Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-10-10
DEVELOPING THE FARM sov.

From Farmers and Drovcrs' journal
That IN. country schools should consider
more fully the environment and probable
future of the pupils is the BELIEF of Pro-
lessor Fred II. Rankin of the Illinois col
lese of agriculture. He says: THE dis
trict schools recruit the academies; tho
colleges recruit the universities. and they
IN turn have been recruiting every profos-
eion under the sun except farming. Out
OF these training schools should come back
to the tarins q constant stream of healthy
lie especially instructed for agricultural
Interests.
The rlajority of workers in Illinois arc
engaged in agriculture: the environment
of thei. children Is rural. But the domi-
nnit Question is not expansion In acres
or national possessions. but rather expan-
SIGN OF brain skill and Judgment of these
farm boys. Am / asking 100 much When
j plead for the cooperation of The rural
schOcl teachers that their instruction be
based in harmony with the calling which
the majority of their pupils must engage
in?
There are at least a few scientific terms
which should be as familiar to the farm
er boy as the multiplication table is: they
are such as the elements which go to make
up food ra~tion- protein. ~rbohydratcs or
the essential elements of soil fertility
nitrogen, phosphorus. potash, etc. These
terms are neither harder to understand
nor use than 'minuend.r 'subtrahcna."
greatest common divisor.' "al:quot
parts "~conJunctive adverb," etc. words
which are rarely used outside of the
school room, yet are daily drilled into the
children as though vital to their exist
ence.
! do not advocate that our schools
should teach practical farming or very
much agriculture, but they can teach
many things about crops, soils, ann ais.
faadGfifG rAae nj, urht,l. rf.t 49,.
make more practical farmers and will help
to make all wao live in the country have
a keen appreciation of rural life and its
opportunities. 10 lead up to this work:
i believe that Il is possible for a teacher
TO interest the boys IN legumes and plants
which are mere fascinating thar any
novel can be. The following suggestions
dig up some clover roots and SHOW them
the tubercics or nodules wherein the
bacteria are at work. xplain how the
roots Of these legumcs are little Iabora-
tories. as II were, and how countless
bacteria can entrap the nitrogen from
the air and make II available as an Gle
ment of fertility to the growing crop.
Explain how four-ifths of the all We
breathe is pure nitrogen, and now sus-
pended over every square inch of earth
there are about twelve pounds of nitrogen.
worth from IA to Is cents per pound. and
how over every acre Of land there are
$500 tons OF this the most costly .lc-
men; of soil fertility. worth over 81. ocO.c.
Then take up the wonderful poss.bi!::!os
of the corn plant and explain how from.
Ii are Manufactured over seventy distinct
commercial products: how the very rubber
boots that he wears through the mud were
largely made freq tho corn plant. The
syrup he eats on his cakes and the taft
he gives his best girl-all of these things
MAY be taught in the school room. ;hrs
i4seTes:i2I III" Mo~s .,tS.he co,n-crc;al
SIDE Of eJcp production.