The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-12-03

vators, harrOws, rakes, arvesters,
gins and other necessary machinery
have greatly m~ultiplated the power
of the farmer. Indeed, think l may
say that agriculture would be i'm
possible in North Carolina to day,
but for improved machinery and inn
proved methods of culture adopted
during the last fifty years.
We have made and still are max
ing much prOgress in the employ.
ment of agricultural machinery and
in improved methods of production,
but when we come to the other
necessary element Of wealth-its
transportation TO market, zoe haze
made no progress ut all. If Wash
ington or jefferson or Franklin
could return TO earth, visit our great
seaports, and see our cean steam
ships blowing through the sea thirty
miles an hour, see electric cars whiz
ling by, overhead and underfOot, see
whole cities in one whirl and whirr
Of transportation, how amazed they
would bel But, if Washington could
ride again to-day in coach and four
from Mount Vernon TO Fredericks-
burg, he would doubtless ask, as he
used to ask, "When are they going
to work the roadP" People in cities
recognize the fact that the road
along which vehicles travel is itself
no less a machine than the vehicle
that travels along it. What railroad
corporation would think of purchas-
ing engines and Jars and not provide
Il thorough road bed for them to
travel on? What city would provide
ocean steamers to Garry freight
across the ocean without removing
the distractions in the citv harbor?
COUNTRY ROADS HAVE NOT IMPROVED.
The country must learn from the
city. What railroads and tunnels
and bridges ind steamships and cleo
trio lines are TO cities and their pros
perity, country roads are TO every
farm and every pound o: produce
that IN from the soil. While
city transportation has improved TO
an extent that almost duzzles the
mind, the country road Ia in many
places poorer than it was fifty years
ago. If our people really understood
the cost to them of poor roads-if
the government should undertake so
force an object lesson upon she peO-
ole by collecting from them in taxes
an amount which is consumed an
nually by bad roads, there would be
u revolution in North Carolina in
twenty four hours. No government
on earth could collect the tax and
yet it is paid. You cav II picture
last night where a twO-hOrse team
was hauling twelve bales of cotton
over the improved roads in Meoklen.
bury county hauling 5000 pounds
at Il speed twice as great as il pos
sible on the average county road
with one fourth the load. 1 saw IA
picture recently in the World Work
of one horse hauling eleven tons. We
may judge from the facts what II tax
il paid by the farmer who hauls only
1000 pounds with two horses over Il
bad road.
have dwelt upon these details of
the commercial problem in order the
nor clearly and emphatioally TO ex-
plain
THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM,
because it is not essentially different
How does the town surpass the
country in education2 Exactly as it
surpasses it commercially. Look at
the town of Winston Here, in the
West End graded school, there are
ten grades, ten t%eacners, a suDerin.
teudent and a principal; here il
ion OF labor clsssif cation IF teach
according TO knowledge and abil.
ity, classification of pupils according
TO age and Announcements. The same
principle of division of labor is Car
r ed out in the Winston graded
school that is carried out in it's fac
tories. But it is not 80 in the cOun-
try. There is u lonely school house,
one room and one teacher, twenty 30
fifty pupils unnlassified and I'M
graded; old and y ung, advanced
aud o advanced, fast and SLOW all
together; the term is short; the
teacher is i'll paid how Can there be
any nrnprass2