St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1910-10-29

N&FS A4AAS5 az AZ Az pa oSA4SAhS
law, medicine or any other profession
from which man earns a legitimate
living.
The orators of the South have
always hattered us with the idea that
our climate is ideal and that our
soils are wonderfully fertile. This is
true, but our farmers are coming to
the realization that although our en-
vironment is excellet, our soils are
not any longer fertile except under
intelligent management. They. are
rapidly awakening from that pro-
tracted lethargy of Indifference to-
ward scientific methods of farming.
To farm with the head; to realize
that no farmer can succeed by mere
brute strength, and that drudgery
is work without thought-these are
the ideas that are being impressed
upon the farmers of to-day by such
men as are now travelling with the
Demonstration Train throughout this
State.
The farmers are beginning to aD-
preciate the fact that one Of their
greatest needs is more intelligent
management and better trained labor.
In order to obtain these we must ed
ucate ourselves along agricultural
lines, and the farmers of Louisiana
are educating themselves and their
sons as well. Agricultural high
schools, such as we have here in
Grand Prairie, are being established
throughout the entire State, and
agriculture is being taught in the
rural schools. Of course agriculture
cannot be taught very successfully
in an ordinary rural school. No
teacher can handle six or eight
grades and teach agriculture to any
great advantage; but it can be
taught successfully in the agricul-
tural high schools of this country
and is being taught successfully in
all those that have been established.
In fact, we are proud of the prog
ress we are making, and fully be-
lieve that this class of schools is des-
tined to prove a great factor in
revolutionizing and improving our
agricultural methods. Of course it
is not to be expected that they will
do their best work the first year.
They are a new departure in the ed
vocational effort and it will, of neces-
sity, require some time to get them
organized.
The boys Of Louisiana are not only
being taught agriculture in the agri-
cultural high schools, but they are
being taught on the farm by OBJ
servation and by practical experience
through the infunce of the various
clubs-corn clubs and the judging
contests. Six thousand boys, under
the wise management Of Prof. V. L.
Roy, are learning the lesson of good
farming this year. The farmers
themselves are organizing into edu-
cational societies throughout the
South. st. Louis, just afew months
ago, witnessed the greatest assembly
Of planters and agriculturists ever
known in this country before. Thou
sands of farmers and farmers organ
izations met in joint session for the
purpose of discussing various ques-
tions Of state and problems of agri-
culture. The farmers Institutes,
which heretofore only excited the
ridicule of the men they were in
tended to help, are now becoming
the centers of attraction in many
Southern States. The agricultural
colleges. which were once the scorn
of the people, are to-day the centers
of authority on farming in all its
various phases. If the farmer wishes
to know what disease is shifting his
crop, he may write to the ~agricultur-
ist Of the college; if he desires to
know what element is lacking in his
soil, he may send a sample to the
college for analysis; if he wants to
know how to combat insect pest he
asks his college specialist.
[ find that the farmers of Lonisia-
ma are not only seeking scientific
knowledge and improved methods,
but they are putting them into prac-
tice. Diversifcation is being more
generally practiced; costly CONNER
cial nitrogen is giving way to flourish
ing legumes; drainage systems, | IN
derstand are being laid out; i'm