Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-05-11
Agriculture in the Schools.

1t is well established fact that a
good beginning for life work is sub
stantial education. The great mass OF
children OF this country must secure
what of theoretical education or train
ing they have in the common or pub
lie schools, and it is the part of wis
dom to have those branches taught
that will be of most practical advan-
tage to them in their future life. In
no department of activity has there
been as much ADVANCE as in the agri-
cultural world, and ttk not Drawn and
muscle that wins nowadays, but brain
and skill. The time has passed when
any one, even dull untutored igno-
ramus, can hope to succeed in farming.
Competition is as great in this depart
ment as any other, and the ignorant
and thriftless are pushed aside, while
the active, educated farmer wins the
prize and is the successful man.
Books and papers multiply on every
hand, teeming with advice and sug-
gestions as to the best methods of
cultivation and procedure with all the
crops, and the treatment of stock and
the various affairs pertaining to the
farm, so that he who runs may read.
This is all good in its way, but it
does not reach the foundation. The
learned professions, so called, have
special courses of study that each one
who aspires to be enrolled as member
must pursue, and when entered upon
must be continued to the end before
the student is permitted to practice in
that department.. The most successful
man in any branch of industry, other
things being equal, is the one who has
had the most thorough preliminary
training for that special branch. so
that his energies have been developed
in reference to their future employ
ment.
1t is lamentable fact that the large
amounts appropriated by the general
government for agricultural education
in the various states has not been pro-
ductive of the results so fondly an
ticipated. The reason is very plain
when we look carefully into the matter.
1t has not until within a very few
years been fashionable to be a farmer,
and the agricultural department of a
college or university has been sort of
asylum Or hospital for poor but honest
young men who are looked upon by
the members of the other departments
as a lower grade and treated accord
ingly.
There has been very decided change
for the better during the past decade,
but much remains to be done to put
agricultural education in the position
it should occupy in relation to the best
interests it represents. The elements
of agriculture should be part of the
curriculum of every public school in
the land, and knowledge of the ele-
mentary branches would do much to.
ward making the children of the coun
try, practical and successful cultivators
of the soil. 1t is fact that at the
teachers institute of one of the largest
counties of the state large proportion
Of the teachers could not distinguish
the various kinds of grain, and did not
know the difference between corn and
wheat, or rye and oats.
An educated man or woman is one
who knows most about the things that
occupy their everyday attention, and
when it is considered that nearly four
ffths of all the people of these United
States are directly engaged in the var
ious operations of cultivating the soil,
it is time to put them in the way of
doing this in the very best manner pos
sible.
, In no way can this be better done
than by introducing into the regular
course in the common schools, studies
pertaining to this branch. The love
of flowers seems to be an instinct al
most, and the study Of their growth
and life is interesting to not only chill
dren, but all who love the beautiful.
Tree planting and taking care of them
could be done to advantage in almost
every school district. The different
varieties of small fruits could be stud
led, and their use largely increased, by
teaching the children how to plant and
cultivate them. The love of children
for domestic animals is proverbial, and
lessons in natural history would be
more interesting than dry dissertations
in grammar, and give the kind Of in
formation that would be useful in
practical life.
1t is lamentable fact that only in
few cases have the trustees and boards
Of education given any thought to the
result of the present system of educa-
ton, and have been content to 60 on in
the old pedantic method of forcing
certain amount of information into the
children, regardless of the value or kind
thereof.
A beginning has been made, howev-
or, in some cases. when the principles
of industrial education have been In
troduced, and it is hoped that these ex-
amples will induce others to take ad-
vantage OF the opportunity and give
more thought to what is needed in ev-
iery-day life. The instruction in the
schools should be Of a nature to be
utilized in the pursuit of the calling for
which the scholar is destined, and con-
sidering the great number to be en-