The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-22

The interest that has been excited of
late in the teaching of elementary agri-
culture is nowhere better shown than
by the great summer schools for
teachers in the rural schools that have
been inaugurated in the South, says
the Practical Farmer. At the Uni
versity of Tennessee this summer there
were between one and two thousand of
these teachers studying methods. At
the North Carolina College of Agricul-
ture the summer school, started last
year with two or three hundred in at
tendance, had this summer nearly one
thousand. And in nothing was there
greater enthusiasm than in the study
of those branches that apply to the
teaching of nature and its application
to elementary agriculture. The teach
ers realize that by far the larger part
of the pupils in the country schools
will go no further, but will return to
the farms, and that it is of the great
est Importance to the future welfare of
the farming interests that these should
have some training in the work that
is to be their life work, and should
be imbued with some enthusiasm for
farm life and some ability to read the
great book of nature all around them.
This enthusiasm will be caught from
the enthusiasm of the teachers, and
hence the summer schools have a great
work before them. At the North Caro-
lima College the session lasted through
the month of July, and was very APP
propriately followed by the State Con-
Vention of Farmers, which lasted three
days Over 400 of the leading farm
ers of the state attended this conven-
ton, and we were glad to know that
a great many of them, If not the ma
jority of them, are readers of the
Practical Farmer, and wherever we
met a reader of the Practical Farmer
we there found an enthusiastic and
progressive farmer. We wish that we
could present to our readers all the
valuable papers that We're read. One
of them on sheep raising in the South,
we did secure. and ii is a most valua-
BILE paper. One of the speakers was a
stockman from Northern Ohio, who
has settled in North Carolina and has
a herd of $50 Polled Angus cattle. One
of the most surprising statements he
made was that he found that he could
have better summer pasture in North
Carolina than in the blue grass sec
ton of Ohio. He said that while the
Ohio blue grass gave fine pasture in
spring and late fall, it was apt to fail
in the dry weather of midsummer but
that where he has settled in North
carolina ne IOund tnat the natural
growth of the Japan clover, Lespediza
Strata, more than took the place of
the blue grass in summer, and it needed
no sowing, for it covers every waste
place every summer, and comes right
at the time when the grass is parched.
One of mis- neighbors, also an Ohio
man, is making a success at dairying
We were pleased to note that neither
of these men were dual purpose breed
ers. The Polled Angus man knew too
well where his interest lies to NEEDLE
with anything but a beef bred animal,
while the dairyman knew too well that
the Polled Angus was useless to him,
and he keeps COWS that have been bred
to the dairy and are built that way"
| The example of men like these is work
ing a revolution in the South, and the
more of them that cast their fortunes
| there the better it will be for the
| South.
Would that every state in the Union
would inaugurate and keep up these
! annual conventions. The Farmers In
stitutes in the different localities are
| all right, but the getting of the
thoughtful men from all parts of the
! state to compare notes will do still
more for the general advancement. The
| great attendance on these annual
| meetings in the South is the. most
| cheering sign of the great agricultural
! awakening that is taking place there.
| The bright men that are going there
from the North are also exerting a
! great influence.