The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1900-03-01

let or another Paradise Lost, or another
Cotter's So urday n ht. but it does
need men and it will always need men,
who can make two b AIDES of grass grow
this year where only one grew last year
In agriculture as in every other
science we are coming to the reign OF
law. Law is derived from intelligently
conducted experiments. and expert.
ments are questions put 20 nature that
she will answer. ten Thousand times
over. with unerriag precision and reg.
uiarity. Tradiaoral farm lore and
primitive methods in vogue. when men
had virgin soil. will not do for today.
When ssed is put into the ground
now, we must know the feed supplies
for the soil about the seed. The bun
tongue plow has become obsolete, aaa
the cultivator has rpken it's place Tho
simple scyshs Is long since forgotten,
and the Mccormick reaper is garnering
our grain. The man going to mill with
bushel of corn in one end Of a bag and
stones to balance it in the other end, If
he is not altogether apocryphnl, has
| gone never to return. Intelligence is
establishing her right to reign every
whore. Men plant no more by the
moon but by the sun.
The question is then, what can our
schools do for agriculture? How can
the public schools be SO related to this
great industry of the South, that the
children who leave our schools may
desire to enter this noble and enterprls-
ing field. In the first place the children
must be taught at school that agricul-
ture is not only the earliest pursuit OF
mankind but it is today one Of the
low. They must be taught that an in.
telligent farmer, equipped with all that
science and art may today bring TO his
aid, can win as high honor and occupy
as high place in public estimation as
can be won in the pursuit Of any calling
in human life.
AGRICULTURE IS DIGNIFIED.
We must teach the children, indeed,
that the man of brains on the farm is
one of the most potential forces for good
that can be found anywhere in the
world. We must show them that work
in the field is no longer drudgery but
that it is as noble and intelligent form
of labor as man can pursue. The
machine has come to the farm and it
machine on the farm can do as much
work as ten men could do twenty years
ago. AS teachers we must show the
childron the peace and plenty, the quiet
joy. the purity of life, the contentment
OF independence. the nobility of soul,
all of which may come in unhindered
fullness from the noble pursuit of soien-
tiflc agriculture
In the second place to accomplish
this our course Of study IN the public
schools must be radically changed. The
ideal OF the school must be changed.
The subject matter In the text books
must be revised. While the child is
learning TO read. to write and to cipher,
1t could just as we'll learn these elemen.
tary branches In the terms OF nature
studies, elements of biology. elements
Of chemistry, elements OF free hand
drawing and modelling Of all kinda
Intelligent testimony from the entire
educational world Is to the effect that
children will not only lose nothing. but
they will gain tremendously in their
natural and normal development, by
making these changes.
II boy in Holland has learned at
school to support family of ten by
intelligent cultivation of an acre of
ground. q boy in Georgia should learn
at school how to support family of ten
upon ten acres of ground. This is the
problem that we must solve, not only
in Georgia but in every other Southern
State.
AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION CoEQUAL
The time has come to wed the Depart
ment of Agriculture into closer mari.
tai union with the Department of Edu.
cation in every Southern State. Intel.
ligent agriculture methods must come
as result of intelligent school methods
The Department of Agriculture in the
State of New York through Prof. L. H.
Bailey of Cornell University is doing a
magnificent work. Not only is he i'm
proving the systems of farming but he
is magnifying and itensifying the sys-
tenn of education in the State. Prof,
Bailey's leaflets are now used as text
books in all the schools of the great
State of New York. We have agricul.
tural possibilities and agricultural
resources in every Southern State that
are not to be found even in the great
State of New York.
From Virginia to Texas we have I'M.
bounded agricultural wealth that is yet
to be developed. The masses of our
own people must do this work of deyel.