The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-27
FARMERS AND EDUCATION.


 | the age is the fast spreading convic- ton that farmer should know some thing else than how to perform the mere physical labor incident to his calling. The old belief that "to blow and to hoe. to reap and to sow com prised all that was needed in the edu- cation of boy for successful farm | ing is fast becoming back number. Formerly the farmers. when they be- Iieved in education at all, thought that to educate tho boy in the rudiments, as we might express it. of common l school education was all that could be needed to make him a successful til- Ter of the soil. Not a word about the different varieties of soil and their adaptation to the different crops to be grown on them. Not a word about the chemical qualities of fertilizers and their effects, or of the special fer | tilizers best adapted to different soils and different crops. All these things ! were entirely left out of the curricu- lum of the farmer boys education, and he was expected to follow in the foot steps of his father, or learn by long and bitter experience what would be ! best to do and when to do it.
 The fact that agriculture is a science has been slow to make it's way. No one would expect a man to become sue cessful practitioner of law or medicine with no knowledge of his profession except what could be obtained from No. faf fhnr could expect his boy to go from the school room of the former time and at once become successful engineer. Even the least educated and most poorly informed farmer could see that in order to become successful in any of the professions some training was necessary, but they were unable to see or understand that some special eau cation was needed to make good far mer. If he knew how to blow good furrow, to wield the hoe and the scythe. and when it was the proper time to harvest his crops it was not thought that anything else was re- quired
 The fact is. as is now becoming well known and understood, farming is an exact and exacting science. and the boy or young man who expects to adopt that as his life business needs to be instructed in ali that will go to make his calling a success. The time has come, and it is every day be- coming more apparent. when one of the vital problems of existence is to know how to make the earth produce the greatest results. The increase of population is constantly adding to the number of mouths to be filled. The same increase is constantly narrowing | the area of arable land that can be controlled by one individual. These two causes working together are hast ening the time when 1t will be not only desirable. but essential to obtain the most from the farms. the gardens and the orchards. Mans comfort and in dependence, If not his actual existence, must shortly depend on getting the greatest yield from each acre of land that can be devoted to cultivation. The time is vanishing when farmer can be satisfied with cuItivating forty or fifty acres of land to support a small family.
 Let it please thee" wrote old Hesiod, many centuries ago, ito keep in order a moderate sized farm, so that thy gamers may be full of fruits in their season" And so we say let 1t please each farmer to know how to get all he can out of his land, so that the multitudes may be fed. We make no pretence to a knowledge of farm 1 ing, and do not assume the capacity to teach it, but we read of what is going on in the world and gather our I own inferences. We read of a man who applies the latest scientific meth ods to farming and gathers double, treble or quadruple crops from an acre as compared with the old hap hazard way of cultivation. We can see from these reports how the cultivator who is educated in his business, and who applies to it the latest and most scientific methods gathers much lar ger crops with less labor in making. It is because we read what agricul- tural education is doing for some of the tillers of the soil that we plead for it to become universal as far as possible Soils differ very much and the same kind of fertilizer Is not best suited to all soils. Likewise, differ ent crops require different fertilizers and different soils are best suited to certain crops. All these facts should | be taught the youth who expects to farm for a living in order that he may get the best results. We now have agricultural schools in various parts of the country but they are too few unless their teachings can be supplemented by the common schools, especially in the rural dis tricts. In our opinion a nation of edu- cated farmers means nation of inde- pendent people, and their agricultural education should go on with their other school training.
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 If the political pot should boil in Alabama as does in Tennessee the