264 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



When every oilier art and science shall have been thought and 

 wrought out to its utmost limit, the science and practice of agriculture 

 will still present boundless unexplored fields for work and research and 

 reward, wherein every faculty of mind and body with which man is en- 

 dowed may find the fullest, the most satisfying, the most inspiring exer- 

 cise and employment. 



Do not misunderstand me, I say nothing against our schools. They 

 are good. They do theirwork w ell. That such a system of public and 

 private schools as ours with its mighty teaching force and its vast ma- 

 terial equipment should have been evolved in so short a period of time, is 

 a ma::er to excite our wonder and to compel our highest admiration. 



For zeal, for self-sacrificing, for untiring labors in behalf of our youth, 

 that they may become intelligent worthy men and women and patriotic 

 citizens. I say of our whole great army of teachers, from the presidents 

 of our universities and colleges t the humbler but not less useful dis- 

 trict school teachers, there live no better, nobler, more helpful men and 

 women than they. 



But just as earnestly I say that our schools and our school teachers 

 have been nearly all looking one way, and that way has been away from 

 the farm. Is it anybody's fault? No; it is everybody's fault. It is the 

 colossal fault of our time and cur generation, to underestimate the 

 dignity, the beauty, the profit, and the honor of farming and farm life. 



This strong attitude of our schools toward agriculture has of course 

 tended strongly to draw young people from farm life to professional life. 

 The schools have been turning out too many doctors, too many lawyers, 

 too many professors; there is no need for them all, but they have been 

 taken too often from the farm where there is need of them. The pro- 

 fessors have rather the best of it because they go on helping to turn out 

 more doctors and more lavryers and more professors. 



To say the so-called learned professions are full, pressed down, and 

 running over, is only hinting of their actual condition. 



Something over a year ago I read in a Chicago paper an account of 

 graduating exercises which took place at Chicago University. Let me 



