The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-08-29

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to continuous success. In the State in
stitute it is less so. But here the create
dignity and emphasis of the occasion
may bring together better INSTRUCTED
men to lead the debates, more thoughtful
men to participate in them, and the
stenographer's art will, through the
agricultural press, disseminate IN every
farm house in the State the ideas evolved
and impresse the conclusions reached
It is true the summer meetings Of the
State Agricultural Society, the forerun'
nner of Institutes with us, have not been
altogether successful; but we must
analyze their experience, and improve
upon their methods. lam free to say OF
these same meetings that had ali the
ESSAYS read and the debates been pre-
served, rs they should have been, the
material would be at hand for the COM
pletion of text book on agriculture,
invaluable to the young South Carolina
farmer, and instructive to those OF Us
who have oftener seen seed time and
harvest recur.
TIE GOOD OF a COLLEGE IS IN TIE FUTURE
The agricultural collegs is to make
future farmers; the fair, the experiment
station, and the institute are to bring the
present cultivators of the soil to better
methods, which OF itself will start the
future farmer half way to the goal. The
immediate benefciaries of the college
are necessarily limited, and it requires
much money and long time to develop
fruit; the others require less money, give
immediate results, and reach the mass
of the farmers. The collegiate teaching
of agriculture is at best but in an expert
mental state; no school that am aware
of yet met with unqualified success.
Some systems that have been tried are
acknowledged failures; all have met with
adverse criticism. The college at Colum-
bia has been modelled upon the idea of
giving tae pupil the highest training in
agricultural science, combined with the
advantages of q liberal education, which,
by reason of the connection with the
University, with its large and able corps
of professors already employed, can be
given without sppreciable additional
outlay. This school contemplates no
manual instructions in the ordinary and
simple process of husbandry. The arts
Of ploughing, hoeing, reaping and now
ing are left to be acquired elsewhere:
but most thorough practical instruction
is provided to be given in machine and
shop work. Labor-saving machines are
absolutely essential to progress in our
agriculture. The abundance of land in
proportion to labor, and the impatience
of the American Anglo-Saxon at mere
drudgery-the hewing of wood and draw
ing of water-have both compelled the
use of these machines and wonderfully
developed them. They are often costly
and complicated in structure, while with
careful management the wear and tear
upon their use is generally estimated at
20 per cent annually. It will be seen,
therefore, how necessary to the farmer
is not only knowlede of the principles
of mechanics, but the ability himself to
keep in order and repair the machines
he nses.
In what has been sid OF collegiate
education it is not intended to Indicate
that it should be omitted from our scheme
for agricultural advancement. 1t has
been placed there by the consent OF the
most enlightened opinion among the
farmers of the State. My own judgment
is emphatically in favor of high grade
college as 8 part of our system. The
purpose in what has been said has been
to present its true features and to exhibit,
as I Iapprehend them, its real possibilities,
whether the college be retained as it
now stands, or be removed to different
surroundings and an organization upon
a different plan.
THE FUTURE FARMER.
I have spoken Of the future farmer.
Who will he be? Whence will he come?
Undoubtedly, as in the past, many will
be men who, reared to other pursuits,
have afterwerd embraced agriculture.
These bring to the calling the acquire
ments of general education with the
business habits learned elsewhere, and
sometimes like Mechi, of England,
Dickson, of Georgia, and others, go to
the front in their adopted vocation. The
all-round man has before this beaten the
specialist, and may do it again. But
from the youth OF the country, which will
be our successors on the farm? Not ex-
clusively the farmers sons. We have
no institution of caste confning the son
to the fathers pursuits. The farmers
son is free to follow his bent whittier it
it leads and to the extent his abilities
permit. Webster, Calhoun, Clay, IN
drew Jackson, were the sons of small
farmers. Washington, Jefferson and
indeed majority of those who have
illustrated American history imbibed
their patriotism and acquired their hardy
virtues in boyhood on the farm. But
from the necessity of things, the great
majority of those who succeed us will be
those whose fathers have been tillers OF
the soil. Among these will be some
whose expectations permit them to look
forward at the outset to the employment
of labor on scale admitting OF these
being personally more advantageously
occupied in its direction. To this class
and those who without sufficient capital
desire to become directors of labor, as
stewards under capital. The remainder
and by far the greater number expect to
at least begin their career as small farm.
ers, working with their own hands, and
employing labor not beyond the extent
which admits OF their carrying the fore
most row. The first class may reap the
advantages offered by the college in its
scientific and technical course, combined
with practical instruction at and in con-
nection with the experimental farm. To
the second class these advantages are
almost as unattainable as if they did not
circumstances in,rerinnslu CON.