The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-09-11
Living Issues.
THE EDUCATION OF FARMERs-A RE-
"a VIEW OF INDUSTRIAL CHANGES
AND NEW CONDITIONS.

Address by President Geo. ]. winston, OF the
A. M, College, Before the Association Of
Southern Commissioners of Agriculture in
Raleigh, August so, 1900.
The proper education of farmers
in the South today is very different
from what it was SO years ago.
Education then was adapted to con-
ditions prevailing in the Old South.
But great changes have taken place
and are still taking place. Within
the next so years the Old South will
have disappeared, and the greatest
Industrial revolution that the world
ever saw will be accomplished. The
new education must be suited to the
new conditions.
The industrial revolution in the
South is manifested mainly along
four distinct lines: ID A change
from large farms to small. (2) A
change from slave labor to free. 80
A change from isolation to world
competition. "a A change from
purely rural life and agriculture to
urban life and manufactures.
Let us consider briefly these.
changes and what effect they have
upon education.
o. The change from plantations
to- small farms. This is the most
marked and most visible change that
has taken place. In 1850 there were
So 1000 farms in North Carolina with
an average of 800 acres each. In
1890 the number of farms had more
than trebled and the average was
about one-third as large. There
we're us, 900 farms with an average
of 127 acres. The census of this ear
will doubtless show that since 1850
the number of farms in North Caro-
lima has increased 4OO% and the size
diminished 4OO%. We have one
farm for every eleven persons, one
for every six white persons. We
have more farms, more largely dis
/, tributed among the population, than
any Southern State except Texas.
This continuous and large increase
in the number of our farms with a
corresponding decrease in their size
means that the old plantations and
the old planters are rapidly passing
away and giving place to the small
farmer, that extensive farming is
being driven out by intensive. A
new education is required for it. 1t
demands machinery and improved
tools, the use of which requires skill
and training it demands scientific
methods, which require both knowl-
edge and intelligence. The old
planter was we'll educated for his
time and his work. He was a gentle
man, a man of literary taste and
training, frequently a scholar, a
leader in social, political educational,
industrial and military life. His
plantation was large and easily made
larger. Each year saw "old fields"
turned out, to grow up again in
forests and be made. fertile again by
natures slow but steady processes.
Each year saw another new
ground" added to the plantation.
The old planter was a little king.
The earth has never borne a more
royal gentleman. But his laborers
were slaves and unequal to the work
of intensive farming. The large
plantation will soon be a thing of the
past, at least in North Carolina and
the Piedmont lands of the South.
The time is past when much profit
can be had from agriculture in these
sections of the South except on little
farms cultivated by the men who
own them, aided by their own chill
dren. This is the meaning of the
fact that the number of farms in
North Carolina has increased 4OO%
and their size similarly decreased
since 1850.
o. The change from sLaUe labor to
free. When the negro was enamel
pated, the Southern planter made
heroic efforts to keep up the old
plantation with free negro labor.
But it was all in vain. Instead of
paying the old debts, he could not
meet the new. The small white
farmer of slave days, made strong
by years of poverty, labor and endu-
rance, was the man really emanci-
pated by the war. He could now
compete with the negro on equal
terms for there was now no master
and no law to keep. the negro at