136 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



ment of life, as well as by the study of the roots of Greek verbs and Latin 

 derivations. 



One year ago, between Christmas and New Year's day, a gentleman 

 representing the State Horticultural Society, appeared before a conven- 

 tion of the County Superintendents of schools of Illinois, and proposed 

 that an effort be made to introduce into the rural school studies pertain- 

 ing to agriculture and horticulture. The proposition was received with 

 a coolness and indifference which indicated that this body of school 

 superintendents had no faith that anything of the kind could be done. 

 This year the same gentleman, representing the same Horticultural So- 

 ciety, again appeared before the same convention of County Superintend- 

 ents with a like proposition, and it was received with applause and ex- 

 pressions of approval and the belief that it was not only possible, but 

 desirable that studies pertaining to nature and the farm and the products 

 of the farm should be introduced into the rural schools. This is en- 

 couraging. It shows that there is an awakening in educational circles 

 along practical lines and that the school superintendents are inhaling 

 the spirit of progress that is in the air. 



Last week. President Hadley of Yale, in addressing the convocation 

 of the University of Chicago, is reported to have deplored the low stand- 

 ard of commercial morality in the United States, and appealed to those 

 interested in the higher education for the development of a higher 

 standard of commercial and political morality. This too, is encouraging. 

 When our educators in the primary and rural schools begin the work of 

 character building by putting the little children in touch with the great 

 warm heart of nature, inculcating at the same time the idea of service; 

 service to family, to fellow men and country as the noblest ambition of 

 life and the sole aim of education, and emphasize this idea by training 

 in the schools, the hands and minds to some employment, and when uni- 

 versities and colleges turn out as graduates only men and women who 

 are imbued with the idea of service and who are close in thought and in- 

 spiration to the God of nature, and who are so established in the ethics 

 taught in the sermon of the mount, that their influence will be felt in 



