The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-07-18
WHAT WE MEAN BY EDUCATED
FARMERS.

ana Time TOT It's graSplng are cue
When Capernicus put forth his
hypothesis that our earth was one of
the many planets revolving around
the sun, this theory was not believed
by many in the seventeenth century,
for we know that when Calico avowed
his belief in it he was scoffed at, called
a hereto and finally thrown into
prison. Even our old friend Columbus,
whose inquisitive turn Of mind led him
speculate as to whether he could
and should cross the water and found
a city to hold the Worlds Fair in to
celebrate the graduating of our class,
sven he could find nc supporters when
he decided to go save a woman, a good,
credulous creature, who, unlike most
of her sisters, thought more of an idea
than she did of her jewels.
The important thing to notice is that
though Columbus was right, his plans
and efforts were scoffed at as absurd,
and so with many other ideas.
The idea of technical education was
ridiculed at first, and wen yet many
welLinformed persons do not believe in
it or know nothing about it, When
you say technical education to them,
they have a vague sort of idea that
you mean learning to plow and hos
and ditch and hammer and plane.
Any uneducated negro knows these
things. If this were all, then indeed
would technical institutions be MASTERS
of time and money. These people
ought to know that such institutions
are not so far differentiated from other
colleges as that. The aim of a technl-
cal school is to give a young man tech
nical skill at the anne time that you
give him a good, solid education, 1t
purposes to give it's graduates that
power that comes from practical appll
cations of practic / facts, it endeavors
to demonstrate practically every truth
that it teaches, and while a student Is
learning these truths that will keep
him in his specific work, these indus
trial colleges offer courses in history,
in English composition and literature,
in ethics, on political economy and
general scientific studies. In addition
man of these institutions present
courses in Latin and Gre elk; not, how
ever, just for a study of these Ian
guages, but In order to enable the stu
dents to interpret intelligently scien-
tifc nomenclature. There are so many
erroneous impressions about this sort
of training that this morning I shall
try to controvert some of them. The
first erroneous impression is that there
. is no necessity for a technical educa=
ton. Some say that the oHfT way to
learn farming is On thss@farm. Then by
Similarity d reasoning, the way to
1liGGaafn1 Surgery is to cit down by some
DOOR tortured sufferer and twist and
turn a broken and mangled leg until
one learns experimentally to set a bone,
or 10 go to the bedside of a patient
whose eye has been lacerated and
push and pull and wrench and adjust
and readjust the q~uivering organ and
SO learn to be a skilled occulist. Again
the way to practice law would be
simply to rent a room, sit down and
think to make a successful lawyer.
Some do this, but they never grow into
Chittys nor Blackstones.
The public either looks upon the
farmer as an inspired creature, in
spired from birth with the keenest per-
eeptive faculties, with the most acute
Judgment and with a knowledge of
agriculture that is colossal, or else it
considers his profession n requiring
only a certain amount of drudgery to
make it successful. If either of these
is the general idea, how wrong it is can
be easily shown for it is based on false
premises; for we know that tie farmer
is not more inspired than other men;
yet you have to educate a preacher, a
doctor, an engineer. Why expect the
farmer alone to be successful without
being taught9
On the other handif the public opin-
ion is that farming does not need an
educated man to carry on its operations
successfully, let me ask if this is not
practically the reason why the farmers
are so much behind other industries in
matchmaking and comfort giving2
Properly conducted there is no other
profession that requires so broad an
education as farming does.
Preparation for intelligent farming
is not that men should become just
dextrous machines doing hoeing and
blowing with the greatest ease and pro-
fciency, but that they should know
how to direct these operations to the