The Jones County news., 1910-10-20
al SYSTEM
|, Agriculture


lished In the state, while others win
be In a few months
The county agricultural high school
will teach agriculture In a practical
way. These schools win be equipped
to teach the youth OF the state the
value Of all crops and what crops can
be produced in Mississippi
There win be a demonstration farm
In connection with each school. Boys
who are unable TO attend the A. &
NJ. College at Starkville win get the
best possible instruction at these high
schools, ia an educational way, as well
as practical instruction in farming.
They viii be given the opportunity to
develop their theories of growing GER
tain crops, under the direction of an
experienced instructor.
There are seyenty-nlne counties in
Mississippi, and every one of them
Will have its agricultural high school
in two or three years A special tax
is levied for the maintenance of these
schools, but no one realizes the value
of such an education more than the
farmers themselves. The fathers Of
these children had no such advan-
tages in their boyhood days, but de-
sire to give their children every ad-
vantage to become successful farmers.
1t is through this educational system
that Mississippi is steadily advancing,
and through methods that were re-
garded, a few years ago, as visionary.
The fight for rural schools was a hard
one, and to President Henry L. Whit
field of the Industrial Institute and
College, Columbus, is due the present
magnificent system, through which has
deyelope the present agricultural
progress.
Ten years ago, as State Superintend-
ent of Education, Mr.. Whitfield took
up the work Of developing a system of
rural schools. Many districts had no
school at all, while others were open
only few months, and the opportuni-
ty of the child who sought knowledge |
was limited, unless his parents moved |
to city or town,
AT that time the movement from the
farm to the city was at it's height, and
many farms were practically deserted,
except by the negro tenants. There
was not much money in raising cotton
not enough for the family to live
on comfortably-and the father and
often the mother, on moving to city, |
took up other work, while the child
was given partial education-just
enough, often, to handicap him and
unfit him for work of any kind
But with the development Of the
school system and new methods of ag-
ricuture-with the diversifcation
idea drilled into the youth at school
conditions have gradually improved.
The improvement has been greater the
last three years, because of the adj
vent of the boil weyil Cotton could
not be grown in some sections at all,
and this drove the farmer on the sink
ing cotton ship to seek refuge on the
diversification lifeboat
He is still experimenting, and the
next few years will see even greater
developments than the last five or six.
sippi what it would have taken twenty
years of education to have done, but
1t has done its work well, and has aid
ed the educated farmer in his work.
Diversihcation, as it is being taught
in Mississippi, means the salvation OF
the state. The boil weevil has no ter
rors for the diversiicationist He has
learned that he can, by the eradication
of the cattle tick, raise better cattle
in Mississippi, Louisiana or any other
Southern state, than in the West. He
can, by watching his hogs. produce
better meat than other states. This
is because of the mild winters and fine
pasturage. Not only can he produce
better cattle and hogs, but he can do
it cheaper, which means a greater
profit.
Mississippi has always been an agri-
cultural state. She is no more so now
than thirty years ago, but the lands
are titled more intelligently and made
to produce more per acre than then.
But the lands have not been brought
to the full strength Of their productive
ness. and viii not be for a few years
more-when farmers learn to make
the same land produce more than one
crop a year.
Some farmers are doing this, in
small way, and it is through these
pioneers, always young men with new
ideas, that the state will soon become
one Of the richest and most progress