CONTENTS. Page. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, October 3, 1913. SIR: In several States one day in the fall of the year is set apart as "Agriculture and Rural-Life Day," to be observed in the schools in such way as to emphasize the importance of agriculture to the nation and to the world of mankind, to call attention to the worth and worthiness of the tillage of the soil, the cultivation of plants, and the breeding and care of animals as an occupation and profession, and to reveal something of the beauty and glory of simple and sane life in the open country. In other States exercises appropriate to this purpose are held in connection with Arbor Day, Thanksgiving, or the Harvest Home celebration. Those who know children best will appreciate most fully the possibilities of this day and the importance of making its program both interesting and instructive. The manuscript transmitted herewith contains material selected and arranged for that purpose. I recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. That this should be done is all the more appropriate since in many places this day has been set apart for this purpose at the suggestion of this bureau. Respectfully submitted. To the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. 5 THE COUNTRY BOY'S CREED I believe that the Country, which God made, is more beautiful than the City, which man made; that life out-of-doors and in touch with the earth is the natural life of man. I believe that work is work wherever we find it, but that work with Nature is more inspiring than work with the most intricate machinery. I believe that the dignity of labor depends not on what you do, but on how you do it; that opportunity comes to a boy on the farm as often as to a boy in the city; that life is larger and freer and happier on the farm than in the town; that my success depends not upon my location, but upon myself-not upon my dreams, but upon what I actually do-not upon luck, but upon pluck. I believe in working when you work, and in playing when you play, and in giving and demanding a square deal in every act of life. EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER. THE FOOTPATH TO PEACE To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit, in God's out-of-doors. These are little guideposts on the footpath to peace. 6 HENRY VAN DYKE. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIFE DAY. PART I. MAN'S STRUGGLE FOR FOOD. MAN AND NATURE. The history of our agricultural developments illustrates this principle that enlightenment is increased by inventions and discoveries, which in turn create new industrial problems that call for still other inventions and discoveries. Thus man is ever modifying or changing his environment, while the environment is ever modifying or changing the habits of man. The intelligence of man and the forces of nature are acting and reacting on each other, while the race is working upward, always passing into higher and clearer intellectual zones, where many phenomena, once mysteries, are made plain, and new forces are brought into service for the advancement of the race. Moreover, as the arts of life have unfolded, man has become more open-minded to natural causes. He has learned to adjust himself more readily to the forces of the world about him, to work in harmony with them, and to adopt for his own use many things in the natural world which were once thought to be useless or harmful. The world has practically been made over in the past hundred years. New sciences have been evolved that have given a new meaning to life. New occupations have been opened up, making it easier for men of different talents to provide an honest living. New subjects have been added from time to time to our school curriculum, until the whole purpose of education has undergone a complete change. New foods for man, beast, and plant have been discovered, and ancient food plants have been so influenced, and their habits have been so changed, that they bring forth an hundred fold more than they did in their original state. These are some of the results of man and nature working together in harmony. -Selected from Brooks' " Story of Cotton." HOW NATIONS HAVE FOUGHT FOR LAND. Man can not live without food, and the great wars of the world have been in the main wars of conquests for new territory, new river valleys, or fertile plains where the cereals grow and where the |