The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-03-25
SOME NEEDS OF SOUTHERN AGRICUL-
TURE.

IlBu6E OI d NOEbnOEA PopOA OH"U GA
hibits considerable interest in South
ern farm problems, we recently pre-
pared the following article directing
attention TO some reforms that de
serve the support of all interested in
the agricultural progress of the Cot
ton States:
First of all, the South as a whole
needs better schools. This is so plain
that no ~wayfaring man able to put
two and two together can fail 80 un-
derstand it. No appreoiable progress
in agriculture can be made without
better public schools. Our agricul-
tural colleges, agricultural depart
ments, experiment stations, and farm
papers may work with all the ear
nestness and enthusiasm conceivable,
but it will be in q large measure un-
awaiting unless the curse of Hitter
acy is removed and all the people
taught TO read.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR COUNTRY
SCHOOLS
IL the foundation stone Of agricul-
tural progress, and other foundation
can no man lay. This is not theory,
but a fact proved by statistics
Wherever the per centage of Hitter
aoy is highest, there are the profits
of farming smallest. And for a rea-
son not far TO seek-there has least
progress been made in the introduc-
sion of improved and scientific
methods.
We may live out our lives dream
ing dreams about the good work that
might be done by our agricultural
colleges, experiment stations, and
farm papers, but all this dreaming is
a snare and a delusion/ unless we
realize that before the college or
paper will be appreciated, must come
the public school, teaching the peo-
51s to read and understand, just as
surely as the foundation stone must
be laid before the rest of the struc-
ture is worth considering.
We have lately made progress in
the matter of public education, but
much work yet remains TO be done.
And since suoh a large per cent. of
these pupils of country schools r
TO take up farming as a life work, it
is not unreasonable to demand that
in them
THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE BE
TAUGHT.
We do teach these boys much about
banking, selling and buying bonds,
disoounting, foreign exchange, etc.,
things with which not one in ten has
anything to do in after life. Why
then should it be thought strange
when one dares suggest that it would
be better to teach them something
of plant growth, animal life, plant
and animal feeding, etc., subjects
that would be equally useful in
training the mind and would be of
continual benefit to the larger part
of them in their life work? AS some
one has suggested: "Arithmetical
problems could be constructed so as
to cover the whole science of feed
ing, making up feeding rations, and
yet would not lose the value of
teaching ari shmetio.
Nature study, too, would chain the
interest of the child by teaching him
something of the wonders of the
plant, insect and animal life about
him, thus enabling him to see more
of the beauty of farm life.
The experiences of Horace Greeley,
as related in his RecolleotioDs, fur
nish a osse in point. In the whole
period of his boyhood days on the
farm, he tells u.s., he never saw a
book or paper devoted to farming
never learned that agriculture meant
anything beyond muscular labor. 81
know 1 had the stuff in me for an
efficient and successful farmer" he
says, "but such training as l received
at home would never have brought
it out. And the moral I would de-
duoe from my experience is simply
this Our farmers sons escape from
their fathers calling whenever they
can, because is is made a mindless,
monotonous drudgery, instead of an
ennobling, liberalizing intellectual
pursuit. Could l have known in my
youth what a business farming some
times is, always may be, and yet
generally shall be, 1 would never