^6 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



agree that the leffitimate work of the public schools is to make men— but let's 

 make a goodly portion of them men who can earn their own living ! 



I wonder if the teachers in this great state keep in mind the fact that for 

 every thousand boys that are, or ought to be, in the public schools, there are 

 to be but four lawyers, four clergymen, five physicians, five teachers, one 

 dentist, and one journalist; and that there are to be five hundred agri- 

 culturists, two hundred and twenty mechanics and miners, and one hundred 

 and twenty that will be engaged in the. various departments of trade and 

 transpor ation. Half the boys to be farmf^rs and the eletuents of agricultural 

 science omitted, or at most not made prominent in the school course ! If 

 chemi try is taught it is thit part nt the science that is of especial import- 

 ance to the scientist, or necessary for the druggist and physician, that receive 

 tbe chief attention. Few pupils in our public schools are aware that there 

 is anything of practical value to the farmer in the science of chemistry. 

 Botany is treated in a similar manner. The farm side of the study is omit- 

 ted. Pupils learn the scientific nam^s of a few pretty wild flowers, but they 

 cannot call by their names the weeds in the corn fields or the grasses in the 

 meadow. The boys who are to cultivate plants, leave school without know- 

 ing how plants are fertilized or varieties produced. They are unable to de- 

 scribe the new weed appearmg on the farm, so that the editor of the agricul- 

 tural paper can recognize it from the description. The boys have learned 

 square root and cube root and are studying algebra, but they cannot measure 

 a corn crib correctly, or estimate the lumber for a hog-house. 



ISince half the boys are to be farmers, it is quite proper that farm science 

 should occupy a prominent place in the school course. Wherever a study 

 touches farm life this should be made apparent to the pupil. Arithmetic, 

 chemistry, philosophy, botany, zoology, and even spelling and reading should 

 be made to lean more towards the farm. Pupils should be taught the chem- 

 istry of milk, of butter, of cheese, of food, of plants, and of soils. They 

 should learn the anatomy, physiology and hygiene of our domestic animals, 

 and something of the history and characteristics of the different breeds. In 

 nearly all our agricultural papers may be found valuable articles upon the 

 science of agriculture. But trje farmers do not read them. The few may do 

 so. The majority read until confronted by such words as " non-nitrogenofls." 

 " carbo-hydrates," '' anchylosis," or '' exostosis," when they quietly fold the 

 paper and put it away or seek some part of it written by a man whose vocab- 

 ulary is no larger than their own. (Pardon me, my friends, I do not mean 

 you, I was speaking of the farmers who never attend conventions ; who 

 churn without using a thermometer, and work their butler in a bowl, and 

 their name is legion ) The next generation will be but little better prepared 

 to avail themselves of the experience of others as found recorded on printed 

 pages, unless something is done to retain longer in school the future far- 

 mers. 



Mr. Dexter is soon to address you upon the " Educational Power of Con- 

 ventions." The theme is an important one. The value as an educational 

 force of the meetings of the Illinois State Dairymen's Association can 

 scarcely be overestimated. Thousands of farmers who have never attended 

 one of our meetings have felt their influence. A large part, indeed, of the 

 work of the Association is in a sense direct. The few who do attend accu- 



