Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-19

ton with it. To be successful it must
be surrounded by enough OF a farm
to give it a rural flavor. As a rule
these secondary schools are doing
their work well. They have ruth
lessly cut out the classics and the dead
languages. They have substituted
studies that help to fit the boys and
girls for life on the farm. large
share of the study Of books is done
away with and the study Of living
things substituted. The schools are
well equipped with laboratories. The
student works with corn. scoring,
placing and testing. Judging corn is
as fascinating a game as ever a boy
engaged in. Even more interesting is
the stock judging.
Few of the schools can afford to
keep a complete line Of live stock.
but neighboring farmers are always
ready to supply the deficiency. Then
there are the machinery laboratories.
where the boys learn some of the
simpler principles of echanics as APP
piled to farm machinery. 1t puts
boy on his mettle to be turned loose
on a pile of castings and told to put
them together to form binder. The
intricacies OF a gasoline engine keep
him working after hours. The study
Of the growth of plants takes the place
of the study of classified botany. The
boy learns the names of the different
weeds and how to tell their seeds
apart He learns their habits and the
best ways of combating them. He
makes a collection of insects and
learns which ones are harmful and
which innocent.
He is dealing with life. the kind of
life that he has known ever. since he
was old enough TO know anything.
At last he is learning the answers to
that big ''why" that has bothered him
ever since he could walk. He has
found the education that is suited to
his needs and his inclinations. 1t is
an education in the ways of nature
rather than in the ways of man. 1t is
an education that is fitting him TO live
best the life that he knows most
about.
He may not care much about col
lege His mind may falter at -.
metrical propositions and Quadratic
equations But he can understand the
proposition of soil fertility and crop
rotation He can work out the eQua-
ton of profit and loss in raising calves.
The greatest mission of any form of
education is to teach people how to
live. Not only must it teach them how
to live well, but it will be successful
directly in proportion to the number it
reaches. The professional colleges have
had to encompass themselves with Sc
we're restrictions in order that their
professions might not become over
crowded With agricultural education
there is no such fear
The danger is not in getting too
much. The problem is to get enough.
agricultural education has
been phenomenally successful because
it teaches people the things they want
to know. They do not take such edu-
cation on the general theory that it
is good for them. They can see for
themselves that it is good. They can
see 1t in the increased corn yields
grown by the boys who have been
graduated from such a school to the
farm. They can see 1t from the i'm
proved stock that takes the place of
the bony specimens with which he
once would have been satisfied. They
can see it in the pride with which he
keeps up his fences and yards.
The girl is given almost as large q
place in the secondary school as the
boy. She is taught the art and the
science of homemaking. She gets a