The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-16

/ advantage if they saw fit.
obviously not manual but intel
| lectual instruction was the paramount
| object. 1t was not provided that ag-
| ricultural labor in the field should be
| practically taught, any more than the
4 mechanical trade of a carpenter or
| blacksmith should be taught. Second
| ly, it was liberal education that was
| proposed. Classical studies were not
/ to be excluded. and, therefore, must
be included. The act of 1852 proposed
a system of broad educa ton by col
| leges, not limited to a superficial and
| dwarfed training such a. might be had
at an industrial school, nor a mere
manual training such as might be sup
| piled by a foreman of a workshop Of
by foreman of an experimental farm.
If any would have only a school with
equal scraps of labor and of instruc-
ton or something other than a coll
lege, they would not obey the national
| law.
Your president truly said "Agricul-
tural education must be theoretical,
scientific. practical" Col. Peek will
have it nothing but practical. The law
requires il to be all that President
Hughes mentioned as desirable and at
the University we are endeavoring to
make 1t meet all the requirements
both scientific and practical.
Now. If Col. Peeks college was es-
taollshed al a cost to the state of $780,
600 or more, the next thing the state
would have TO do would be to pay his
professors and teachers, for the Secre-
tary of Agriculture would at once tell
him that the college was not the kind
of college required by the Morrill, act,
or its amendment, and the buildings
would either remain empty of the pro-
fessors and pupils, or else the state
would have to provide money to run
1t.
Relied on Old Figures.
In his criticisms on the institution,
Col. Peek did not give a solitary figure
later than the year 1899; not a fact
dating since my election; he did not
mention the fact that in my report to
the board of trustees last year l re-
ported 132 students in the State Col
lege of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts-that is, students who are being
taught what the Morrill, act requires,
namely, the branches of learning re-
lated to agriculture and mechanic arts,
including the other classical and sci
entific studies required by the bill. Of
this 1872 students, twenty were regis
tered in the winter course in agricul-
ture, and three were candidates for the
full degree. Not these alone howevr.
are receiving an education that would
qualify them for agriculture. The B.
5. degree is preparation for agricul-
ture as a pursuit in life, even where
the student does not elect TO take the
special lectures on that subject. The
university has 1893 alumni among it's
graduates who are farmers. This is
about % per cent. of the total number
of alumni whose occupations are
known. A large majority of them are
successful agriculturists and took the
B. S. degree in the State College of Ag-
riRltlfnTa n nf oil al
agricultural course.
The largest and most successful of
the state colleges in the Union is that
of Wisconsin, in which, in fifteen years,
there have only been fifteen students
in agriculture. but they have had large
numbers of students enrolled in the
State College, and in similar courses
to those now existing at the univer-
slty.
The department of agriculture at
the university has now been brought
on the campus, seven acres having
been set apart for experimentation on
the intensive scale, lecture room has
been fitted up, which is equal in it's
appointments to any in the university;
a further equipment has been pur-
chased for dairying, and last winter
twenty young men took the course,
and left the university able to manu-
y
farm. At the last commencement a
| one-year course was established which
gives the cream of the four years
course and for which the regular coll
lege entrance requirements are not de-
manded.. Students of sufficient ma
turity and earnest purpose, with a
common school education. can enter
the winter course or the one-year
course
Mr. George Foster Peabody has pro-
vided the expense of introducing ele-
mentary education in agriculture
through the state college into the COM
mon schools by the Mature Study
Leaflets" and correspondence course
with farmers, young or old. will be in
stituted whenever a sufficient number
of names can be obtained.
But it Is said that it will not do for
the agricultural students to go to the
university, because they will be looked
down upon by their fellow students.
l regard this as an unjust imputation
both to the agricultural students and
to the others. since the farmers are not
accustomed to being looked down upon.
and can hold their own in any college
community. The simple truth is that
our students in agriculture at the last
session were treated as courteously as
any other group of the student body.
l will state the fact as it was and
ought to be, that there was actually
no difference whatever made in respect
to the question as to whether student
was in the department of agriculture
or not. l do not believe that the BOYS
of farmers ought to be herded together
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