The Church and School 19 



all matter of public record, if any one wishes 

 to inform himself. You may or may not have 

 knowledge of this, but it is not a local phase. 

 It is my firm belief that this is the situation in 

 other 'abandoned farm' districts if the truth 

 were known. 



"Much the same thing can be said of the 

 schools. You will not agree with me, but 



after spending some years in L , and 



having been reared in a family of teachers, 

 I am convinced that the schools also are often 

 'abandoned.' School officers may be too busy 

 working their own farms and interests. They 

 often have not the first idea of broad policy 

 or even worthy public duty. I am not sure 

 but that the farm might produce men of bet- 

 ter caliber if we could ever get rid of the 

 theory that grammar is more important than 

 death or taxes. No close study of the town of 



L is needed to note the marked mental 



degeneracy of its younger members against 

 the earlier men. 



"And Agriculture? Well, no one ever built 

 a church or school for agriculture. The silence 



