ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. i 3 ^, 



Books save a man's time and strength, also increase his manhood andl 

 multiply his brain forces. Through books we can have around us the 

 "Wisest counselors, the best teachers, and the most learned scientists, th& 

 most entertaining talkers, and th'3 truest friends. It has been said: "For 

 a thousand men who can speak there is only one who can think; for a 

 thousand men who can think, there is only one who can see." Since 

 then, it is such a great thing in life to have an open vision we need to be. 

 taught how to see. 



Professor Burrill told us at an institute once, in Carrol county, that 

 he had made a trip across the Atlantic; that he had gazed upon the 

 wonders of the great ocean; that he had visited many of the cities of 

 the Old World, both ancient and modern; he had been in lofty and 

 magnificent cathedrals; he had been in the great factories and workshops 

 where are made the most intricate mechanisms of human invention; that 

 he had climbed to the top of lofty mountain peaks and had gazed down, 

 upon the clouds at his feet; he had traveled thousands of miles and met 

 many races of people, but when he returned he found in his own door 

 yard, in the grass beneath his feet, in the insects floating in the air, in 

 the growth and development of life, things that to him were more won- 

 derful and more interesting than any one thing he had seen in all his 

 travels. 



Would that our country schools could do more to open the eyes of the 

 little ones to see the things around them and the relation of these; 

 things to themselves and to their future happiness and prosperity. The 

 blind can not lead the blind. Neither can the teacher instruct along lines; 

 he has not learned. It should be part of the work of the Institute and 

 the Dairymen's Association to create a sentiment in favor of instruction 

 in our Normal schools along those sciences which pertain to and have a 

 bearing on agriculture and that have a tendency to direct thought toward 

 rather than away from the farm. It is true that the fundimental princi- 

 ple of schooling is to teach the pupil to think, to develop the faculties of 

 observation and imagination and acquisition. But can not this be done 

 as well by the study of the roots and plants and trees and the delop- 



