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all there is in him of energy and ability. Other callings have their definite rules or formulas; but here, where every factor of climate, soil, or drainage, every contingency of unfavorable seasons, or of wasting insects, must enter into and form a part of his plans, surely here is a field for all his powers and all his training. The brightest intellects among us find it worthy of them. Governments, State and National, join in the work of solving its problems.

The farm and the home is an educator. I find it difficult to separate them, for to me they are one and the same. It is by the attrition of every day life that we develop that necessary faculty called common sense, and by a daily intercourse with nature and her hidden forces are the gentler virtues fostered and our thoughts led up from Nature to Nature's God.

The domestic animals dependent upon their master for food and care teach him lessons of gentleness and generosity. They watch his movements and greet his coming with a familiar neigh or coaxing bleat, inviting the expected caress and share of food.

And when he turns to the home it is his to find flowers, books, and papers, and the ennobling companionship of woman. Such are the privileges of the farmer's son. The most refined seek his company and share his hospitality. His place in society is whatever one he makes himself worthy to occupy. If he will he may acquire strength, vigor, and wisdom, the great essentials to success in all spheres. His opportunities for mental culture have had no impediments not common to all and if he has applied himself well, making use of what his farm home has afforded him; if he is true to himself and to his God, he will influence society with a wisdom that shall do honor to him and to his calling. Yet more, his possibilities are no more limited than are those of the most learned and honored professions. He may be the peer of the highest. Who can feel more devotion to his country than he who has a home to love, a hearthstone to defend? I quote from Judge Farrars, of Virginia:

"Magnify as you please the laws of the constitution, it is the strong home feeling that gives the potent influence. The man who has a spot on earth where he has planted a tree or his wife has nursed a flower, will in the hour of trial evince a devotion and a heroism that will put to shame the hollow pretensions of all the blatant politicians in the land."

CHAUTAUQUA INFLUENCE ON FARMERS' HOMES.

BY MRS. NAFTZKER.

(Read before the Farmers' Institute, at Monroe, January 23; 1885.)

People are no longer satisfied with simply accepting things as they are because their fathers and grandfathers did. They want to know why, and if there is not a better way. Institutes of the sort we are now attending are an outgrowth of this spirit of inquiry. People believe that in the multitude of counsel there is wisdom, so they meet and compare notes and try to find out the best way for improvement in their various pursuits.

Those who love the good old way necessarily starve the mind to feed the body, and if they are not too utterly tired out evenings to steal a few minutes for reading the weekly county newspaper, they do not really understand half the good things in that from their lack of knowledge concerning history,

science and art; while the progressive farmers of to-day and their families find time without neglecting the proper cultivation of their soil, or care of their stock, to cultivate and feed their own minds, becoming thus not only better farmers, but morally, mentally, spiritually, and financially, better citizens. The same spirit of inquiry which made the time of Pericles known as "the golden age of Greece" is animating the inmates of our American homes all through the country, and may we not be even now entering upon the golden age of America? Our country has been abundantly blessed with colleges and other institutions of learning, but the trouble with the families of farmers has been lack of money and what was still more precious-time. As soon as they were large enough to work, the children were needed on the farm and it took about all the average farmer could make to keep up repairs, and feed and clothe his family, so they generally had to be contented with the advantages afforded by a winter district school until they started homes of their own, when it was the same old story over again. Of course there have always been exceptions. Sometimes the parents feeling the lack of early education themselves were determined that their children should receive the advantages of which they were deprived, at whatever sacrifice to themselves. In other cases a desire for something higher and better than their lives afforded, would induce individual members of a family to push out into the world, fighting poverty until they had accomplished their object and become educated and powerful men and women. Such self-made people we respect and honor for their perseverance and pluck; but at the same time how apt they are to become sarcastic, unsympathetic and bitter even in their success. A hard fight is apt to leave scars. A child with an earnest desire for education, but kept down by the force of circumstances, is a sacrifice pitiful to think of. But I have seen something just as pitiful-parents spending their days in hard labor, depriving themselves of the Inxuries and even the comforts of life that their families might receive the education of which they themselves had been deprived, and then being made to feel that a great barrier had been raised between them and their children, that they were left so far behind in the race of life that there was no longer any companionship between them, and even looked upon with shame. for their toil-hardened appearance and meager intellectual improvement. An aged friend told me with tears in his eyes of being left out of a company of literary people who were being entertained by his talented and educated son (people whose conversation and society the father would have appreciated and enjoyed) because the son was ashamed of him, afraid he would make some blunders or ask awkward questions, and this, when the father had endured actual privation that his children might receive a college education. I once knew a mother who spent a great deal of time studying dry old law books so that when her son who was away at law school came home at vacation bringing his chums she might be able to converse intelligently with them concerning their studies.

Dr. Vincent tells us that "for years he was humiliated and morbid from the fact that he lacked a college education." The result was that more than 30 years ago when he was beginning his ministry as a village pastor in N. J. he drew up for himself a sort of Chautauqua Literary and Scientific circle, or C. L. S. C. as we call it for short.

In 1878 the plans of the "Chautauqua Idea" were fully developed. The gathering for first public announcement and inauguration of the C. L. S. C. was held at Chautauqua on August 10th of that year. About 2,000 people

assembled. Dr. Vincent gave an address in which he urged the importance of education for the people, old as well as young, explained that this was a college at one's own home, by which each one might become acquainted in a general way with the college world into which so many of our young people go, and into which it is impossible for so many of them to go, about which the parents of those who do go know so little, and the benefits of which college people themselves need to recall in their later years. He explained that it was for busy people who left school years ago, but who still desire to pursue some systematic course of reading. That it was for high school and college graduates as a review, as well as for those who lack time and money to enable them to enter either high school or college. The result was that before the close of that assembly over one thousand names were enrolled, that of a college president being the first, but all classes and ages of seekers after knowledge being represented. Since then the work has been going steadily on until now we are reading the same books, and thinking of the same people and things with more than 60,000 of the best minds in the world. Isn't that a pleasant idea? The reading of this course requires about 40 minutes time a day for four years, though of course a person can vary the time according to circumstances, although we find it very desirable to get the reading for each month into the month laid out for it. It takes up in an easy and interesting manner all the subjects embraced in a full college course except mathematics and the translation of languages, the preparatory and college Greek and Latin courses being already translated for the use of the student. And here permit me to read a few lines from Dr. Wilkinson's introduction to the Greek and Latin books:

"The primary design of this series is to enable persons prevented from accomplishing a course of school and college training in Latin and Greek, to enjoy an advantage as nearly as possible equivalent through the medium of their native tongue. It is believed that there is among us a considerable community of enterprising and inquisitive minds who will joyfully and gratefully welcome the proffers of facilities for securing the object thus proposed. Some of these minds will be found dispersed here and there, often in quarters where it would be least suspected, throughout the country, among the young men and women bound by their circumstances to the active and laborious employments of farming and all the various handicrafts by which material subsistence is procured. There must moreover be fathers and mothers themselves without college training and even ignorant of the elements of Greek and Latin who would be glad to keep as it were within hearing and speaking distance of their children while these go forward in a path of education in which it was forbidden their own feet to tread. Of parents belonging to this class there will no doubt be some to whom it will be unexpected good news to hear that without any insufferably tedious and impossible labor on their part it can be made practicable for them to keep up a somewhat intelligent sympathy with the young folks of their homes at every stage of their progress, from the first lesson in Latin or Greek to the end of their college career. One benefit will be the hold retained and strengthened thereby upon the respect of their children with the accompanying continued and enhanced ability to influence them for good. Another benefit will be the widening of their own mental horizon and the addition in number and in variety to their stock of ideas. In short, parents enjoying as they do the advantage over their children of maturer age and larger experience may in many cases hope to reap upon the whole as rich a harvest of intellectual profit from the comparatively imperfect course of

study which they pursue in English as do the boys and girls in the preparatory school and in college from their more leisurely and better classical education." To lessen the expense of the course a good deal of the required reading is contained in "The Chautauquan," a monthly magazine which all the members are required to read.

The plan admits of indivinual or associated study. Some follow it alone; but a much nicer and more interesting way is for a number of students to organize a local circle, holding weekly or semi-monthly meetings where a regular program may be given of essays and talks, or questions on the reading done between the meetings and selected readings given concerning the subjects especially interesting at the time, with music and a social recess. These local circles are particularly nice in the country, where there are generally fewer things to take up the time and attention than in the city. They also promote a good fellowship and friendly feeling between the old and young. Several elderly people of our circle have said to me that being so intimately interested in the same studies and social meetings as their children made them feel young again, while I am positive that the older ones are no detriment to the improvement and happiness either mentally or socially of the young members.

The books taken up last year were History of Greece, Pictures of English History, Preparatory Latin Course in English, American Literature and Biographic Sketches, How to Get Strong and How to Stay So, Vegetable Biology, (especially interesting to farmers) and that book which every family ought to own, dear and convincing, holding the attention of old and young alike-Walker's Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation. A very important question with the most of us is, how much does all this cost? Last year the books, in the best binding, the Chautauquan to a single subscriber, and the tuition fee amounted to $8.25, which covered the entire expense of a year's schooling in this "People's College," and all at home. No traveling expenses, board bills or incidentals, and at the end of the four years a person has a library which may be a continual feast for a lifetime. This year through the months of October, November and December we have read the preparatory Greek course in English; the Life of Cyrus the Great, who you will remember with his viceroy, Darius the Mede, forced his way into Babylon the night that Belshazzar summoned the prophet Daniel to interpret the handwriting on the wall, and who having conquered Babylon restored the captive Jews to their own country; the origin and growth of the English language; kitchen science and art, by Mrs. Ewing; and home stories in chemistry, which are illustrated and very interesting. And here our circle was fortunate in having among its members an educated physician who gave us a successful lot of chemical experiments which were very much appreciated, and also entirely new to many of the students. This month we are reading the Character of Jesus, and college Greek course, in English.

Dr. Vincent last 4th of July said: "Such a general scheme of education willincrease the refining and ennobling influence of home life, promoting selfcontrol and dignity of deportment, mutual respect and affection, a laudable family pride and true social ambition, furnishing a wider range of topics for home conversation, crowding out frivolity and gossip, removing sources of unrest and discontent at home, creating a real independence of the outside world, and making one's own home the center of the whole world of science, literature, art and society."

READING FOR FARMERS.

BY A. R. PALMER.

(Read at the Manchester Institute, January 22, 1885.)

Reading gives something to think about, averts mental paralysis, affords recreation, and is the chief source of information.

I take it that the farmer is not so different from other men in his nature or business that the same reasons that apply to others do not apply to him. Nay, there is a greater reason why he should read than can be adduced for most other men. The Northwestern Farmer calls farming the most scientific of all occupations; certainly no other has to do with so many different elements. By reading he can learn so much of the sciences as affect his operations; he learns the experience of others and profits by their success, while he avoids their mistakes; he learns the condition of the markets of the world and can judge as to what to sow and when to sell. But the greatest reason why farmers should read is not pecuniary. It is for the culture, the knowledge derived thereby. Every man should be something more than his business makes him, should, know something more than his business. If farmers are ever to rise in the social scale and agriculture is to take the rank with other occupations that it ought, it will be because of the character and culture of the men who follow it. Hence, in seeking knowledge and culture the farmer labors not for himself alone but for all the brotherhood of agriculturists, not for the present only, but for all time.

The first and most clamorous aspirant for attention is the newspaper. It contains some of the freshest and best thoughts of the age; it gives the history of the present, of more value to us than the history of any past age, the record of progress, the results of experiment in every field of research, and the state of the markets. We need all this knowledge and so cannot afford to live without the newspaper. He who fails to read it must either depend upon those who do, and get his information at second hand or live in ignorance. But while all this is true, very much of the time spent in newspaper reading is wasted, or worse. The newspaper contains a vast amount of trash, tales of scandel, of gossip, rumors of things to be, short stories, worth reading perhaps if one has nothing better to do, but the farmer's leisure is not so abundant that he can afford to waste much of it in unprofitable reading. In his own domain he wants full details of experiments, of progress, hence one need of the agricultural paper, but in most others he wants results only.

Then, with most readers, newspaper reading is carried to a great excess. Articles on all sorts of subjects are tumbled into the mind promiscuously, without any attempt to think them over or make them one's own. Such a course is most disastrous to the memory, of no benefit to the reasoning powers, in fact utterly unprofitable.

Books have this great advantage, that they treat a subject continuously and more exhaustively. Many subjects are so extended in their nature that they never are fully elucidated in a paper and he who reads nothing else must forever be in ignorance of all save a few disconnected portions.

Books, as well as papers, are so numerous that a choice must be made, and the more precious the reader's time, the more solicitous should he be to choose only the best.

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