444 Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
the office of a barrister, serve an apprenticeship of seven years, 
assist in the work of the office and learn his trade similar 
in manner as the carpenter and blacksmith learned theirs: there 
were few books, if any, on the subject of the law, and precedents 
had to be established and held in the memory for use as occasion 
demanded them. The law writers that lived before the days of 
Littleton and Lord Coke must have been of little account. But 
by acquiring a good education, the foundation upon which to build 
their legal lore was laid, and by making themselves masters of all the 
sciences, they became a power in the land to which all others were 
compelled to pay tribute. But as I see some legal gentlemen 
present, perhaps I had better take care how I talk about the legal 
profession. 
We might say the same by the clergy; they started in the first 
place, a few poor, illiterate fishermen, and notwithstanding the hue 
and cry that has been raised by an ignorant rabble against an ed¬ 
ucated ministry, see the exalted position they occupy to-day, 
and all because of the high order of their intellectual attainments. 
Now, these things being true, what shall we say of the farmer ? In 
the first place we would advocate the necessity for higher intelli¬ 
gence, in order to secure a proper cultivation of the soil. In the 
next place, we would advise a higher standard of education for 
the teachers of our common schools. It would, in my judgment, 
be well to have two commissioners of education appointed in each 
county, whose duty it should be to assist the county superintend¬ 
ent in the examination and licensing of teachers. Let them be 
appointed by the judge of the circuit court, so as to remove] them 
as far as possible, from all political influence. I would enforce 
compulsory attendance on the public schools, by proper legislative 
enactment, unless it was shown to the proper authorities that the 
pupil had attended a private school of a standing equal with the 
public school, for the time specified by law. I would have estab¬ 
lished in each township containing a given number of inhabitants, 
a union school district, centrally located, with a high school de¬ 
partment, and would cause to be elected 'at the expense of the 
town, and within convenient distance of the school building, 
stabling, sufficient so that all who desired could come with teams 
and be properly accommodated; for in these days of railroads, 
