Evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1907-1913, 1907-11-27
The Short Course.

4
Journal as follows;
There are many excellent people to
whom the short course" idea does
not appeal very strongly; they feel
its push, not It's pull 1t may be
said to the credit of these excellent
people that they are against the short
course because they are very earnest
ly for the long course. Put up to
them in concrete form the problem
of the half loaf or no bread, and they
will argue against the half loaf--but
they will not starve to prove their 10y
atty to an academic doctrine. Some
matters about which we have many
differences of opinion become very
quickly, or have his decision made for
him,-and that always in favor of the
negative side Will you swim up
stream or down? Without effort, you
will certainly go down.
Now, we who are advocating the
short course, fragments of university
extension. and other shortcuts to
knowledge and personal efficiency in
business and citizenship--really ii
ought not to be necessary for us to
prove that we do not believe that the
imperfect is more perfect than the per-
| feet; 1t ought not to be necessary for
/ us to prove our loyalty to the best
educational orthodoxy before we are
allowed TO advocate the possible rather
than the impossible, the practical ra-
Their than the impractical; and II
ought not to be necessary for us to
remind our excellent friends of the
possibility of little leaven leavening
the whole lump. And il isn't; every
man of sense knows that little more
sound knowledge is better than a lit
tie less; and every such man knows
! that we are eternally right in insist
ing on giving the little more" when
we can not give the ideal amount. So
there is perfect agreement, but only
after we have understood each other;
and that perfect agreement will con
tinue as long as we are willing to help
each other.
Agricultural extension has become
a part of the policy Of the West vir-
ginia university. 1t was a part Of
its policy and part of tbs method be-
| fore the new department had name
The short course in agriculture was
the expression of the developing poll
cy of the university. 1t has been win
ming it's way for years. This year, un-
less the signs are very deceptive, 1t
| is winning its way more definitel,
than ever before. The men who need
the benefits offered are planning to
come, and the men who are planning
to make the coming of these men pro-
ftable to them are making their plans
more intelligently than ever before
Something is doing now, and someth-
ing will continue to be dong until the
last man has come and gone.
What is to be offered in the short
course? Scientific agriculture, just like
the most unscientific agriculture, deals
with three things-soil, plans, animals
with these as influenced by the wea-
Their.
| Who will teach those who come for
the short course? Our own men need
not be named now President Kenyon
l.. Butterfield, of the Massachusetts
Agricultural college will spend week
with us, and is already scheduled for
five class lectures, five conferences on
rural problems, and two night lectures
A hard-headed Rhode Island farmer
said few years ago: President But
terfeld strikes twelve every time" We
are to have the twelve strokes. Direc-