangerous condition. 



It is a grave mistake for the farmers of America to 

 concede to the idea that the rural classes are peculiar for 

 lack of ability, or to allow the results of their industry 

 to be valued merely as the product of so much animal 

 exertion ; but, on the contrary, they should emphatically 

 maintain that they represent an intelligent, a dignified 

 occupation. 



It is an error to permit, as we do, the curricula of our 

 institutions of learning, especially of those where the 

 majority of the pupils attending are supposed to become 

 agriculturists, to be almost void of branches which are 

 calculated to create an interest in agriculture, and to 

 ennoble the calling in the minds of the young. 



" As it is at present, in thousands of our country 

 schools, the instruction is wholly apart from the actual 

 life of the scholars. The teaching is a weary round of 

 book studies, and the wealth of practical instruction that 

 is to be gained by a proper consideration of the every- 

 day life and natural surroundings of children is entirely 

 missed. Besides turning the young mind in the direction 

 of agriculture, such instruction in the common schools 

 would tend to increase the inborn love of the soil, and sow 

 the germs of State and national pride and patriotism." ' 



' American Agriculturist, October, 1889. 



