Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/309

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principles, with reference to their real character. By this means it is believed the inflation due to speculation, to over-wrought description, and to false or misleading classification, would be eliminated. The state office could exert a wholesome restraint in the interest of fairness to both buyer and seller.

Agricultural education. As respects the problem of agriculture, education is performing two main functions. On the one hand it aims to assist the adult generation of farmers to adapt themselves to the new conditions imposed by the new agriculture. On the other, it strives to train the next generation in such a manner that they may be able to meet similar problems even if these should appear in much more acute forms. The agricultural colleges of the Northwest are keenly alive to their responsibilities, and they employ a vast system of extension services in the hope of aiding the practising farmer. They are likewise co-operating with the public school systems in developing the means of training the children.

A hopeful sign is the fact that not only all educators, from state superintendents of instruction to district school teachers, but all classes of men in these communities and all types of organizations, are interested in promoting agricultural education.