The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-10-06

Ietu IHe EllZaDetnan writers ana earl
Ter poets when a boy of Is, and it is
impossible today to quote a line from
Shakespeare that he cannot place.
Chaucer, Beaumont, Keats, Tennyson.
| the English bible-Of these he has
| made life study.
1t is related that in period of relax
alton from court duties in Chicago a
few years ago he was invited to read
paper on one of the plays-''Henry
| the Seventh" This he prepared with
out consulting any book, even the text
of the play, and his paper, which was
printed, abounded in quotations, some
| OF them, pages in length. Judge
Bunn's family is marked by like
culture and Inmate force" to which
he once thought fully ascribed the sue
cess OF men Gin contrast to elements
more specifically and more frequent
~ cited. The sons are lawyers of
note, Charles w. Bum being leading
| counsel for the Northern Pacific Rail-
| road company. Judge Bum sat in the
Legislature OF 1859. He is a most
temperance man, using neither alcohol
or tobacco, and has ever made eXer-
else duty.
Teaching Farming to Children.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Harvey left Saturday for Boston,
where he will learn all he can about
teaching agriculture in the public
schools. This is one of ex-Gov.
Hoard's hobbies and that gentleman is
at the head of this big association.
The last Legislature put Superinten-
dent Harvey to work on this investi-
cation, one of the objects being to re-
lnforce the superintendent income,
which, by an unfortunate constitu-
tional provision, is ridiculously small
and must be increased by this GUS
tOmary legal fiction, though the as
signment to special duties varies from
year to year.
1t will take many years to add agri-
culture to the course of study in our
schools and many doubt it's wisdom
1t is done in Canada, whose school
system is acknowledged superior to
ours. Such instruction cannot we'll be
given in the district (ruraD schools, as
the teachers are incompetent. The
proper place would be in the township
high schools, but of these there are
only four in the state Zone in Dane
county, Windsor). 1t is such schools
it is hoped to build up by inducing
country schools to combine their ener-
gies. Instead of supporting feeble
groups of perhaps a dozen pupils the
pupils of the eight or ten schools in
a town will be maSSed i'll one fine
building, with high school course at
tached, and to this centrally located
building the children are to be trans
ported from their farm homes at pub
lie expense. In such schools. under
teachers who have studied farming"
at the nOrmals, children might with
profit use a text book. Farming is at
the basis of our industries and wealth.
Some argue that if farming is taught,
why not shOemaking and watch-re-
pairing? But the analogy of agricul-
ture is allied to manual training; and
whatever occupation a boy elects, he
can study plant culture, crop statistics
and the marvellous doings Of nature on
the soil to great advantage.
How Some Farmers Were Convinced.
There are a number of textbooks,
the best of them being "Practical Ag-
riculture," by Prof. Chas. G. James,
deputy minister of agriculture for On
tariO. Cornell university has also
issued one. Prof. Golf of Madison.
has written a textbook, more adapted
to agricultural schools proper; and, of
course, there are libraries of books
dealing with branches Of the subject
Prof. Henry'S big work on Feed and
Feeding" was adroitly used by the ed
ucatiOnal authorities to properly en-
thuse Grant county township, which
did not take kindly to the compulsory
library law. The town said it didn't
want no library" The story is that
the county superintendent issued an
order for all his teachers in that town
to get Henry'S book and then he wrote
individually to the teachers telling
what farmer in his or her particular
district to send the book to. The
county superintendent knew all the
farmers and soon he had them all dis
putting and quoting and practicing the
book on their COWS. The book tells
how to get the most milk or beef for
the least outlay of feed. 1t is crammed
with fascinating experiments of lock-
ing up bunch of sheep or hogs for
so many days, feeding them just so,
and selling them for so much. Nat
urally the farmers wanted to know
how the marvel book happened to get
into town, and when they learned it
was a part of the deSpised and re-
jected school library for which a GER
tain part of their taxes were set aside,
they changed their tune The town
ship $50 the story runs became one Of
the hottest library towns in the state.
An Anti-Pass Poem.
There have been some good things
written of the death of the free-pass,
but the blue ribbon rests easily on the
following poem. 1t is from the pen
of a district attorney down Lafayette
way and has never before seen print.
That jolly good fellow, President
Stuyvesant Fish, of the Illinois Cen
trail, is said to have laughed the ball
bearings off his revolving chair when
he received it. The pass was returned,
with the obituary written on mourn
ing paper:
DIED-In Wisconsin, May Is, 1899,
of acute spasmodic reform (of it's STEP
mother, the legislature of wisconsin,.
Annual pass No. - Aged 5 months, 10
DAYS