ABSTRACT
The only efforts which have been made in the rural districts in the distribution of knowledge by way of reading appears to have been limited to the dispersing of tracts, but it appears to the author that the same machinery might be made available with a little more expense, in the circulation of works of a generally instructive and entertaining tendency in addition. The early age at which a boy's labour commences to be useful precludes his learning much more than reading, writing, and arithmetic, to which should be added history and geography. The capabilities and the dispositions of labouring men lead to as much good or neglect of good as is observed of any other class of life, and it is but poor encouragement for the superior and pains-taking man to observe that his ill-adapted mate is valued at the same rate as himself. Especial care should be taken with reading, and above all that the girls read fluently.
