The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1901-1982, 1908-10-29

the boy with the right spirit and train
ing, good profits are now available and
the opportunities increasing at rate al
most beyond comprehension.
In the next few years to come more
and more men of wealth are going to
the country to live, because after all that
may be said to the contrary, country
life is the happy one and as soon as
men become possessed of few thousand
dollars IN. other vocations, naturally
their minds induce them to return to
country homes and farms.
Each of the states of this union is
now receiving $24,oo annually from
the federal government for research
work in agricultural, and it is thought
this sum will soon be increased to $40
900. l regard this as one of the great
est of all appropriations that our ma
tional government has made in the way
of assisting its municipal divisions, and
predict that more good results will
come from it in a proportionate ratio
than from any other assistance the
states have received.
The General Education Board of New
York has also placed in the hands of the
agricultural department the sum of
So9,ooo.oo for demonstration work in
improved farm operations for the south
ern states.
The annual appropriations by the fed
eral government for the determination
of the boll-weevil in the south are also
being literally construed, so that a
large benefit to southern farmers is be-
ing realized in demonstration work from
that fund. This federal demonstration
totn h. ~~1a L.
of DR.. S. A. Knapp, as special agent
from the bureau of plant industry, and
his work, in the remarkably short time
that he has been engaged, has been felt
all over the southern states. If it is
Dr. Knapp's work will give the greatest
relief in the quickest time of any assist
ance vet received in the south.
But the greatest drawback to the
training of the average farmers boys
aud girls is the school to which they
might go for instruction in their line of
work. 1t is either so far away that they
cannot easily attend, or the courses of
study SO high that they could not be adj
mitted without a rigid examination,
which they either could not pass, or
what amounts to the same thing, think
they could not. And then if they did
enter, the time of attendance in the reg
ular college course is too long for the
means of the average farm boy or girl
Because OF these facts and because the
system would reach more farmers boys
and girls, advocate the establishment
of system of schools, commencing
with few at first and increasing in
number and extent as experience will
demonstrate the efficiency of, to which
the farmers boys and girls may go and
learn how to make more cotton and corn
to the acre; learn how to prohtably
grow and maintain live stock, and learn
how to cook and keep in a systematic
manner the affairs of the household A
school i'll which they may learn to make
butter and cheese and to do the hun
dreds of other things in practical way
which can be taught in school of this
kind. l do not mean college where
the curriculum is so high that it would
take a good sized college professor to
enter one of the lower classes, nor do l
mean high school which is trying to
excel the college i'll exploitation of its
course of training. But l do mean a
school which will accept boy or girl,
no matter how little text book know
ledge they may have, and put them to
studying for themselves the real prob
lens of farm life; studying how to make
farm life happier, better and more pro-
ftable than il now is.
1t is just as easy for a girl in school to
learn the blending of colors for the cell
ing and walls of her room. to know how
to arrange the furniture, to keep stock
of household necessities, aud under
stand the laws of sanitation, as it is to
let time fritter away for a period of
three or four years at cost of twenty
bales of cotton, teaching her to play four
pieces of music on the piano which she
is sure to forget the first year after leav-
ing school. 1t is ell right, of course,
for her to learn how to play on the
piano, but if she is taught to pail the
COW at the same time, take my word for
it, she will play the piano with as much
grace and more vigor after she is grown.
am in favor of sending these children
to training scools where they will be
educated to love the farm instead of
hating it; where they will be taught to
stay on the farm instead of being taught
to get away from it. l am in favor of
schools, such as farmer
expressed it not long ago, where "the