The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-05
Tuskegee Experiment Station.

Tnskegee Experiment Station.
 Tuskegee News.
 Measured by the wide range of work ment Station at Tuskegee, and the varied ways in which the influence of that sta ton Is thrown out over the entire section about Tuskegee. and indeed into other counties and States the unprejudiced are compelled to admit that the State of Ala oama made no mistake in establishing and maintaining this station.
 of Trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute decided that since the Tar greater proportion of negroes are farmers and must remain on the farms | that it was the part of wisdom for schools -State and private-to teach as best they could the things which pertain to agricui- ture stock and poultry raising, dairying, bee culture, horticulture, etc, so that those living on farms could sustain them selves and families and with that end in view the trustees delegated to the writer, as one of the Board. the duty of drafting bill to establish branch agricultural station at Tuskegee for the colored race, | to be run in connection with the Tuske- gee Normal and Industrial Institute, said State all lands and buildings necessary for | such station. MT. J. R. Wood, our pres ent representative, was then in the lower House and at our request he introduced the bill. If we remember aright he went | before the Committee of the House, SC. | cured a favorable report and had the bill passed giving this station $2,5oO per an- mum. When the bill reached the Senate l 1t had the hearty support of our Senator. Hon. D. s. Bethune, but about that time Prof. W. E. Paterson, President of the Colored University in Montgomery, asked for such a station for his school. For a time the bill seemed in jeopardy but after an earnest fight before the Committee the present bill was reported back to the Sem
 Before the Committee Mir. Wood very ably and very justly argued that the ne- groes of Alabama by reason of the fact taaI 1s they 9 were extensive users of commer- Belt paid much of the tag tax from which these agricultural schools and sta- tions were supported hence. it was noth- ing but common justice and right that they be given at least one school and sta- | ton where the negro youth could be helped towards becoming more intelli- memory serves us right MT. Wood also noted the fact that the negro was now, and would be for years to come. the best farm laborer the South could get, that | methods of cultivations and care of land causing our plantations to go to decay | and ruin and that the white land owners would help themselves by helping to give the negro more intelligent conception Of how to build up land, etc.
 These arguments were accepted as cor rect and the station established and year by year its splendid work has become more and more apparent. The lamented | Dr. J. L. M. Curry using what the State | had done induced the Slater Board to make handsome appropriation to sup piement what Alabama was doing, and | some benevolent gentlemen gave a well arranged building which ever since has been used as class rooms strictly for the agricultural department. Hundreds of Alabamians from our Governors down have come to this school, examined the work being done in the class room, on the farm and seen specimens, the product | from aTd not one ever went away without express ing the belief that the influence of the agricultural station was bound to tell wonderfully for good not only to those pupils immediately in that school but to the thousands of negroes who yearly visit that place.
 What is Done.
 But poor justice can be done in a news paper article to an institute whose work Is so muldform. In the first place the | trustees procured the services of Prof. George w. Carver, confessedly one of the best prepared colored men in America for men and women for the different branches. This teacher and his aides have aimed to make their work applicable to the plants, grasses, fruit lands. condi- tions, etc, of Alabama, and to so sim plify everything that this child race, the dependent, shiftless people can be made to know that even the man or woman on ten acres of land can make a comfortable living, and that the farmer can be the money makers and money savers of the South as well as of the West.
 In the experiment patches strictly the pupil and the visiting farmer can learn what grasses. grain and other plants are best suited for particular land, what fer tilizer this or that plant needs, etc. Then the value of the orchard the barn yard and the busy bee are shown.
 Both men and women are taught dairy ing. Specimen of six different commercial cheese have been sent to our table Out on the farm these same pupils are ditch ing. terracIng and blowing. Under the di- recton of the horticulturist fifty-five- acre peach orchard is pruned and tended.
 Upwards of 150 acres are this year set in sweet potatoes. The garden and truck patches cover some fifty acres. Hogs, cows, coy sheen colts and mules are raiseo. trse ana theoretical as well as pracucaI traln- ing Is given in all these lines.
 Then. this year, more than ever before, road building is being taught. The public road in front of the school and through its lands as well as the private ways are being made into model highways
 Reaching the Masses.
 What Drs. Thach, Cary, Dugger and others Of the Auburn College are dolng TOT the whites so the director and teachers or the Tuskege Station are seeking to do for the negro farmers. They hold monthly farmers institutes at the school and then
 ing their people ,%o eouAr Agsin the annual farm hundreds of colored farmers, their wives and children, and nothing but sa1e and he. pful suggestions are given them.
 In addition to what has already been said can be added the statement that thousands of pages of hints to farmers as 10 what to do each month are constantly
 going broadcast over the land,
 From the above nasty review or the
 Tuskegee Station which will be verlned
 to impure it does seem that if any tnsu- tuition ever proved its right to live and
 Its worthness to have the friendship Of of mankind surely the Tuskegee School
 ana station has so done.