The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-12-29
OBJECTIONS 10 THE COLLEGE.

give it to the Colleges, to be returned
in better educated teachers for the com
mon schools.
OBJECTIONS TO THE COLLEGE.
There are many objections made by
uninformed parties against the A. & NJ
| College. For instance, the military
feature is being violently attacked. Thi:
| feature is made one of the conditions
imposed by the Federal law. 1t posi-
| lively includes military tactics. The gov
ernment also furnishes a U. s. officer,
$50 stands of rifles, with accoutrements,
ammunition for practice, and two pieces
of artillery, at its own expense. 1t pays
/ the officer and furnishes the material,
and sends an inspector to see if the Col
| lege is carrying on this feature imposed
BY the law furnishing the partial endow-
ment. 80 the management Is being attack
ed for honestly carrying out the law. 1t is
| said that the military feature Is too
prominent, and to the exclusion of the
agricultural. This is not so. The boys
do not average one drill q week during
the year. The organization of students
Is into four companies. One company
drills in the afternoon and three com
panies work on the farm. During the
winter (three months) there is no drill
ing. So that the boys work three days
TO one days drilling. The military or
ganization pervades everything; it goes
into the Academic Department, and on
the farm, and by virtue of its organiza-
tion, facilitates the duties everywhere.
1t is pushed far enough to enforce dis
cipline, but not to make well drilled
soldiers. 1t is borne in mind that the
leading object is TO bias boys in the
directions of farming. / refer you to
the report of the committee of yourOrder,
December, 1885. 1t says: "Gen. Lee
has made agriculture the predominating
influence, the one shadowiDg theme, and
the boys imbibe his zeal" This ought
to satisfy the farmers and every reason
able person. l would be glad 10 meet
any other objection.
OUR MAIN INDUSTRY.
Agriculture is the main industry in
Mississippi. We have no beds of coal
or iron. We should see to it, that our
farmers follow the most careful methods
and use the economic conditions neces-
sary to make farming pay. If money
should be spent in any direction, it
should be in the line of elevating and
directing this great industry which
gives employment to eight-tenths of our
people. The College is the only effort
the State has made in this direction,
and it should certainly be sustained.
If there is any error in its management,
it should be corrected. But the College
should not be hurt The farmers of the
State are cordially invited to visit and
crit1cise the management. The Board
of Trustees are most loyal to the objects
of the College. If they are not direct
ing it right, it is because they do not
know it.
l ask you, Worthy Master, to appoint
committees as often as you please to see
how we are managing it. They will
always be courteously received, and
their suggestions will receive our earnest
attention.
GREAT CHANGEs-BETTER METHODS.
Great changes are going on in the
South. In the last five years-a period
of general depression and low prices
the South has increased her assessed
wealth S1,000,000 900, 42 per cent, or
has gotten rich at a rate of Z per cent. a
year. Ten thousand four hundred miles
of railroads have been built, which with
the improvements on the old roads, has
involved an expenditure of 1915, 900, 900.
There is not great railroad corporation
in the United States that is not now
arranging for connections in the South.
Great changes are going on in agricuE
ture. Farmers are diversifying their
crops. Every one realizes that the
South is ON the eye of great industrial
revolution and are getting ready to par
ticipate in the advantages of it.. The
farmers are very anxious and realize
that the brain and muscle employed in
agriculture is not directed with the
skill and intelligence that marks other
industries. They are organizing to
search for the reasons why farmers are
not getting along as well as those engaged
in other pursuits. They realize that
this is the case. They see that agricul-
tural products, and in fact, manufac-
tured articles, are at the lowest prices.
Cotton at cents a pound, for instance.
That the margin of profit is in economic
and careful methods. They want to
organize and take advantages of all these
things, as those engaged in other call
ings. The farmers see that they must
manage their business with more lntelli-
gence. This is the case everywhere.
The London Agricultural Journal-the
leading agricultural paper In the world
says: "There never was time when
so many minds were at work or so many
efforts made in various directions to
advance the practice and science of ag-
riculture as now" 1t is true, and now
is the time to maintain the Agricultural
College in our own State in its good
work, and to guide our farmers intelh-
gently, giving them the latest and most
improved methods, and guiding them
intelligently in their difficult work.
To show the importance of intelligent
direction, and of agricultural education,
and to show that theory must go with
practice, l will briefly discuss the great
error that lays at the very foundation
of our present system of farming in
Mississippi and the South-to show that
our farmers need intelligent direction,
and that there will be no change until
they have it.
SOIL EXHAUSTION.
allude to the exhaustion Of the fertility
of the soil, steadily going on under our
present system. On any road in the
South, on almost every plantation in the
South, you find worn out and quilted
fields, abandoned because they are too
poor to pay for the cultivation. Even
the land that is being cultivated under
the same system is getting poorer and
poorer every year, and will soon be too
poor to pay for labor to produce crops.
These lands were once fertile and yielded
remunerative crops They represent
capital sunk by the farmer in his busi-
ness. Most of these lands once made q
bale of cotton and forty bushels of corn
to the acre. Now on the cultivated
lands it usually takes from three to FIVE
acres to make bale, and that amount
of corn on the hill lands. Our farmers
are realizing now that no land is mex
haustibIe; that it should be cared for
and not worn out. This soil exhaustion
thrift among our farmers. They may
lay their trouble to other causes but
this one is the most potent.
Let us examine some of the results of
this soil exhaustion:
1st. 1t depreciates the value of land,
which should be our most valuable prop
ersy. 1t has supported our ancestors; it
must support our descendants. If there
is any property which should be main
tanned in value, it is land. Our careless
system wears it out and abandons it.
ID. The worn out and abandoned
lands represented capital lost to the far
mer. An acre producing bale of cotton
or forty bushels of corn is valuable.
When it takes four acres to produce q
bale, three-fourths of the capital repre-.
sented by the fertility of the soil is gone.
When the land is too poor to respond to
labor-it is all virtually gone-it is worn