ILLINOIS DAIRYMEKS ASSOCIATION. 47 



mulate a stock of information and enthusiasm which they sow broadcast. 

 Some teach by precept, some by example; some by spoken words, others 

 through the printed pages ; but all these influences primarily affect the men 

 and the women. Through the public schools the boys and the girls may be 

 reached. These may and should be provided with a vocabulary that will give 

 them far greater facility in acquiring knowledge than that possessed by their 

 fathers and mothe rs. To do this, they must be retained longer in the schools. 

 The course of study must be so modified that the number of farmers among 

 the graduates will at least be equal to the number of lawyers and physicians. 



In conclusion : I have no harsh criticism for that young man whose am- 

 bition leads him to leave the plow or the workshop, and to seek the labor and 

 emoluments of professional life. My criticism is for that teacher who, per- 

 haps UDconsciously, is taking material that would make first-class farmers 

 and mechanics, and making it up into third-rate doctors and lawyers. My 

 criticism is for a system of public schools, in an agricultural state in the very 

 garden of the world, more than 85 per cent, of whose male graduates become 

 professional or commercial men. My criticism is for such an expenditure of 

 public money as will induce youns: men, who otherwise would have remained 

 in the ranks of the industrial classes, to join the ranks of the professional 

 classes, while the future tillers of the soil are in a degree neglected. 



The exigencies of the times do not demand that the state should expend 

 a portion of its ample resources in coaxing young men to study law, or med- 

 icine, or theology. The exigencies of the times do demand that the toiling 

 masses should be better educated. This will be accomplished when they are 

 made to feel that the schools— higher departments as well as lower— aie for 

 them. 



Let the members of this convpntion on all suitable occasions earnestly 

 request of teaciiers and school officers that a few of the more simple and 

 practical "Tacts in agricultural science be taught in the school room ; let our 

 agricultural press urge this, and the day is not far distant when the schools 

 of this agricultural state will proudly number many intelligent farmers among 

 their graduates. One year at least would be added to the school life of the 

 next generation of farmers. Then would farmers' conventions be more fre- 

 quently held, agricu tural books and papers more generally read, farms would 

 be better tilled, the stock better bred and better cared for, and thousands of 

 dollars added to the material wealth of the state. 



Ma J. Alvord : Permit me, sir, to congratulate this Association upon 

 securing this paper, and this convention upon their fortune in being present 

 to hear an essay so interesting, instructive, and, I think, so important. I 

 cannot conceive, sir, of any subject coming before this convention so fraught 

 with importance to the futur<3 wellfare of this and a'l our other states as the 

 one which has just been so ably presented. I do not believe that any one can 

 carry home from this convention so much good as they can by laying every 

 line and precept of this excellent paper to heart, and by resolving to back it 

 up by all their influence when they get home. I believe that the appropria- 

 tion made by the state of Illinois for this convention will be amply justified 

 by the single fact of having this paper printed in the report of this conven- 

 tion. And I believe the Superintendent of Public Instruction could not do 

 a better or a wiser thing with part of the money at his command than to put 



