ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. lOI 



herbivorous animals) is the subject of brief mention, or, per- 

 haps is entirely neglected. 



Does the pupil study botany? He will learn to define 

 a few score of technical terms ; he will become somewhat 

 familiar with the binomial system of nomenclature ; he will 

 perhaps, analyze a few flowers and learn to speak their 

 botanical names. All this is useful information, and very 

 proper in its place ; but why omit that part of botany which 

 would be of most value to the agriculturist? The student 

 is brought face to face with pretty wild flovv^ers. He learns 

 to recognize fifty or sixty of them, and — he has "completed 

 botany," and triumiphantly passes his *' first examination " 

 in the study. (Indeed, this is much more than is done in 

 many schools.) 



He has finished the study, but he cannot tell " a red 

 oak from a white oak," '' a hard maple from a soft maple," 

 "a hickory from a bitternut," *'a black walnut from a butter- 

 nut," "a bass-wood from an ash," unless he learned it at 

 home on the farm. The pupil has completed the study, but 

 his attention has never been directed to the different species 

 of weeds in the garden, or to the different kinds of grasses 

 that are used for fgrage. H^e cannot tell a red clover leaf 

 from a white clover leaf if they are alike in respect to size, 

 nor does he know whether red clover is a biennial or a per- 

 ennial. 



As with chemistry or botany, so with other studies. 



" Professionalmen " have, for the most part, arranged 

 our text-books and our courses of study, and it is by no 

 means surprising that we find therein just those branches 

 and methods which are best calculated to fit the student for 

 professional life. 



What will modern high school education do for the 

 farmer ? I repeat, it will make a " professional man " of 

 him ; and the figures are not wanting to prove this asser- 

 tion. 



Of the twelve and one-half millions of people, in the 

 United States engaged in gainful and reputable occupations, 

 not far from 3 per cent, are engaged in professional ser- 

 vices. 



Perhaps it is safe to say that the lawyers, the phy- 

 sicians, the teachers, the clergymen, the journalists, the 

 artists, and the land surveyors, constitute something less 



