tables and shelves. It is every farmer's duty to watch these matters, and if the surroundings and property are neglected, he should remonstrate with the di

rector.

The surroundings should be as inviting as possible. A clean yard, with a neat walk from the road to the door. At the road end, scrapers, as it cannot be expected to have a clean school house unless the children have proper means to get the mud from their shoes. It is not very inviting for teachers and pupils to wade through mud up to the entrance. It seems almost useless to attempt to educate under such circumstances. The children should see neatness and thoroughness in all things connected with the school house and yard. All things should be inviting, not in slipshod condition. Such is not in keeping with a thorough education.

With the common schools only (where parties are not able to give further education) we have sufficient to give help to our boys and girls.

My brother farmers, let us see to it, one and all, that we make the best use of our common school system.

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM TO THE FARMER.

By PROFESSOR P. O. ROBINSON.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Plain City, Madison county, December 4 and 5, 1896.]

In this age of books, newspapers and public discussions, it is difficult to say anything new. A new idea is received by the world with almost as much rejoicing as the development of a hidden mine, or the discovery of an unknown land; but in discussing such old subjects as education and agriculture, the difficulty of presenting new material is increased many fold, for the subjects are as old as the historic world itself. In every country, the first people to emerge from the darkness of antiquity were farmers, and one of the first instincts implanted in their breasts was progress; this demanded education and ever since that time the most learned men of all ages have thoroughly discussed both subjects. Socrates and Plato, the Roman sages, the savants of the dark centuries and the learned doctors of modern times have not only approached them separately from every conceivable side, but have discussed them in their relation to each other; everything which can be said seems to have been said; originality in presenting old thought is well nigh impossible; and, indeed, in this paper it has not been attempted; it has merely been the endeavor of the writer in stating a few things which all of us feel to be true, but which many of us fail to put in tangible or definite form, to make up for the lack of profundity and originality by earnestness.

The subject has been divided into three main parts as follows: how our educational system is an advantage to the farmer on the farm, how it is an advantage to him as a citizen, and how these advantages may be increased.

Let us see how it aids the farmer on the farm. First, it enables him to take advantage of the elements. Who, for example, is more vitally affected by the winds than the farmer? Who, then, should be more familiar with the cause and action of the winds? Who is more interested in the change of seasons? Who, then, should be better acquainted with the cause of such change and the movements of the heavenly bodies. Who is so concerned about the chemical ingredients of the soil and of the products raised on it; about the properties of plants and their power of producing muscle or fat? Who, then, should be better informed in chemistry and botany?

Facts learned from the study of chemistry and kindred subjects are of more use to the man who farms than to any other man on the face of the earth; they are the laws of nature, with which he is in closer contact than those who are in other professions.

The scientific advance in agriculture during the last century proves this. By the aid of scientific investigation the fertility of the soil is not only regulated by the application of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, but its productive capacity has been immensely increased. "The cost of producing milk and butter has been materially changed in the last twenty-five years by scientific methods; it is possible to so adjust the food of poultry as to increase the number of eggs laid in the winter months when prices are the highest." The comparative values of hay, oats, corn and wheat as food for animals has been determined with the utmost exactness and by scientific sanitary methods diseases among animals have been enormously decreased. It is education, under the name of science, that has done all this, and her work has but begun; touching as yet but the outskirts of agriculture, she stands before a great undiscovered realm, splendid with brilliant prospects, beckoning to the student with truths yet unknown, and methods yet unused. If education fosters ambition, then let the farmer educate his children; for in no other profession are there such bright hopes of that ambition being satisfied.

If all this seems vague and ideal make it real by asking yourselves if it would be of any advantage to you to know the chemical ingredients of each of your fields, to know the exact amount each product takes from the land and how it may best be replaced; to know, for example, how the different varieties of wheat affect the soil; to know the exact relation in price and food value of corn, wheat, oats and millet; to be thoroughly familiar with the germs of disease and the best method of their destruction. Would not this be of value? Then, since it is only through education, systematic and thorough, that these things may be known, educate the farmers' children that they may enjoy one of the greatest advantages of the American educational system.

The second advantage of this system to the farmer on the farm is found in the fact that it enables him to meet, upon an equal footing, the people with whom he comes in contact. The average American farmer is perhaps not much better educated than the average American artisan; yet he is not only clothed with much more dignity, but he holds a much more exalted position in society, why? Because he is a property owner, a landed proprietor. Caucasian peoples ever since the time they lived as barbarians, when they made war and drank blood from the skulls of their enemies, have regarded the owner of land with significant respect. That trait of our ancestors runs strongly in our veins; we look upon the farmers as not only forming a distinct class, but, as land owners, perhaps a little above other classes. The farmer handles larger sums of money at one time than the skilled laborer, who is perhaps his equal socially. He makes contracts and transacts business involving larger amounts than any other class of people with equal incomes. Since, in the variety of his business he is brought in contact with all classes of people, in order to meet them upon an equal footing, he must be educated. Although this may seem a trifling point, such is not the case as is proven by the history of the peasantry of England. Two hundred years ago the yeomanry of England, living upon small farms and owning them, formed the most independent as well as the most conservative part of the population. It was these yeomen who formed the bulwark of English liberty; it was before them that the mighty armies of Louis XIV went down in defeat. Now all this is changed; there are few small farms in England; the English yeoman has disappeared, and while his little farm now forms part of the great entailed estates of the English barons, he has been forced down into the ranks of day laborers on the farm or in the factory. Henry Adams, one of the most famous political economists of this country, declares that the greatest cause of

this retrogression was the lack of education of the English farmer. While the American farmer, with his accute interest in educational affairs, scarcely has that to fear; yet he should realize that that very freedom from such a fear is one of the blessings of our school system; he should realize, too, that, if the coming generation of farmers-his boys-are not to be pushed down just as his English brothers have been in the last two centuries, the district school must be kept fully up to the times. The hard headed business man may sneer, but with equal brain power, equal health and equal opportunities, the educated man will come out ahead every time. The next advantage to the farmer is that it makes the profession more honorable. Educate the farmer; make him the equal in that respect of the lawyer, the doctor, or any other professional man, and we will hear the last of the appalling migration of energetic, ambitious country boys to the city. There is no other reason in the world for the most ambitious youths choosing a professional life instead of a career on the farm, than that the educational standard of the former is higher than the latter. The average income of the farmer is equal, if not greater than the average income of the professional man; his importance to the community is even greater, so that there is no reason why his social and political position should not be as high. In fact, the American farmer has in himself everything to satisfy the most lofty ambition. Give the farmer an education in the higher branches; sprinkle more college men on the farms of the country and the agricultural profession would at once rise to such a dignity that we should no longer hear of bright boys going to the city to seek careers; it would be rather the ambitious city lad seeking his future in the country.

Now, before passing to the second division of my subject, let me recapitulate. The educational system of Ohio is of practical value to the farmer, because it enables him to use the laws of nature intelligently; because it enables him to meet on an equal basis the many classes of people with whom he comes in contact, and because it makes his profession the equal in honor and dignity to any in the world.

Now, let us consider the advantage which it is to the farmer as a citizen. First, it is of vital advantage to him politically. As our great cities grow in size, as the teeming population is crowded more and more into smaller space, it becomes easier for politicians to control a large number of votes. One man has controlled over one hundred thousand votes in New York City and Brooklyn; but did anyone ever control one hundred thousand farmers' votes, or ten thousand, or five thousand, or even five hundred? The truth is, that since they compose the most conservative and least corruptible class of citizens, the hope of a Republican form of government 1ests with the American farmer. If, then, his responsibility is so great, the educational system, in order that he may be able to fulfill his political duties as an intelligent citizen, is not only an advantage to him, but is a vital necessity. There is yet another way in which a good education assists to make the American farmer a better citizen. It enables him to live a broader and more complete life. It is the wish of the writer neither to encroach upon the pulpit, nor to make a trite sermon out of a dull essay; but there is more in this life than dollars and cents. The man who has enough to eat, is warmly clad and comfortably sheltered, is not necessarily getting the most out of life. We have boys under twenty-one years of age who have lived longer and more complete lives than many men of three score years. Russel Conwell's decla ration that "he who thinks most lives most," is as true of the farmer as of any other class of people. It does mean something to appreciate art and literature; it does mean something to be in close touch with other professions; it does mean something to be a small yet potent factor in the influences that cause the world to advance. All this comes through education alone. If we were asked to pick from any community the most successful farmers, would we choose the most wealthy? Not necessarily. In fact, in most cases, they could not be taken even among the first

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We would choose those whose homes are built upon the broad principle that life is only complete when they and their families come in touch with all the best and brightest things of this world.

This brings us to the third division of the subject-how may these educational advantages be increased? First, let there be increased care and responsibility in the employment of teachers. The little red brick school house may be the corner stone of the Republic, but, in nine cases out of ten, the little woman who reigns supreme there shapes that corner stone according to her own sweet will. During school months the teacher is in much closer contact with the child than the parents. Then let the man who employs the teacher take into consideration that all holding teachers' certificates are not of equal value as teachers, even if their certificates bear the same grade and cover the same length of time; let him remember, too, that while the examiner's report is, to a certain extent, a certificate of moral character, it does not certify that the bearer has the power of developing moral character in others; that while it certifies that the bearer knows enough to teach, it does not say that he is able to impart that knowledge to others, and the latter is just as necessary a quality in a teacher as the former.

Secondly, let there be an increased use by farmers' children of high schools and academies. The older generation, no doubt, fails to rightly estimate the progress of the present. Many persons here to-night can remember that in their school days reading, writing and arithmetic were the sum total of what was taught in the schoolroom. Since, with those branches, they were as well educated as others around them, those were all that were required. That time has passed. To-day, he who has a college education is no higher, relatively, than he who, forty years ago, had a high school training; while the high school graduate now is no higher above his fellows than the one who, forty years ago, had a fair training in the district school. If you propose to confine your children to the district school, then you are not giving them as good an educational start as you received. High schools and academies are within the reach of all, and the farmer who spends one hundred dollars in sending children to one of these is making a far better investment than five hundred dollars would be in tile ditches or hay barns.

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The third means by which the advantages of our educational system to farmer may be increased, is by the establishment of libraries in the district schools. Farmers, have your school houses libraries in them? The town schools have; and in them the children of the towns are not only coming in contact with the greatest men and women of all time, but are developing power oi mind and traits of charac ter that will place them far ahead of your children, if they are not given the same opportunities. If I were judge, and were compelled to decide which could best spared, the teacher or the library, I should hesitate long before saying the library

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In this age of books, thirty dollars in the hands of an intelligent and experi enced person will purchase a splendidly equipped library-one which will bri 11g within the reach of your children realms in history, science and art of which they never before dreamed. Ten dollars for three successive years will do it, and the books will be of far more value to the schools than the charts and expensive apa

ratus with which you so liberally provide them.

These are the three ways I would humbly suggest as means toward the desired end-increased care in employing teachers, increased use of high schools and colleges, and the establishment of a library in each district school. Let the boys and girls from the farms have the same opportunities as other children have, and the American farms will continue to give to the nation its Jeffersons and Jacksons, Websters and Clays, its Lincolns, its Grants, and its Garfields.

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THE EDUCATION OF THE HANDS.

By KATIE E. DU MARESQ, Delta, O.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Delta, Fulton county, January 8 and 9, 1897.] The ancient Greeks made every other object secondary to the cultivation of p.ysical beauty and perfection, while we in this generation are in danger of going to another extreme-the cultivation of the head only. Not less mental culture is to be desired, but a more perfect combination with the practical; a more thorough willingness to perform the duties which go hand in hand with the intellectual privileges. It is said that “figures don't lie," and while this proverb may not be applicable to all statements, as a rule we do respect painstaking calculations, though they do not convey to our minds pleasant truths when they show us how few children get a genuinely healthy, practical home training to supplement the intellectual training received at school; the former making the latter available to them and thereby elevating them to a higher plane of real usefulness and intelligence. Heads, hearts and hands seems to be the order in which these subjects of importance are placed and, of such absorbing interest are the first two, that the last seems to receive less and less attention. We have all with one accord come to consider the education of the hands quite unnecessary, if not rather beneath us; that, "the every day duties of life come natural to the girls," and, "if the boys receive a good intellectual education they can do anything,” forgetful that they have only reached the "commencement" of anything as a specialty, when they graduate, and, far too many, have not even decided upon their future calling. It is also a fact that a large majority of the boys of our great middle class, by the time they have completed an expensive course, have exhausted their resources, and so have neither time nor means for the thorough mastery of the tedious and difficult technicalities of a successful profession; practically they have not even an errand boy's or delivery man's idea of the systems of business or trade, and neither the eye, the hand, the muscle nor, last but not least, the will for the farm. But if all other plans disappoint us, either temporarily or otherwise, the hands always come to our relief, and experience is one of the best and most thorough of teachers. What other members of our human organism respond so quickly, so willingly, and so usefully to training as the hands, and yet, with all their marvellous, latent powers, we do not give them even common attention in our educational plans? Is it not high time that they receive a more honorable place in our standard of culture? In former days the smallest children were taught to use their hands, but now we seem to forget that they need educating in any mechanical and industrial arts. A careful and indulgent mother says, "I would like to have my children handy and willing to be useful, for they are really worth so much more to themselves, but I do not know when they are to find the time to learn, except in the long vacation and they need those months for recreation. They lay aside their books and just rest and amuse themselves." The rest and amusement are necessary, but recreation is far more restful if judiciously compounded with useful occupation. To the child, as to the adult after a time, even amusement becomes tiresome in the proportion in which it is sought as an object. Later in the conversation the same mother remarked that she was "always thankful when the school year began, for the children were so tired of doing nothing, so restless and mischievous that she hardly knew what to do with them." That mother did not seem to think of giving those active hands something suitable to do and thus provide them with an object upon which to spend a part of their time and lavish their enthusiasm. Many of our young girls are actually unable to use a needle in the plainest kind of sewing until, perhaps, it becomes the fad to take lessons in the art of embroidery. Of how much greater value would those lessons be if afew hours