Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-01-16
The Clemson Agricultural College at
Fort Hill.

{ OcOne9 county ana Soutn carolina
should congratulate themselves that
there is now probability Of having
in tho State such an institution as
the Clemson Agricultural College
promises to be. The establishment
of apurely Agricultural College in
any State, if properly conducted,
must necessarily be a great advant-
age to the people and such an insti-
tuition in South Carolina will supply
n long felt need. As the Grecnville
Daily Neaos says, the farmers arc
helping to pay for University Mt
Columbia and the Citidel Academy
in Charleston to educate professional
and business men, but now they need
and are asking for a college in the
Piedmont country for the purpose of
educating their own boys. If, i'll adj
dition to this, and as was suggested
by DR.. j. A. Johns in the County
Alliance some time ago, the Alli-
ances would establish few good
manual labor schools in the county,
schools in which the elementary
principles Of agriculture were practi-
cally and theoretically taught, they
would not only be of the greatest
benefit to the laboring classes, but
serve as feeders to the Clemson Ag-
ricultural College. These manual
labor schools, if managed somewhat
upon the style of the Agricultural
and Mechanical College at Starkvillc,
Miss, could soon be made sclf-sus-
tanning and would be the means Of
educating many poor boys of the
best people in the county, and who
would otherwise receive no cduca-
tion. The principles of agriculture
arc as well arranged, they can be as
easily understood and mastered by
boys and girls as lessons in grammar,
geography, arithmetic, history or any
other study, and would be much
more interesting. The object Of All
agricultural college should be to send
out into the world a body of trained
young men, not only educated in the
theory and practice of agriculture,
but prepared to engage in all the du-
ties and struggles of life; such young
men as will, by preccpt and example,
enforce the truth, that he is most
honorable who best discharges the
duties of citizenship in whatever po-
sition he may be placed. The time
has passed away when mere muscle
and energy alone will secure success
in farming. There must be a union
of intelligence and muscle; not such
intelligence as makes one an agrcca-
bic and brilliant companion in the
parlor, but intelligence to compre-
hcnd the laws and forces of nature,
which oftcntimcs help, and which
sometimes counteract, the operations
of the farmers such intelligence as
enables one to determine the methods
best adapted to the cultivation of
various crops and the preservation
of the soil. In Germany, France,
Italy, Great Britain and other coun-
tries the land has been cultivated for
nearly 1000 years, and yet the soil
is just as good, and in some instances
even better, that when it was first
broken up by the plow. Suppose
the present system in South Carolina
is continued 200 much less 1000
years, would it not be incapable of
supporting even one person to the
square mile? But the question may
be asked, how have these old coun-
tries preserved and even increased
the fertility of the soil, so that every
foot of their arabic land will pro-
ducc better than ever before? 1t is
due to the union Of intelligence and
muscle. Some farmers have con-
tempt for what they call book farm
ing. They believe that they know
it all and think there is nothing
worth knowing which they do not
already know. On the other hand,
the book farmers believe that they
know it all; they often ridiculc and
arc disgustcd with the hard common
sense of the real farmers. Both are
wrong. 1t is the union of the two
alone which can make agriculture a
success, and he who undertakes to
run his farm on either the one idea
or the other will be sure to fail. In
the State of Michigan they have an
agricultural college that was founded
about the year 1854. The splendid
results of their college may every
where be. seen by person passing
through the State. The income of
this agricultural college from its own
fund is $4,000 per annum, and the