davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

the plants themselves with reference
to their life history and economic uses
For the outdoor practicum the
school is unfortunate in having
neither land nor domestic animals nor
fowls, and yet it has wealth of Illus
trative material all around it. Every
good farm within radius of 3 or 4
miles, nearly every barn and poultry
yard in the village, the butcher shops,
and the farm implement stores furnish
costly illustrative material and extend
vastly the teaching force OF the high
school. The farmers and owners of
good live stock either bring thei' ami
mails to the door of the school house
to be studied by the class in agricul-
ture or allow the class to go to their
barns and fields for this purpose. 1t
is said to be a rare thing for a good
horse to come to the village and get
away without being examined by the
high school class in animal husbandry.
The writer was fortunate in being
the guest of the school one day last
October and in having an opportunity
to listen to some of the recitations in
agriculture. A class of IA BOYS and
6 girls were studying animal industry.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
THE INDEPENDENT TOWN.
Make Each Rural Center Dependent
Upon Itself and Its Own Resources.

make EaCh kur al Nenter dependent
Upon Itself and Its Own Resources.
There has lately developed strong
sentiment looking to the improvement
of the home town-making each
community, as much as possible,
dependent upon itself and it's own
resources and those of its sur
rounding country, and independ-
ent of the great centres which are
constantly striving to secure portion
of the local wealth. This local self
sufficiency may be fostered by an in
dividual and cooperative determi-
nation to bring the Town up to it's
highest possible plane Of comfort, gen.
eral usefulness and beauty to its resi-
dents. This may be described as
movement for civic Improvement.
The accumulation of considerable
wealth in many American villages and
towns, during the last ten or twenty
years, the development of popular
education and the increase of leisure,
has given an opportunity for the per-
Torrance Of public duties, such as
had not seemed to exist to the young
man or woman of the former gener-
alton, who, in the effort to secure
given little thought to the duties of
citizenship and social responsibilities.
It is only within comparatively
few years that, mature study has
entered into any of the public-school
work, or even manual training, while
there are many who yet think that
such institutions as gymnasiums,
baths, Fairgrounds, and even vacation
schools and free lectures are unneces-
sary time-consumers for the young.
Nevertheless the general movement
for better education along rural lines
and for backyard and street improve
ment, and the general betterment of
the village and town is rapidly in
creasing.
- AS an instance of this, even in such
a large city as st. Louis, girls and
boys are given practical instruction in
gardening, through the Junior School
of Horticulture of the Missouri
Botanical Gardens. The children are
permitted to sell their own products
a decided stimulus to their e--orts
and in this way many of them earn
considerable pocket money for vacation
time. This school has been in oper-
alton for a number of years and is of
great value to the citizens as well as
to the children Of the city, the latter
Of whom would otherwise know practi-
cally nothing Of nature as country
children know it
Even in Texas the school garden
and town improvement idea has made
Roadway, although there has been
greater difficulty in obtaining popular
approval and support, possibly, than in
any other section Of the country, owing
to the fact, perhaps, that the Lone
Star State has vast areas of unoc-
crpied land, and to the fact that the
influential majority has been but a
short time removed from the cattle
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
Keep Politics Out.

Every predetermined citizen should
make it known that he is absolutely
opposed to partisan, political control
in the management of public parks,
roadside improvement, Fairgrounds
and like town betterments. Nothing
can be more detrimental to such de-
velopment than the interference of
politics. Party responsibility, as a
remedy for municipal mismanagement,
has been proved a 'delusion and a
snare" Such methods have raised to
important places bigoted, incompetent
and sometimes dishonest men, who, by
reason of their weaknesses or mis-
management, have disgraced what
should be honorable and respected
positions. Our citizens should insist
absolutely that no political consider
atoms be allowed to interior with
park affairs, and should visit with
marked censure and disapproval all
city officials who prostitute their trusts
for mere political gain.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

1t had been organized only three or
four weeks, and yet the interest man.
ifested and the readiness with which
the boys and girls described the beef
type, the dairy type, and various
breeds of cattle, the nut on and wool
types of sheep, the principal breeds of
draft horses, and some of the stand
roadsters and trotters, were
indeed surprising. At the close of the
recitation the class was taken to a
barn in the village W ere ver;.- fine
roadsters were owned. The owner was
not at home, but the teacher had
standing permission to take tt horses
from the barn in order that the class
might examine them. A fine Handle
tonian mare was led into the yard and
examined critically by the pupils and
criticised by them, the different points
being brought out by skillful question
ing on the part of the teac- :.
Fom this place the class went to a
livery barn where a spl6 1did black
Percheron stallion was stabbed for the
day. A member of the class had dis
covered the horse as he was Icing
driven in from another town IA miles
q ways anu 4O1AOMlAS lAc W luc
barn had got permission for the class
to examine him. When the livery
barn was reached the driver brought
his stallion out into the street, put
him through his PAGES, and helped the
teacher in calling attention to his good
points and the contrasts between / e
draft type and the roadster type of
horses, and allowed US to take several
photographs. 1t was an instructive
lesson not only for the members
of the agricultural class, but for
the score or more of farmers
and townsmen who collected around
the livery stable. In much the
same way the local butcher is the in
structor in the high school The class
studying the beef type of cattle, or
the mutton sheep, or the different
classes of swine is taken to the butch
er shop and given a demonstration
lesson on cuts and their relative val
ues, which of the breeds are apt to
produce the better cuts, which the
better quality, anC so on.
Thus this little village high school,
though it pays only $2,230 year in
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
THE AGRICULTURAL HIGHSCHOOL
Successful Examples Described by
Crosby of Department of AgricuI-
ture of Local Improvement
Through Rural Educ alton

In the new Year Book of the De-
partment of Agriculture, Just issued.
is description by D. J. Crosby, of the
office of Experiment Stations, which
shows, in number of instances, what
splendid results are being attained
through the Introduction of common
sense agricultural studies in some of
the country village schools, and how
they directly affect and benefit their
home towns. There is what appears
to be, an almost ideal Pennsylvania
village high school, which the writer
visited. He describes what he saw:
In Erie County, Pa, surrounded by
good general farming and dairy
country, is the village of Waterford,
on the outskirts Of which is the site of
Fort lie Boeuf, of French and India
war fame. At Waterford the first
school in Erie County was establish, l
in 1900, and here as far back as 1922
was erected stone academy build
ing, which is used to-day as the main
part of the high-school building. The
township of Waterford has a popula-
ton of 1,460 and about one hail. re-
side in the borough of Waterf I'd. Tia
borough has it's own elementary
school, but the high school is support
ed and controlled Jointly by the bor-
ough and township.
This high school, with its three
teachers and three courses of study
Language, scientific, and agriculturaD,
has an enrolment of so pupils, and So
of these are in the agricultural course.
This course includes agriculture, five
hours a week for four years. The
work of the first year is devoted to a
study of plant Differentiation plant
growth, plant food, reproduction, prop
agation, transplanting, pruning, and
use of plants; the second year to a
study of field, orchard, and garden
crops; the third year to domestic ami
mails, dairying. and soil physics, "a 1
the fourth year to the chemistry Of
soils and of plant and animal life.
Text books are used in the class
rooms; a small library of agricultural
reference books, reports and bulletins
of this Department and experiment
stations, and agricultural papers con-
tributed by the publishers is in almost
constant use, and lectures on agricul-
tural subjects are given before the
class and before the whole school by
the instructor in agriculture, who is
an agricultural college graduate. But
the feature of instruction which
chiefly distinguishes this agricultural
course from the ordinary high school
course is the prominence given to the
laboratory work and the outdoor prac-
ticum. For the laboratory work there
is no elaborate apparatus. The pupils
make much of their own apparatus,
furnish their own reagent bottles, and,
moreover use them. In the plant-life
course the pupils study not elaborate
and carefully prepared drawings, but
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
HIGH SCHOOL CLASS JUDGING HAMBLEToN1AN MARE

salaries and only 1910 for other ex-
penses, has faculty made up of nu-
merous specialists and an equipment
in illustrative material such as few
technical high schools could afford.
And the pupils are being trained in
the elements of failure and success
not only on "all the farms of the
neighborhood," but in the village
shops and markets. This is training
for efficiency. 1t is training for cul-
ture, for breadth of view, and for
sympathy with all that goes to make
up the life Of the community.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME.

tendency to draw the manufacturing
interests into the great transportation
centers, the tide has flowed strongly
toward the city and the small town
has had hard struggle to retain its
own.
In this respect, however, the pendu-
lum is swinging back also. The con-
ditions surrounding the workmen in
the cities, the lack of home life and
the presence of accumulated vice, have
demonstrated to the satisfaction Of
every one that we will never reach our
highest Industrial success until the
average workman is placed where he
can have fresh air, family, and
home for that family. The small town,
everything else being equal, is the
place for industries. A man with a
home, and who spends his evenings
with his family identifying that
home, is not only better citizen, but
he is worth infinitely more to his en-
ployer than his brother laborer who
has no interest other than that he
finds with his saloon companions and
in ward politics.
When the reformers have settled the
Industrial labor questions they will not
be calling for less hours of work, but
distribution of the hours of work.
Six hours in the factory or the mine
and the balance at home working on
an acre of ground may be made
solution of the whole question between
labor and capital. Any man with a
home and one acre of the earth's sur
face that he can call his own, and
with employment at fair wages during
five or six hours of the day, need never
fear want for himself or his family.
Under such conditions his family can
be reared and educated and live under
the advantages Of wholesome social
atmosphere,
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

P.ainiy wrlttenl to to The Home.
Main St.. Watertown, Mass.
operation the Platform of the Tails.
man. The following is taken there.
from:
EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND
HOMES ON THE LAND.
That children shall he tauob+
gardening and homecraft in the nnhlic
SCHOOLS, and that Homecraft and
GARDEN Training Schools shall be
established by county, municipal
state, and national governments
where every boy and every man ont
OF work who wants employment where
ne can gain that knowledge, can learn
now to make home and till the soil
and get his living straight from the
ground, and where every bow wouId
be taught that his first aim in life
should be to get a home of his own
on the land.
BUILD HOMECROFTS AS NATION.
AL SAFEGUARDS.
That the New Zealand system of
Land Taxation and Land Purchase
ana SUBDIVISION, and Advances to Set
tiers Act, shall be adopted in this
country, to the end that land shall be
subdivided into small holdings in the
hands Of those who will till it for a
livelihood, and labor find occupation
in the creation of homecrofts, which
will be perpetual safeguards against
the political evils and social discomfort
resulting from the overgrowth of
cities and the sufferings Of unem.
ployed wage-earners.
PROTECTION FOR THE AMER.
ICAN HOMECROFT.
That Rural Settlement shall he
encouraged and the principle of Pro-
lection for the American Wageworker
and his Home applied directly to the
Home by the Exemption from Taxa
ton of all Improvements upon, and
also OF. all personal property, not ex-
ceeding $1,000 in value, used on and
In connection with, every Homecroft
or Rural Homestead of not more than
ten acres in extent, which the owner
occupies as a permanent home and
cultivates with his own labor and so
provides therefrom all or part of the
support for family.
ENLARGEMENT OF AREA AVAIL
ABLE FOR HOMEMAKING.
That the National Government.
as part Of a comprehensive nation
al policy Of internal improvements
for river control and regulation,
and for the enlargement to the
utmost possible extent of the
area Of the country available for agri-
culture and Homes on the Land, and
for the protection of those Homes from
either flood or drouth, shall build not
only levees and revetments where
needed, and drainage works for the
reclamation of swamp and overlooked
lands, but shall also preserve existing
forests, reforest denuded areas, plant
new forests, and build the great reser-
voirs and other engineering works
necessary to safeguard against over
flow and save for beneficial use the
flood waters that now run to waste.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

ment exercises took occasion to refer
to the philosophy of Ingalls, famous
poem. ut is false and misleading"
said Mr.. James. ct is not a single op-
portunity which comes to a man; it is
train. 1t is never-ending process
sion, some small, some large, growing
perhaps more small and more insignifi-
can't as the years flow on, but ever
and always opportunities too numer-
Gus, too great, and too large for us to
utilize fully"
This is good, healthful optimism.
There never was time when opportu-
mites of all shapes, sizes and colors
bobbed up on every corner as they do
to-day And they are not confined to
any particular country or locality.
They are waiting everywhere. Under
the rapidly changing Industrial and
economical conditions they are spring
ing up in odd and out-of-the-way-
places. Old settlements-old villages,
moss-grown and for years silent as
the cemetery that clings to their
skirts, are finding new youth in the
revival of occupations and simple in
dustries which twenty years ago were
deemed impossible. The abandoned
farms of New England-The farms
that were left tenantless because it
was thought that the only opportun-
tiles for success were to be found in
the West-are receiving new leases Of
life.
PENDULUM IS SWINGING BACK.
For a full half century the American
people have been money-mad. Every
thing has been sacrificed to the one
idea of accumulation. The dollar sign
became the sole badge of honor, and a
mans success was measured not by
what he made of himself, not by what
he accomplished for his fellows or the
world at large, but by the size of his
pile.
This standard of success has warp
ed the imagination of the whole peo-
pie. The merchant and professional
man bend every energy to the pill
ing up of gold bricks. And the farmer,
not to be outdone, lies awake nights
thinking how he may get more land.
He has now more than he can till,
but the land lust has seized him and
III the market in order that the line
fence may be removed
This has been the condition for
many years, and it requires careful
observation to detect any change. But
a reaction has set in. The pendulum is
swinging back. A growing sentiment
in favor of moderate success, a quiet
life and home surroundings is appar-
ent. With this comes a desire to get
back to original principles; to abandon
the cities and seek the healthful life
of the farm and the village.
The growth of our cities has been
abnormal-the direct result of alb
normal transportation conditions. "To
him that hath shall be given. and to
him that hath not even that which he
hath shall be taken away" has been
the working policy of modern COM
mercial transportation companies. |
The small town has been sacrificed to
the city. This was the natural result |
of competition. In centers where
numerous railroads meet, low rates
are given to both the in-going and OUT
going freight, but where there is but |
one road, the traffic is taxed all that it
will bear. This condition has had |
CONTINUED on column g.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

range business. However, the more
centralized portion of society has taken
the matter up, and it is stated that
the most public-spirited citizens of
the towns and cities, together with the
progressive teachers have made school
gardens and rural education a success
during the past two seasons and have
aroused such enthusiasm among the
pupils, that wherever it has been tried,
the school garden has become a fixture.
let your child plant his own gar
den, gather his own harvest of fruit
and flowers, learn through his own
small experience something of the
influence of the sun, dew and rain,
and gain thereby a remote PRESENT.
ment of the reciprocal energies of
nature and a reverent feeling for the
divine life and law expressed in
nature. The child is a plant, a vege-
table, and must live out of doors, or
nearly so, as conditions will permit. :"
Froebel realized that health was the
basis and test of all our energies, and
that this was one of the morning
stars Of the new hygiene.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
Fresh Air Fairgrounds.

American cities are far behind
European cities in making provision
for public parks, especially in pro-
viding for the instruction and amuse-
ment of children in them. In modern
municipal equipment in Europe, much
provision is made for the instruction
and amusement of children, and in
most modernized European cities large
sums of money have been expended in
procuring open spaces for them in dis
tricts Of cOngested population.
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
EDUCATION
COOPERATION
OPPORTUNITY
EGROFTS

We believe that the Patriotic Slogan
Of the Whole People Of this Nation
should be every Child in Garden
Every Mother in a Homecroft-and In
dividual Industrial Independence for
Every Worker in a Home of his Own
on the Land" and that until he owns
such Home, the concentrated purpose
and chief inspiration to labor in the life
of every wage worker should be his
determination to sect an Acre and
Live on it."
We believe that the Slums and
Tenements and Congested Centers Of
population in the Cities are savagely
deteriorating social, moral and polit-
zeal influence, and that a great public
movement should be organized, and
the whole power of the nation and
the states exerted for the betterment
Of all the conditions of Rural Life, and
to create and upbuild Centers of So
cial and Civic Life in Country and
Suburban Towns and Villages, where
Trade and Industry can be so firmly
anchored that they cannot be drawn
into the Commercial Maelstrom that
is now steadily sucking Industry and
Humanity into the Vortex of the
Great Cities.
We believe that every Citizen in
this Country has an inherent and
Fundamental Right to an Education
which will train him to Earn Liv-
ing, and, if need be, to get his living
straight from Mother Earth; and that
he has the same right to the Opportun-
ity to have the Work to Do which will
afford him that living, and to earn not
only cor Portable livelihood, but
enough more to enable him to be
Homecrofter and to have a Home of
his Own, with ground around it
sufficient to yield him and his family
a Living from the Land as the reward
for his own labor
We believe that the Public Domain
is the most precious heritage of the
people, and the surest safeguard the
nation has against Social Unrest, Dis
turbance or Upheaval, and that the
Cause Of Humanity and the Preserva-
ton of Social Stability and of our Free
Institutions demand that the absorp-
ton of the public lands into specula-
tive private ownership, without settle
ment, be forthwith stopped; and that
the nation should create opportunities
for Homecrofters by building irriga-
ton and drainage works to reclaim
land as fast as it is needed to give
every man who wants a Home on the
Land chance to get it.
We believe that, as Nation, we
should be less absorbed with Making
Money, and should pay more heed to
raising up and training Men who will
be Law-Abiding Citizens; that the well
fare of our Workers is of more con-
sequence than the mere accumulation
of Wealth; and that Stability of Ma
tional Character and of Social and
Business Conditions is of greater i'm
portance to the people of this country
as a whole than any other one ques-
tion that is now before them; and we
believe that the only way to Preserve
such Stability, and to Permanently
Maintain our National Prosperity, is
to carry into immediate effect and
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

This book is the first of a Series
that will Chronicle the Progress of the
HOMECROFT MOVEMENT
and inform all who wish to cooperate
with it how they may do so through
the formation of local Homecrofters'
Circles, Clubs or Gilds to promote
Town and Village Betterment, stimu-
late home civic pride and loyalty to
home institutions, industries and trade,
improve methods and facilities of edu-
cation in the local public schools, and
create new opportunities Sat Home"
that will go far to check the drift Of
trade and population to the cities.
The first Gid Of the Homecrofters
has been established at Watertown,
Massachusetts. The Gildhall, Shops
and Gardens are located at 143 Main
Street, where the Garden School is
now fully organized and over one
hundred children are at work in the
Gardens. The departments for train
ing in Homecraft and Village Indus
tries are being installed. The Weavers
are already at work at the looms.
1t is not designed to build here an
isolated institution, but to make a
model which can be duplicated in any
town or village in the country.
There is New Hope and Inspiration
for every Worker who wants a Home
of his own on the Land in the
CREED AND PLATFORM OF THE
HOMECROFTERS' which is as fol-
lows:
"Peace has her victories no less re-
nowned than war"
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
The FIRST BOOK 4 e. HoMECRoFTERs
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES ABSORBING INTEREST
The Brotherhood of Man
Charity that is Everlasting
The Secret of Nippons poerer
Lesson Of Great Calamity
The Sign of q Thouqhf

Copies Of THE FIRST BOOK HoMEcRoErEps"
obtained sendnC -,
and address carefully and plainly The Ho
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27

"A little croft we owned-a plot of corn,
A garden stored with peas and mint and thyme
And flowers for posies oft on Sunday MORN
sPucked while the church bells rang their earlies
Amador ledger., 1906-07-27
BE A HOMECROFTER
Learn by Doing. Work Together.
Give every Man a Chance

THE SLOGAN HoNECRoFTERs IS
Lcarn DoingWock Together-Gye Every Man Cbance,,
Every Child in Garden-EVey Mother Homecrof Lndt
VIdual Industrial independence for Every
Home of Own on he Land
e-aph Of
ar mir nc thyme
for psieO On Sunday morn
the church ereriedc
-WOrdayoyhG
in
lspenda
exhausted. W. aae ~ ~ Np 10 unie and the