The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-06-09
agricultural.
OUR FARMERS CLUBS.

What our Farmers are Doing and How
the Work of Organizing is Progressing.
FARMERS CLUB AT TRINITY.
Discussion on May 2S, 1S96-suJect ::
"H0W shall the farmers best interests
be promoted2"
DIR. Parker-To place the farmer
in the most favorable condition for
successful work he must be educa-
ted, and this means to lead out and
bring out; and in order to lead ont,
the subject must be in or under
something. That IN is darkness, and
the under is the thraldom of ignor-
ance. We say, of a truth, that of all
callings or professions, the farmers
is the onl ly one that is entered into
without some previous preparation
or special education.
Our farmers depend too much on
pure force. and in many instances it
is blind force No other occupation
of man can survive under such treat
ment Law, medicine, mechanics,
manufacturing-and in fact every
other calling of man, requires some
special study and preparation before
it can be prosecuted successfully.
Farming, alone, is left to chance and
luck How is it that the millions Of
farmers and their families get a sub
sistance out of their calling when
there is so little culture and thought
brought into use? Simply because
agriculture will bear more abuses,
suffer longer, submit to the meanest
treatment and even then smile in the
face of it's tOrmentors.
Prof Vile, the celebrated French
agricultural teacher, says that out Of
one hundred requisites to good farm
ing, nature furnishes ninety-three,
and the farmer has only to look after
the other seven. Give me % miles
the start and | will undertake to
beat even Weston in a hundred-mile
walk
These seven factors are absolute,
and take no denial. Nature is q
great laboratory in which every
material substance is arranged and
classified everything is governed
by law and order. There is not a
single drawer, box, pigeon-hOle or
corner in this vast establishment,
where you may find stored away a
single specimen of duck" " "chance,"
or ''may-be-sos' The farmer must
inrestiq0te. he must learn, he must
knOU.
The best school is on the wisely
directed and we'll managed farm, and
the best teacher is we'll educated
farmer, and the best pupils are his
own boys. Here the scientific and
the practical are combined and
worked out by the boys own hands
here they live and grow up in an
atmosphere of "science applied" !"
Agricultural colleges, in this coun-
try, up to the present time, have
been almost an entire failure, SO far as
practical results that reach the com
mon farmer are concerned. They
teach great many ologies, high
mathematics, lecture on bugs and
beetles, exhibit little of their Won
derful knowledge Of botany, show
the boys how to stuff a canary bird,
and not single one of these learned
gents know how to curry cow or
raise martin pole. A great deal OF
their work is as ridiculous as the
Pickwickian Investigations of Bill
Stumps work A very learned Ger
man professor spent II years trying
to prove that he had made Won
derful discovery, which would
change the whole Hebrew philology.
In his research among very ancient
manuscripts he found Hebrew
character unknown to modern phi
lologists. It somewhat resemb1ed
the letter god, but after all his deep
Investigations and hard work, it
finally proved to be fy-speck.
An educated fool is the most hope
less Of all fools. The farmer of to-
day must have practical education
he must read and hink-he must
have books and papers and study
them closely and master their con-
tantS 20 o,,cshf fo