The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-01-16

the COWS and squandering strength
that would have been useful at the
plough. But golf is better game
than "knocking," if for no other reason
than that it is played according to
known rules, which every player is in
honor bound to respect The knocker
who knocks in his savage glee knows
no rules save such as lie in faulty
construction of the brave old saying,
"Knock and it shall be opened"
l incline to think that these resolu-
tions are notable chiefly as another of
the continually recurring protests OF
the old against the new, another feeble
stand of the ancient and established
order of things against the oncoming
of the rebellious hosts of progress.
There were many signs of this in the
Lansing debates. 1t was said that
training in chemistry botany, political
economy and such like may fit a youth
to "slline in society," but is not a nec-
essary mental equipment for the field
hand. OF course, this was lamenta-
bly, ignorant differentiation of the
practical service of science in modern
field work; but, leaving that out of the
question, it did not seem to occur to
these folk as at all desirable that there
should be developed in the rural neigh
borhoods society in which it might
be worth cultured mans while to
'shine." That is the new tendency,
and it will prevail over all remon-
STRANGE. Education no longer consists
merely in confirming the pupil in the
prejudiced likes and dislikes upon
which his ancestors were sucked;
about the best service that it does him
is to make him ashamed of unreasoning
prejudicies. An oatworn notion, one
whose folly and wastefulness have been
clearly shown, is notion which the
educated man casts aside, though the
uneducated clings to it tenaciously for
dear traditions sake. And the old
fashioned farmer was a great hand to
cling; his yearly routine was as firmly
established as the procession of the
equinoxes; his strongest trait was
dogged persistence-an admirable vir-
tue when tempered with judgment,
but merely foolish when it continues
to butt it's head against the rock of
experience and fact in the futile hope
Of butting it out of the way. Under
the old farming regime it had come to
be said, and with truth, that "the aver
age crop does not pay;' taking the
statistics of the great staples year in
and year out and suhjecting them to
analysis it could be clearly proved that
the producers sustained on every one
a net annual loss. When they realized
this, of course, the majority felt ag-
grieved and disgruntled; instead of
taking the blame upon themselves they
sought to shoulder it off upon the So
cial order; they looked to the legisla-
ture to help them out by some leger-
demain. of lawmaking. 1t is this con-
dition of things which the right educa-
tion of the farmer is to change. 1t is
quite safe to say that within the span
of the next generation the business Of
farming will experience greater changes
than any other department of our
national industrial life. That is writ
ten on the wall; agriculture is to be
one of the chief factors in our CONNER
cial dominion; its practice must be
made scientific, systematic. In view
of the recent fout at conditions it will
be we'll to examine somewhat into the
forces which are at work forming and
equipping the brains which are to
effect this revolution.
Tue beginning ofa gricultural educa-
tion in this country did not result
from any demand upon the part of the
farmers themselves. They would have
none Of it; they felt no need of it.
Land was plentiful and cheap in the
early days of the republic; policy of
conservation of fertility, inasmuch as
it entailed extra labor, was considered
as waste of time and effort. That
was the philosophy of the spendthrift.
There were some thinkers-a very few
who, looking to the future, foresaw
day Of evil consequences of such
thoug htlessness, and these began in a
modest way to agitate the subject of
training. Oddly enough, the first ag-
ricultural societies were formed in the
cities, their membership composed al
most entirely of city tolk-a fact which
in itself xcited the derision of the real
plowmen. For long time the "gen-
tleman farmer" occupied an anomalous
position; he was neither one thing nor
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