as to send their own boys so as to set the example. But it
is in vain. The middle-class farmer is above all men exclusive in his
ideas. He detests the slightest flavour of communism. He likes to be
completely and fully independent. He will not patronise the "parish"
school. What then is he to do? At this present moment most farmers' sons
are sent into the neighbouring towns to the middle-class schools which
are to be found there. If the farmer is within two or three miles the
boys walk or ride on ponies every morning. If it is farther than that
they go as weekly boarders, and return home every Saturday. The fault in
this system is simply and solely in the character of the school. Too
often it is a school in name only, where the boys learn next to nothing
at all, except mischief. Very few schools exist in these small country
towns which afford a good education at a moderate price. It is almost
impossible that they should exist without an endowment, as the scholars
can never be numerous enough to make the profits exceed the expenditure.
The result is that the middle-class farmer cannot give his boys a good
education unless he sends them to what is called a middle-class school
in some town at a great distance, and this he cannot afford. The sum
demanded by these so-called middle-class schools is beyond his reach. He
may, perhaps, if he has only one son, indulge in the expensive luxury of
a sound and thorough education for him. But if there are several the
thing is out of the question. With the girls it is even worse--where can
he send them? They cannot very well walk or ride to and fro like the
boys to the school in the nearest town, and if they are boarded at such
schools, the education given is paltry and meagre in the extreme. A good
girls' school is one of the rarest things in the country. The result is
that a governess is kept while the girls are young. This governess is
underpaid, and has consequently herself been only partially educated.
Then as the girls grow older they are sent for a year or two, to
"finish" them, to some young ladies' academy, and the ultimate product
is a smattering of French and music, and crude ideas of fashion and
refinement, which make them dissatisfied with their home and unfit for
an agricultural life as the wife of a farmer.

The nonsense talked and published of farmers having pianos, and their
daughters strumming all day long instead of attending to the dairy, is
perfectly absurd. It is q