Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-06-04
THE SCHOOL FOR THE FARMER
What the Agricultural College Does
for a Boy.

What the Agricultural College Does
for a Boy.
The following from the pen of
Prof. E. ]. Wing in the Breeders
Gazette throws considerable light on
an interesting question:
Times are not what thew were
thirty years ago. Then farmers
sons attended the country schools
somewhat fitfully; they quit school
early in the spring to begin blowing;
they never graduated, but after
reaching a mans stature they grew
weary of school and went no more.
From that time on they plowed and
sowed titled and reaped, as fancy
and traditional custom dictated. 1t
was not then dreamed that a man
could learn at school things especial
ly useful to the farmer, least of all
that he might with profit go away
from home to an agricultural school
that would make him a better man
and better farmer.
We were wont to look back at
those days as "the good old times"
In truth, to those of us who find our
hair silvered the memories of those
old days are very precious. There
was good in them that maybe has
departed forever. There was much
of strenuous endeavor, much of forti-
tude and self-denial But yet in |
many ways these latter days are rich
er days. Today lands are far more
fertile than they were then. Today !
farm practices are far better. Today |
men are wiser, let us hope gentler
and better men. Their ideals today |
are higher than they were thirty
years ago. They live better, have
better homes, more books, more leis-
ure to read.
Today the farmer can afford, as he
could not thirty years ago, to send
his son away to school after he has
outgrown the rural school or the viii
Iage high school. To what school
shall he send the boy? 1t may not
be desirable to make him a farmer
There may not be land for each of
the farmers sons. There are schools
of engineering and farmers sons
make the best engineers. Perhaps
medicine, or law, or the ministry is
the boys true calling Rest we'll as
sured that for whatever he is pre-
pared that he will do.
Today the agricultural college is
well worth consideration. 1t is in no
sense a school of low grade, a place
easily entered, easily mastered. The
in the modern agricultural
college is thorough, the course full
broad, deep. There is room In it for
all the energies, all the intelligence
Of the young man. In many ways his
is as thorough as the engi-
neer's. The province of the college
Is two-fold 1t gives the young man
to carry home and it
makes him strong enough to carry It.
It is not more what it gives the
young man than it is what it makes
The young man. If he is a good stu
dent, If he honestly tries to get what
he can from the school he comes
from 1t wiser, richer, his mind dis
,iplined and stored with things that
go to make him a better citizen, as
we'll as a better farmer. Will he
make more money for the training OF
he agricultural college? Very easily
ne may make more money, but in
'initely more of worth he will be a
'icher man, a better man, a mors
Useful man in his township county
md state.
From commercial standpoint
merely the agricultural training Is
we'll worth while. The farm boy who
Knows practical details of farm pr6c-
ice and underlying principles as
veil who can superintend a large
arm or plantation and keep its de-
ails we'll in order and who can so
manage It's soil, its animals, its crops
hat they viii show the greatest
hrift, Is in demand, One day not
ong ago the writer was consulted by
friend, large planter in the south.
'his planter desired young man to
several plantations. He
ound a young man who had made a
uccess OF one such plantation. To
induce this skilled college young man
O come 20 him he offered salary
Il more than $4,000 year Farm
ng pays today. and the better II is
lone the better Il pays. Rich men
NOW this, they love the country and