The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-29

ers. They should be trained to
skilled work, and not degraded to
the Improbable drudgery of mere
muscular effort.
BETTER KNOWLEDGE OF AGRICULTURE.
A better knowledge of agriculture
is no less essential to our industrial
progress than the employment of
machinery. Since Jul soil is poor,
it must be improved. Ten years ago
a certain piece of land on the farm
of the A. M. College yielded five
bushels of corn to the acre, this year
it yielded ~sixty-two. During the
last century the yield per acre of the
soil of England, a soil already rich
and fertile, has been doubled. I do
not hesitate to say that by a more
economic and intelligent use of com
mercial fertilizers, by sheep and
cattle raising and the increased en-
ployment of animal manure, by ex-
tensive and persistent culture of
clovers and legumes, by proper rota-
ton of crops, by the employment of
better machinery, by better drainage
and more thorough culture of the
soil, and by greater economy of labor,
the fertility of the soil of North
Carolina can be doubled in twenty
five years and quadrupled in fifty.
When this result is achieved, there
will be nc difficulty in keeping boys
on the farm. But it's achievement
demands education industrial edu-
cation, education in things, as we'll
as in books. There should be estab-
lished in connection with the A. g
M College, a State farm school,
whose pupils should do all the work
of the farm. Not a servant should
be employed in any capacity. The
students should be up by daylight
and at work by sunrise, learning to
farm by actually farming, living and
working precisely as they will after
wards live and work on their own
farms. Half of each day should be
spent in labor and half in study, one
part of the students working in the
morning and the other part in the
afternoon. In return for their labor
the State should give them board
and lodging, clothing, books, and
tuition, in fact all the expenses of
Ii living and of education. To such a
school might come any lad in North
Carolina with pluck, energy and de-
termination. Without money, with
out kindred, without friends, he
might walk to Raleigh, sure of find
ing a homo from which he
would go forth in a few years indie
pendent and ~self-reliant a we'll
trained, Industrious, skilful and in
telligent farmer. It would be a great
achievement, if this most useful and
honorable Society, which has already
accomplished so much for the i'm
provement of agriculture in North
Carolina, would through it's power
full influence secure the establish
ment of such a school.
ECONOMY.
We must create our own capital ;
and we must learn that the only way
to create capital is by saving. We
are not a saving people, but we must
become so, or we will never be pros
porous. We cannot eat our cake and
keep it too. Economy should be
practioed in every household and
taught in every school. The gov
eminent should establish a postal
savings bank in connection with
every ~pOstrfice, where the humblest
housewife, or the poorest htreling,
might be encouraged TO accumulate,
penny by penny, a beginning OF
wealth. / do not hesitate TO d
that the establishments of postal
savings banks by the Federal Gov
eminent would do more to develop
the wealth of the South than has
been accomplished by every law on
acted during the last fifty years
BUILDING UP OTHER INDUSTRIES BE-
SIDES AGRICULTURE.
The prosperity of our agriculture
is espeoially.dependent upon the de-
velopment of other industries. Our
farmers cannot compete with those
of other States in the production of
staple crops to be sold in the ma
kets of the world. 1t is true we are
trying 80 compete; but we are
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