The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-03-16

the wealth which it adds to the country
every year, agriculture stands way
above any other industry in importance:
and that anything done to develop ag-
riculture, to help those now engaged in
1t or who are soon to engagr il it, should
receive every encouragement. That
there is certainly possibility of enor-
nous improvement in crop production
in Georgia, comparison with many of
the other countries, such as England,
France and Germany. will prove
From the foregoing it will be seen,
LIST, that the large majority of our peo-
pie are intimately associated with farm
work; Cd, that the - ncy is for the
best element to remov, this work;
| and, Sd, that the wea.tu 49, commerce
of the country are greatly dependent on
agriculture; three stroA, reasons why
agriculture should be taught If it can.
To answer the second question. viz /:
Can agriculture be taught in our pub
lie schools 2" we have only to point to
France as the most progressive and ad-
vanced of all civilized nations in the
matter of agricultural education
| France has population of IS, 095. 1856, her
farms are the best cultivated in Euro;e.
i and her produce per head has increased
by one-half in the last quarter of cen
fury. Let it be noted that it is within
| that period that agricultural education
! has become compulsory in the (her) pub
| lie schools.
There are also in each of the eighty
six departments of France, besides the
! public schools, farm schools, apprentice
schools, agricultural orphanages and
other institutions devoted to agricult-
ure alone, and in this number ID we do
not include the Agricultural University
at Paris, famous the world over for its
Investigations, nor the three national
schools of agriculture, one of horticult-
ure, one of dairying. three of veterinary
science, two of forestry and two shep-
| herds' schools.
1t was in 1879 that in France law
was passed compelling every normal
school within six years to provide agri-
cultural instructions for the teachers in
training, and requiring the primary
schools within three years to make ag
riculture compulsory subject of study.
The work, it will be seen, began with
the training of teachers, step GER
tainly in the right direction. This in
structlon is given by professors of agri-
culture, whose duties are three-fold to
instruct teachers in training,sto hold
conferences with the farmers and to
carry out Investigations, suggested by
the government.
Letaus examine some of the results of
this system. In an interesting article
on Village Life in France and Eng
land" Rev. W. Tuckwell, an English
man, says: I'm these smalPfarms. as in
all the other holdings we had seen the
farming was extraordinarily skillful.
Not only was the land far cleaner than
most farms in England, y but
we were arrested by the dextrous econ
omy in laying out crops, the unex-
pected rotations, the use of chemical
manures. This was due. we were told,
to the government agricultural col
lege."
He concludes with the following re-
markable statement, showing some of
the results Of the French system: I'm
England the owners of estates above
one acre in size are about 300, 900. In
France they are 100000. In England
the average extent of a single farm is
800 acres. In France ten acres-4, 0O0.-
600 owners holding properties of two
acres, while farms of 200 acres are so
few that they can be counted on the
fingers. In 1890 France ex-
ported about $4,000, 900 worth of food;
sixty years 6,500,000 emigrants have
left England; less than SOC. 900 have left
France. In England the rural popula-
ton is SO per cent. of the whole; in
France upwards of rs per cent. In
England, finally, the peasant is misera-
bly, housed, underpaid, servile, despair
ing; in France he is decent, well-to do,
independent, hopeful"
Tn tho Fran oh pOctofioa Cou;ppc Po,,1y
there are 00,000,0 600 in $500, 0004 de-
posits, an average of less than 500 for
each depositor. The conclusions to be
derived from study of this question
are:
l. France has found it advisa BILE to
supplement the work of her agricult-
ural colleges by introducing agriculture
as special study into her general school
system.
2. The work has been begun by train
ing the teachers first, and while general
methods have been prescribed, the sys-
tenn is sufficiently elastic to meet the
varying abilities of teachers and pu-
pills.
8. The work is, as yet, in only rhe
first stage of development, and although
all the rural children of France have
not vet been reached. and the end
aimed at has not yet been attained, the
success achieved is very encouraging
and worthy the imitation of other ma
tions.
G. G. James. deputy minister of agri-
culture for Ontario, Canada. to whose
valuable paper | am indebted for much
of the information on the subject, says:
1T may not be advisable to follow the
lead of France in all particulars, but
her experience certainly warrants the
conclusion that the education of the ru-
raj classes in their own work is very
beneficial. The imparting of a little
agricultural information in public
schools would doubtless have good eff
feet upon the attendance of our agri-
| cultural colleges, and possibly create a
necessity for increasing such facilities.
"The agricultural colleges have, in all
countries, had to do too much begging
for students, while at the same time
schools of law, medicine. dentistry,
pharmacy, technology, have been soon
crowded. The United States schools of
agriculture are also schools for training
teachers and for giving instructions in
manual arts and in commercial courses.
MANY of these institutions to obtain