Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-30

Visiting a hundred country schools In
the ''wire-grass'' counties affords an IN
usual opportunity for observing conditions
] in the rural districts of south Georgia
In some respects this section may be
considered the new part of the state. As
! a farming section it is certainly entitled
! to be so denominated. The days OF Tim
Der cutting''-hewn timber for shipping
have long passed; boxing" for turpen-
tine is no longer a chief industry. 1t Is
| still going on. but not on the large scale
! of fifteen and twenty years ago; and
the saw mills on wheels that made a
finish of the forests of scarifled pines
have almost entirely disappeared. And
| now the landholder is coming into his
own. as a farmer and permanent occu-
pant.
In all the counties visited there are evil
| dences of progress; and improvements are
going on in all lines bearing upon farm
/ life. The first Of these improvements
to be noticed are very naturally
THE ROADS.
The chief obstacle to be overcome in
road Improvement in this section are
the sand beds" And by this term it
must not be supposed that only here and
there are excessive accommodations o6
sand, for these beds extended practically
! the whole length of the road relieved oc-
casionally by a creek or branch. The
ing of clay. This clay is generally OBJ
tanned by digging into a nearby ridge,
! though in some cases 1t is necessary to
| haul 1t a considerable distance. This
| ''claying the roads," as It is termed,
gives them hard surface with little dust
/ in dry weather or mud after rain, and
this method Of road improvement seems
| therefore satisfactory. There are already
many miles of "clayed roads in these
counties and the road boards are push
| ing the work very energetically, backed
| In many instances by owners OF auto
mobiles in the towns. There is a manifest
pride, too, in straight roads.
Many curves and sharp turns have
! been eliminated and 1t is not an unusual
thing for one to be able to look ahead
| over a stretch of road extending two or
three miles. In bridges and their ap-
! proaches much excellent work is being
done. Near Blackshear, in Pierce county,
! is a new bridge nineteen hundred and
! fifty feet long-over a third of a mile.
| 1t is of a uniform width of twelve feet,
| not wide enough to allow two vehicles
| to pass but this is provided for by widen
! ing the bridge at two places giving am
/ pie pass ways" and thus obviating long
waits at the end. In Ware county the
policy of enclosing and roofing all the
bridges seems to have been adopted by
| lIS IOdu O1AlCldiS.
WIRE FENCES.
! Another gratifying Improvement is the
/ substitution of wire fences for the old
| style rail fences with its troublesome cor
/ ners the condition of which in the days
! before the negro tenant system came in
| to vogue, was considered a sure index
! of the kind of farmer the field belonged
to. There are miles of this wire fence
1 we'll secured to stout nghtwood posts Civ
! ing the impression that the owner of the
] land it encloses has confidence in his
| holdings and expects to stay there.
| MARCH ON THE STUMPS."
But perhaps the most striking and sig
nificant improvement is the movement
against stumps. The spare time in win
! ter heretofore given to clearing new
| ground and cleaning fence corners, seems
| now to be devoted to removing stumps
| Only one who rides for a half mile along
! fields dotted with stumps and then
I comes to a beautiful level plot unmarried
/ by a single black stump can fully appre-
! ciate the inspiring effect of this improve
ment. And it is full of meaning, too, for
! it is the sure forerunner Of labor-saving
| implements, the weed chopper, the now
er and the sulky pillow, these in turn re-
curing more intelligence and skill in the
| farm laborer.
! THE RURAL SCHOOLS.
| But most interesting of all in this grow
ing section, certainly to the writer, are
the rural schools-strictly speaking-GeOr-
gia's common schools" In these, condi-
tions vary widely. In several respects,
| however, the schools taken altogether
progress. A larger number of the teach
ers than ever before are such as have
Ihad more or less training in normal
schools or summer Institutes. This is es-
pecially true of the women teachers, and
| it will surprise others, no doubt, as 1t
did the writer to learn that sixty per
cent or more of the teachers in these
schools are women. And it is only justice
| to them to say they have won their way
to these places by better preparation for
the work than men are willing to make
and by actually doing the work better
than it is being done by men. This ap-
plies to the single room school requir-
/ ing but one teacher. For these 1t is fast'
becoming the belief of school boards anc
superintendents that women are the prop
Ell teachers, and though men have the
advantage in the matter of securing board
convenient to the school, and in their
opportunity fS- meeting and talking with
| patrons and I&ile it is a fact that gen.
| orally they are preferred by patrons, there
| is nothing surer than tina. the days of
men as teachers in single room rural
schools are numbered and the alaces that
| now know them VIII soon KNOW lneIH AO
more.
! More than this in many places the
double room, or two-teacher schools, have
women at their head, and it is due them
to say that in scholarly equipment and
| in the care of buildings and grounds they
may with confidence challenge comparl-
son with the men holding similar posi-
lions. Whether in the training of the large
bovs and girls of these schools they will
show themselves as. capable as men is as
vet a debatable question.
J In several of the counties visited a num-
| Der of school districts had voted the local
! tax allowed under the McMichael law
| and had erected commodious and comfort
/ able school houses. While the houses are
/ we'll built and of good proportions they
| are all defective as to interior adapta-
! ton to their uses. 1t is strange that be-
| fore proceeding to build, the building
! committee did not consult the county