Judgment-Weights of horses, cattle, hogs; live weight and dressed weight. Language and History-Goldsmith's Maid, Manley, Miles, Messenger. Churning, cutting rafters, soldering, saw filing.

Our young people must be convinced that brains are as valuable to the farmer as they are to the teacher or preacher. The applied value of every subject taught in our schools should be made as apparent as its scholastic value. The young people should be made to see that all honest labor is honorable, and that, to make it pleasurable, the heart and the intellect must be in the work. When head, heart and hand work together, no matter what may be the vocation, the days are never too long. In one of the best counties in the State I learn that the farmers have adopted the eight hour plan-they work eight hours in the forenoon and eight hours in the afternoon. Indeed I doubt not that the most successful men before me have followed this plan for many years.

The curse of the world is not long hours; it is joyless labor, and joyless labor is transmuted into joyful labor when the mind and body work together for the attainment of some worthy aim. The "man with the hoe" is not an object of pity. He is not of necessity a specimen of degeneration, or of arrested development. The man with the hoe may be a happy, growing, self cultured man. This he will be if he hoes with his head and with his heart as well as with his hands.

But we are confronted with a condition, not merely with a theory. The boys who expect to go back to the farm leave school before their own intellectual needs become apparent to them-before they are able to read intelligently the bulletins that are issued from time to time from our experiment stations. They have been doing this in years past; they are doing it What may we do to prevent it? I answer, teachers must be so trained that they themselves will be able to see the relation of the school work to the life work on the farm. Who shall do this?

now.

There are now four normal schools in this State, costing the tax payers annually about $200,000. In the act of the General Assembly establishing the first free public normal school in this State occur these words: "The objects of the said normal university shall be to qualify teachers for the common schools of this State, by imparting instruction in the art of teaching and all branches of study which pertain to a common school education, in the elements of the natural sciences, including agricultural chemistry and animal and vegetable physiology."

Why not demand of the normal schools in this State (if such a demand be necessary) that specific work shall be done in "agricultural chemistry and animal and vegetable physiology," in accordance with the spirit and letter of the law that brought these schools into existence?

A move in this direction is already being made. I know from his address at the dedicatory exercises of the Eastern Normal school, that the late Governor Tanner approved of such a course. I have reason to believe that it will be favored by Governor Yates. I know from many personal interviews that such work in the normal schools would meet the hearty approval of Honorable Alfred Bayliss, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. To make it all the more effective it should receive the unqualified stamp of approval from the farmers of this Congressional district. Let those in authority understand that you expect the graduates of our State normal schools to be fully prepared to give elementary instruction in these branches, which touch so closely, and at so many points, the life work of large numbers of the citizens and tax-payers of this great agricultural State.

Chemistry of the drug store. Chemistry of the soil and of feeds.

But this is not all: There is a college of agriculture in the very heart of our State. There is a department of pedagogy there, too. Tell me, pray, why there should not be a wedding between these two departments of our State university? Why should not the offspring of this union go out into every county of the State, able to present in the most approved pedagogical manner, to our sons and our daughters, the elements of agricultural science?

A few years ago a large sum of money was appropriated for the college of agriculture. Commodious buildings are completed. The Forty-second General Assembly made appropriations (by far too small) for the advancement of the work at the agricultural college. Additional appropriations will no doubt be made by the Forty-third General Assembly. The farmers should insist that a part of this money should be expended in carrying the gospel of a better agriculture into the rural schools.

One other suggestion: The college of agriculture, it seems to me, should provide short winter courses for the young farmer. It may be presumption on my part even to suggest what ought to be done in one important department of our great universary, officered as it is by the ablest men whose services can be procured for this work. I desire to present this part of my subject, not too positively, and with becoming modesty. I can not escape the fact, however, that hundreds of young men have studied elementary agriculture at Madison, Wis., drawn thither very largely by the advertising that comes through the short winter courses in dairying, in sheep husbandry, in horticulture, and in other kindred topics, that have been provided.

WAGES OF GRADUATES.

I can not overlook the fact, nor is it best that I should attempt to conceal it, that at one time within a few years, more young farmers from Illinois were crossing our northern boundary to avail themselves of the advantages of the agricultural department of the University of Wisconsin and paying tuition therefor, as non-residents, than were attending the agricultural department of our own school at Champaign. I do not wish to say this very loud, and certainly not in a spirit of unfriendly criticism. I recognize the efficiency in most of its departments of the University of Illinois. I am cognizant of its wonderful growth in the last decade, and of its present prosperous condition. But would not the short winter courses, in the various subjects that would especially interest young farmers, result in a greatly increased attendance in the agricultural department, as it has done in Wisconsin? And is not such a result desirable?

The young and ambitious farmer can leave his home for six weeks in the winter and devote the time to study and experiment. If the course is what it ought to be, the next winter, perhaps, he goes back for 12 weeks and takes another young farmer with him. During the remainder of the year he is at his home; but he reads twice as much as he otherwise would have done, and he can not hide his light. His greater interest in agricultural topics is almost certain to result in the organization of the young farmers of his neighborhood, and these organizations will in turn favorably affect the district schools; and the schools will thus be brought into touch with the college of agriculture, and in the course of time will send pupils there-not for the six weeks' course, but for the two years' or the four years' course.

My statement in this connection would be incomplete and unjust did I not say that some work of this kind is being done at Champaign. To some extent "short courses" are offered under another name. The corn growers' and stock men's convention at the University of Illinois, and the stockjudging of the last two winters, have taken many young farmers to the university. It is believed that this movement will in some measure contribute to most desirable results-that it will greatly aid in interesting the young farmers of this State in scientific agriculture.

I state with pleasure, too, that the course of study for the rural schools of Illinois now contains eight pages of outline matter that is agricultural in its bearing. This matter was prepared by Dean Davenport, and will certainly prove of some value. The great difficulty is that but few teachers know how to use it.

It is worthy of mention, too, in this connection, that Mr. C. M. Parker, publisher of School News, is issuing monthly for use in the rural schools most valuable leaflets prepared by Professor Shamel. But such important work as this should not be left to private enterprise. Here, as in New York, these

matters should be pressed upon the attention of the teachers at public expense, to the end that they may in turn be able to help their pupils see the relation of the school work to life on the farm.

But the machinery is in motion. A healthy public sentiment is being created. The farmers' institutes, the conventions, the college of agriculture, the State Department of Public Instruction, the teachers' journals, are each and all contributing to some extent to the dissemination of most valuable agricul tural knowledge. Let the good work go forward, and let every farmer in this congressional district throw his vote and his influence upon the right side of every important question bearing upon this subject.

The needs of the young farmers were never more apparent than now. There are at least 59 agricultural experiment stations in the United States. Employed in these as directors and assistants are many of the best practically scientific men in the country. These stations are sending out hundreds of bulletins, in which may be found most valuable and practical information bearing upon every department of agriculture. The United States department of agriculture issues regularly the Experiment Station Record, 12 volumes having already appeared. These are sold at $1 per volume. Farmers' bulletins are issued by this department, in which the most practical parts of the work done at the experiment stations are presented. These bulletins are distributed gratuitously. You can have them for the asking. But from the very nature of the case many of them are scientific and somewhat technical. If our young farmers are to get the benefit of these publications, they must do such preparatory work as will enable them to understand the language of the scientific and practical men who write these papers. To illustrate: How many of our young men who leave our rural schools and go to the farms, are prepared to understand and apply the information that may be found in this bulletin?

In conclusion, I wish to say that there are two theories of education. These have recently been strikingly presented in an article from the pen of Prof. G. W. Myers of the Chicago institute.

According to the first theory, the man should be so educated that he will be something-that he may live in the enjoyments of the higher intellectual life.

According to the second theory, the man should be so educated that he will do something-engage in useful activities-contribute something of value to community life.

The first theory would have the student get culture for culture's sake— study art for art's sake. It would make its devotees able to recognize, to appreciate, and to enjoy the beautiful and the true in literature and in art.

The second theory would measure its men by the value of their performance-by their ability and willingness to do work that needs to be done. This work may have reference to things material, intellectual, aesthetic, ethical or spiritual.

The first view, says Professor Myers, "makes the consummate flower of education a mental state, in which the consciousness of individual self-sufficiency is unruffled by the struggles and sufferings of the race." It gives a man poise, serenity and contemplative delight."

The second view would make emphatic the statement of the late Governor Russell that "The mission of education is not contemplation, it is service." It would make apparent the profound philosophy in the marvelous paradox, that one must lose his life in order that he may save it.

It is my belief that most of us will be willing, with Professor Myers, to accept the second of the two educational theories; and that we will henceforth regard that man as well educated who earns more than he consumes; who contributes to community life, and to community enjoyment, more than he expends upon himself; and that man as best educated who contributes most to the well-being of the race.

One who consumes more than he earns is a parasite. One who earns more than he consumes is a public benefactor, and this is true, whether he earns

with a spade and lives in a hovel, or earns with a pen and lives in a palace. Hence, there can be no mistake in the advocacy of the idea that the school work should bear close and apparent relations to the life work, and that the aim of education should be efficiency in all relations of life.

"Any man is educated," says Minot J. Savage, "who is so developed and trained that, drop him where you will in the world, he is able to master his circumstances, and deal with the facts of life so as to build up in himself a noble manhood, and be of service to those that are about him. (There can be no noble manhood without service.) That is what education means; that is what it is for."

No matter what may be the nature of the work performed, only that it is valuable work. It may be done in the editorial chair, it may be done in the pulpit, at the bedside of the sick, in the school room, at the throttle of a locomotive, in the store, or on the farm. As William Hawley Smith says, "That man is educated who is onto his job," and who can hold it by virtue of the value of his services. The true worth of a man, be he ditcher or preacher, farmer or mechanic, capitalist or laborer, can only be expressed in terms of service.

Let us educate, then, in the rural school, and everywhere else, for service. Let the relation of the school work to the prospective life work of every pupil be made apparent to him, whatever occupation he proposes to follow. When this is done the school will be equally helpful to all classes of people.

THE BEST THING ON THE FARM IS THE FARMER.

[By Joseph Carter of Champaign.]

Of all the common relations of the farm, the cattle, corn, hogs and various parts and various things, the best thing is the farmer. He has taken the rugged plains, the sickly swamps, and tilled the land; he has rid the land of the snakes and vipers, and killed the disease germs; he has subdued the land, the water, and the air, and it has brought to him health and wealth.

By a farmer I mean one who lives on a farm, whether he tills his crop in two months, or one year, or several years. From the butter-maid to the housekeeper they are all farmers, and they are the people who feed the world.

When they are prosperous, long railroad trains stretch from one end of the country to the other; the ships are burdened with the produce for foreign lands, and the machinery of the factories has a busy hum. If the farmer should stop his work, the ships would rot in the docks and the railroad trains would stand idle in their sheds, the factories would close their doors and the world would go back into a life of desolation and ruin. As Atlas supported the world, so the farmer supports the world.

The leaders of our country were all farmers. Lincoln, the rail-splitter, and the other 26 presidents were all farmers except seven. When the devastation of war was on the country, the men who were at the front were farmers. The battle of Concord, which echoed its fire around the world, was won by the sturdy farmer.

The farmer is the only man who has that true-hearted love for his fellow being, because in him is the only class in the world in which there is equality. That is why men have become great. They were masters over large-hearted men because they had associated with them and had learned to be masters over them.

Then, too, physically the farmer is the strongest in any trial for endurance or strength. Physical instructors all over the country have found the greatest strength has been among those who earn their living in the pure and open air of the country. When a farmer feels sick he goes to work in the field and soon forgets about it, while the city man complains and goes to bed and calls the doctor.

The farmer of today is different from the farmer of 50 years ago. Today he must have business ability in connection with a thorough knowledge of all the seasons, of grains and fruits. Years ago the farmer produced all the food used by his family, made the implements, and there was little or no money exchanged. The farmer of today sells everything, and buys everything which he needs. To be a success he must be a good farmer, a good business man, and a hustler above all things.

A WEAK POINT.

The country schools as now organized are the weakest point in the average farmer's life. The schools should comprise a course in housekeeping and in every branch that is needed to make a successful farmer. They teach everything else but that. They teach them literature and arithmetic. What good will they be to the farmer? Let the little lot in the back of the school be cultivated into a garden, and let the teacher show the pupils from experience the way the vegetables are grown and how to successfully plant and raise them. And let there be planted a little orchard, with plum trees, apple trees, cherry trees, etc. Let the pupils graft and draft and study the nature and habits of the trees. Take the little bug from the tree and study him closely. Find out his nature and dissect him and find out if he is an enemy or a good to the tree.

If it becomes necessary take an extra hour to the day out of the school and take the children into the field where they can see the planting of the corn and the sowing of the oats; tell them about it and let them form an opinion. Take the clover by the roadside and study the nature of the flower, dissect its petals. Get the pupils a book on botany, books on plant breeding, on soil, on milk, on produce, on agriculture, and on farm animals. Teach the little girls the beauty of home and how to feed and clothe the household. When you reform the household you will do more to lift the generation and work reform than any method which has been tried for a century, and yet there is not in all the counties of this State one school which teaches the culture of the homes.

COMPLETE MEN.

The farm is the only place where complete men can be raised. It is the only place where they can from boyhood be trained to work, and if a boy is not trained to work when he is young he will never find work a pleasure. The farmer is the happiest man at work in the whole world and it is because he finds work a pleasure being taught from childhood and in his work he feels himself a free man. Every man on the farm is on an equal. All eat at the same table, sleep in the same house and pray at the same church. When a farmer dies the country people from miles around come to pay their respects. They come in wagons, buggies and carriages, while in the city there is only the few of the near relatives who come with long faces and haul you out to your last resting place. The wish of my life is to die in the country where the good old farmers would come in their wagons with chairs in them for seats and bury me in a plain, pine box which was not made by a trust. When their prayer was offered up, it would sail to my Father in Heaven. I would indeed feel that there was some one who loved old Joe.

Let the children study in the school the things which nature has spread about them. When the first robin of the season chirps at the window of the little school every pupil should have a thrill of delight and jump from their seats in merry glee.

Let the pupil learn of the insect enemies and find the way and means to exterminate them. Tell him of the fly and the mosquito and the chinch bug which has done so much in the late years to ruin the crops of the farmer in this vicinity.

Teach the pupils of the animals on the farm, the cows, horses and sheep. Some who are neither students nor casual observers do not notice the growth of the mind in the animal. When a little colt is born the first thing to do is to make it attached to you and to let it fear nothing. When it is born it will