The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-09-22
FARMERS NEW EDUCATION
The Independent.

me lH0efenQenJ.
The West has new idea. 1t is making the
education of its young men include the farm as
well as the workshop and the laborat Dry. For
several years the Western states have been con-
Quoting agricultural colleges in which the best
of scientific knowledge has been dispensed, and
the students have been graduated full of prac
tical information concerning grains, breeds and
culture. But now the West Is going even farther
and Is carrying this sort of education into the
lower grades of its educational system, a move
ment of considerable Importance in its relation
to Western development 1t indicates an appre-
citation of the needs of the community worthy
of consideration because it is rare in new COM
monwealths.
In one county high school a system has been
followed that included the judging of cattle, the
planting of crops and the selection of seed. The
result has been an increased attendance of boys
from the farms and lively interest in the doings
of the school that has added to the effectiveness
of the years work. Other schools are taking up
the idea intending to follow it to its legitimate
end-the fitting of the farmer for his work in
the same degree that the teacher or the artisan
is trained.
Probably the full advantage of agricultural
education has not been recognized. For many
years the colleges under State management, and
have conducted schools devoted directly to the
training of farmers. More than that, they have
sent instructors out into the farming districts
with lectures calculated to inform the settlers
how best to till and plant their lands. OF late
years, through the efforts of the railroads, good
seed trains" have been sent on long journeys,
thousands of farmers visiting them and listen
ing TO the experts. who went prepared with
charts and samples of grain to show how big
crops can be raised.
Ali this is practical and, so far as the railroads
are concerned, to some extent selfish for the
raising of larger crops means increased traffic
and larger prosperity on the part of the farming
communities. This has been accomplished. too,
for the grain average has been materially in,
this education has been most thorough. What
it will be when the education is extended to the
academic schools and Is made to q degree COM
pulsory, instead of being confined to the few
who are willing TO go to an agricultural college,
is not easy to predict.
is essentially farming section. will take to the
new idea in education. The high school course
that does not include few weeks, at least, in
farming and stock judging soon will be as much
out of fashion as is that which now does not have
manual training in its curriculum. 1t is too
Productive as the West is, it does not live up
to its possibilities. For instance, the report of
Secretary Coburn on the Kansas wheat crop
just given out estimates an average yield of
14.3 bushels to the acre, yet there are hundreds
of thousands of acres that yielded 35 to 40 bushels
Ported as promisinT much. vet il viii average
only half or third of the high mark in produc
ton. If the younger generation of farmers can
be educated so that the best results shall be not
the exception, but the rule, the West will double
and triple its yields and its prosperity Of today
which is wonder to the financial world, will be
beyond the dreams of its most ambitious pro-
motors.
The beginning of agricultural education in the
high school Is the first step in the movement for
greater returns from the fields. 1t is not alone
moisture nor culture nor seed selection that
makes q great yield. Rather 1t is the full under
standing of the utilization of all these forces
and their application to the climatic needs and
limitations of the country. This it Is that has
made il possible for settlers to thrive on the
high plains where formerly thousands of home
steaders were starved out because they did not
understand what could be done probably. In
that very section the Government Is maintain
ing experiment farms where scores of varieties
pies that should govern agriculture in an area
of limited rainfall are taught
One danger exists: that farming methods be
discussed and taught to the loss of that wider
culture that comes of books and goes far to
make for happiness and the satisfaction of life.
The West gl0rifies the god of Statistics many
bushels, SO many head, so many pounds; The
greater the number and value, the lOftier its
PRIDE It should take care that It does not sacri-
ice higher things in education for the advan-
taGe of greater crops and better stock. AS the
extension of agricultural training in the COM
mon schools goes on. its tendency will be ap-
parent, and educators throughout the nation
will watch the outcome with interest. Let us
hope that It may be practical without being de-
structive Of ideals.