The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-13
Next Educational Step Of State
An Article Appearing in December Number Of the Educator
Journal From the Pen of w. S. Hiser, Richmond.

Happy the man who has the town es-
capped.
To him the whistling trees, the muir
muring brooks,
The shining pebbles preach
Virtues and wisdoms lore.
Goethe
agriculture is the greatest among
arts, for it is first in supplying our
necessities. 1t is the mother and nurse
of all other arts. 1t favors and
strengthens population; it creates and
maintains manufactures, gives en-
plOyment to navigation and materials
to commerce. 1t animates every spe-
cics of industry, and opens to nations
the surest channels OF opulence. 1t
is also the strongest bond of we'll reg
ulated society, the surest basis of in
ternal peace, the natural associate of
good morals"
In 1892 the state of Wisconsin be-
gan an experiment in agricultural ed
ucation in the founding of the county
school of agriculture.
In 1899 Hon. l.. D. Harvey, State
Superintendent of Public instruction,
was appointed commissioner to inves-
tigate the rural school systems of
other states and of foreign countries.
The object of this investigation was
to determine the best method of in
Producing agriculture, manual train
ing and domestic economy into the
common schools of the state Of Wis
consin
In his report to the legislature of
1901, the commissioner recommended
among other things, that two county
schools of agriculture and domestic
economy be provided for. The legis
lature thereupon enacted law au
thorizing the establishment Of two
such schools. Marathon and Dunn
counties built and equipped schools.
which opened in the fall of 1902. The
Marathon county school opened Octo-
Der 6. 1902, being the first school of
its kind opened in the United States.
The legislature Of 1901 provided for
the payment from the state treasury
of one-half of the annual Institutional
expense of each school; provided that
not more than $4,000 be paid. In 1903
the law was amended SO that two
thirds of the annual cost of mainte
nance should be paid to each school,
provided that $4,000 be the limit Of
such aid
An experiment in 1902. these schools
are an assured success in 1909. Wis
consin may feel proud of her forward
step in training her boys and girls of
the rural districts. A we'll laid plan
of agricultural education from the dis
trict school to the state university is
gradually developing. Between the
very elementary agricultural instruc-
ton of the former and the advanced
work of the latter, the county schools
Of agriculture occupy an important
place. That the schools first estab.
lished are meeting the expectations of
that other counties of the state have
established, or are planning to estab-
fish similar schools under a revision
of the first law. The following states
have County Agricultural Schools:
Texas 4, Tennessee 10, Minnesota 10.
Alabama has provided for agricul-
tural schools of secondary grade, one
in each congressional district
The organization and courses of
study of the Indiana schools tend too
much to impress pupils that manual
labor is beneath the dignity of educa-
ted people. For instance, in our
larger towns and cities our county
and city boys and girls go to school
wearing the best clothes, clean linen
and patent leather shoes. doing little
or no work in which hand and face
become soiled and which requires the
wearing Of common clothes. Living
this sort of life during the most sus-
ceptible period of their lives from &
to Is. they feel upon completing their
school career that society ought to
furnish them good job at which
they need not dirty their hands nor
soil their clothes. and at q paying sal
airy.
You are probably aware that the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture has some we'll defined ideas with
reference to education for country life
which are being put into circulation for
the good of the cause" They are
given in this connection in order that
you may have before you the other
proposed solution CT agricultural ed
ucation and that word of caution
may be given at the close of their pre-
sentation.
"A movement is we'll begun to or
ganize, as part OF our great Amer
lean school system, the secondary
schools so as to meet especially the
needs of country life. This move
ment contemplates that. below and
leading to our more than sixty state
colleges of agriculture established. we
shall have three hundred or four hun
dred agricultural schools, practically
one for each country congressional dis
trict of ten or more counties. either
separate or as strong department OF
an existing institution.
But vastly more important is the
larger movement to establish a sys-