SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION ill 



from the lowest to the highest, in which the study of books is 

 closely joined with training for some of the practical arts of life ; 

 in which all practical training is kept in vital touch with general 

 education; in which the abiHty to form sound and stable judg- 

 ment is sought throughout as a thing of very great price; in 

 which the higher schools send into the lower schools an unbroken 

 succession of teachers who both know the truth and are able to 

 bring others to a knowledge of the truth; and in which, finally, 

 the stream of knowledge fresh and new, from some department 

 of pure research, shall never fail to keep fresh and bright the old 

 wisdom of the ages gone before. Or, in more concrete state- 

 ment, our elementary schools and high schools in country com- 

 munities are still to be primarily schools of general education, 

 but with much more of training in the arts of the farm, and the 

 sciences lying near to those arts ; our state colleges of agriculture 

 and mechanic arts are to prepare young men and young women 

 to read intelligently the literature of scientific agriculture, to 

 form independent judgments in agricultural matters, and to 

 bring their new knowledge into connection with the real work 

 of the farm; these state colleges, moreover, are to provide well- 

 trained teachers of agriculture and related subjects for the 

 elementary and secondary schools; the colleges of agriculture, 

 still further, are to be co-operative educational institutions and 

 not merely special and local institutions — they are to co-operate 

 with similar institutions in other states, in order that the work 

 of one may be strengthened by the work of all, and co-operate 

 with the universities of their several states for the innumerable 

 advantages to both which may come from such united effort. 

 The National Department of Agriculture is undoubtedly to 

 continue its remarkably wide and influential work, its expert 

 investigations, the issuance of manifold and vastly useful pubH- 

 cations, and its furtherance of all manner of agricultural educa- 

 tion and research in the several states. Finally, the Bureau of 

 Education is to do as thoroughly as possible the part of this work 



