The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-06-17
Farm Laborer Of the Future.

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In the current number of The New
York Tribune Farmer appears an in
teresting article on "The Farm Laborer
of the Future" For some years there
have been indications of a marked revo-
luton in the quality and character of
farm laborers. The first indication has
naturally been great change in the
quantity. Farmers have been unable to
gather their crops in the wheat section
and corn sections, and it was not much
better last fall through the apple belt.
Thousands of bushels of apples went to
waste in 1903 from lack of ability to
gather them. We have heard of farmers
whose potato crops were undug when
the early winter set in. The old helpers
have already gone from the farm. The
man who can swing scythe efficiently
in these days is hard to find. The old
fashioned farm helpers were educated
in the old fashioned way. They could
fashioned tools. The tools are gone, the
ways are changed, and, naturally, this
class of men has died out or drifted
away into town life. These men would
be of very little use on the farm of to-
day. They would be out of sympathy
with modern methods, and modern meth
DDS would have little use for them.
The coming help on the farm must be
educated help-fully educated, and up to
date in the best lines of modern knowl-
edge. 1t is not meant by this that the
ordinary hired man must understand
Latin and Greek, or that he must be
able to discuss psychology and wrangle
in metaphysics. The farm helper must
hereafter be something more than
"farm hand" He must know those ele-
mentary sciences that underlie every
branch of farm work. 1t has come about
that in the wheat field and in the corn
field, in the orchard and in the. truck
garden every branch of farm employ
ment--natural science has secured such
footing that it must be comprehended
by every employee. Very soon it will
be impossible to do anything in the or
chard with a man who does not under
stand, to some extent at least, entomo--
logy and botany. He must know more
Oh ha h,,or hof h.,
fought to make pomology a success. In
general farming we will have to stop
wasting manures and spending our
money in careless methods of using the
forces nature gives us. Thousands upon
thousands of dollars are spent on COM
mercial manures, simply because the
farmer does not know what to do with
the fertilizers that lie all about him.
Turn where we will, we find that farm
ing is already becoming scientific bust
ness, and scientific men will have to be
employed, as surely as in mechanical
engineering.
Can this sort of help be hadf It Ger
tainly cannot be secured with the present
system of rural school education. Our
common schools have tended to educate
away from the farm, and not to it. But
a change is going on which will meet the
requirements. In some of the states
normal schools are educating teachers
with notebooks in the field. They are
taught to understand and take an in
terest in the live problems of production.
When sent to preside in country school
houses and educate farmers boys and
girls, they will understand farm prob
lens and farm difficulties. Better yet,
they will understand much about ma
ture and be able to appreciate its charms.
The battle, however, is not half fought.
Most of our states have not taken even
this initial step in their normal schools.
For the present the outlook is better for
the south than for the north. In the
south they had fewer schools, and what
they did have were lacking in organic
force. Industrial schools for both blacks
and whites are multiplying with great