The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-12

did in the days of slavery. He does not
use modern labor saving machinery, be-
cause neither he nor his servants, nor his
tenants can use the same with success,
grandfather, omsu; collects his rents,
or waits for the end of the year when
he is frequently behind. Farming with
the average North Carolinian is simply
stirring Mother Earth for what nature
chooses to give. Very, few know how TO
force the soil to give up her secrets;
you know how to strike the rock and
make it gush forth in abundance: but
all stand at the fountain head waiting
to drain of what comes out naturally.
Very few can make the earth support
if all outside help were taken away;
and the only indepedent class is the
hireling. who works little, lives in little
and enjoys little. He serves as an eX-
cuse for the failure of the others VINO
are mot able to control labor. In the
meantime the negro is floating about not
caring much about this worlds goods
and the white man is worrying hlmseT.
to death because he is unable TO control
the negro labor, and or account OF It's
uncertainty he must oversee his wife
and children in the field instead. lie
doesn't kow how to farm otherwise.
Hence the failure. This status of liv-
ing in the country is so firmly fixed
that unless cotton and tobacco are at
an abnormally high price there is no
money in farming. AS result homes
have gone to decay, and there is an air
of poverty and distress in the country.
There is some scientific and INTELLIGENT
farming in North Carolina; and when
I speak of scientific farming | mean
that man can take small piece of
ground and make it support him. So
work it that he can improve it and his
own condition and to adjust himself to
the economic changes that he will not
be compelled TO mortgage his entire
property every time cotton goes down.
There are few farmers in North Caro-
lima like this who have not been driven
to the wall on account of a fluctuation
of prices; but the average farmer is he
who if the negro labor is taken from
him and if his children be put in school
for six or eight months in the year,
would literally starve, unless the State
w
The farmers as a class have not kept
up with the times but have raised the
same crops year after year without re-
gard to changes in supply and demand.
They turn from one crop to another
without sufficient regard to the suit
ability of the climate and soil, or to
the conditions of the market They
depend upon blind force and mysterious
elements in the soil TO bring forth a
crop, and then in harvest seasons they
watch pitifully and eagerly for the good
red prices of thirty years ago and plan
with a pathetic simplicity for cotton TO
bring 10 or,12 cents a pound. Who has
been educating this people? 1t has not
equipped them, for service.
The questions then arises. what course
of study must be adopted for such con-
ditions? Here are boys and girls, young
ladies and young. gentlemen equal TO
any, on the face of the earth as far as
health and moral worth is concerned;
yet whose surroundings are not such
as will hold the best to their native
soil. The allurements of city life or the
more polished professions make the
ambitions aspire to a different life; and
before they have turned into maturity
they are planning to so to town, with
an eagerness that is not encouragingI
Then what kind of an education win
make the country so attractive that
children, even before their ideas APP.
,proach seriousness, will plan country
villa instead of a city palace. The child
is continually dreaming of the beauti-
full, the artistic, the fantastic; but its
dreams are of the city, of the polished
dress of the easy manners, of the many
books Of the beautifully attired, of,
the elegant homes. ASchild's life is made
up of appearances. 1t is not keen enough
to penetrate into the real worth; but
its ideals are made from what it sees
and it's life is shaped from its ideals.
It's school house is rough defaced and
(uninviting; and the soul within longs
for the elegant new brick building of
the city graded school, with its deco
rated rooms. Its yard is bare, weather.
worn and streWn with rubbish; its home
is plain barren, undecorated, gloomy
and embarrassing. except that it Is
home, and the soul longs for the beauti-
full homes of the city with the lawn, a
model of artistic wonder. In this con-
nection, Hon Chas. r. Skinner, Super
intendent of Public Instructions in New
York, says:
tIt may be that the schools cannot
do much to counterfeit the unfavorabie
industrial conditions which have led so
many fine young men and women 10
exchange the freedom, healthfulness and
safety of country life for the excite
ment and danger of city life; but they
can at least impart some appreciative
knowledge of plants and animals. Of
earth material, forms and faces. That
more intimate knowledge of nature
would be of decided advantage to the
farmer, the gardener, the fruit grower,
and the stock raiser needs no demonstra-
ton. Elementary lessons ought to be
given in every school; and if the eX-
ercises are properly conducted, the chill
dren will experience the greatest de-
light as one secret after another is re-
vealed to them"
The Superintendent of Public Instruc-
lions of Missouri says:
1--WE are pleading for the study of
nature. first, to bring new life into the
school, TO substitute rational methods
for automatic teaching, to give children
some conceptions. of realities; and,
second to prepare for the careful study
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