The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., 1910-06-04

dence.)-As write this We have crossed the bor-
der once again on Southern SOIL and nv
heart beats faster at the thought of the possibil-
tiles Of our Southland and the work that Is to be
done within her borders. This does not mean
that sectional: in love Of our great country
and in reverence OF Old Glorys stars and strnes 7
yield to man North West. But for the South
every true Southerner must feel a distinct and
peculiar affection. That she is behind the North
and West in many respects. grant The peo-
pie Of the South live yet in shahbier houses:
there are too many ramshacke barns; the fields
are less thoroughly plowed, patches instead of
broad we-kept fields. and the land has been too
often neglected and allowed to wash. The beauti-
ful herds OF cattle, the sleek Percheron plow-
horses two or three abreast, the trim lawns the
great red barns-these longer the rule as
in the West There are also frnges of disrep-
utable looking cabins on the edges of these
Southern towns. and too often the white people,
from association with the lower ideals OF neatness
and thrift on the part OF a more backward race
seem TO have suffered a pitiful saggng Of their
own racial standards The roads here are in
worse condition: there are ten times as many peo-
pie who can't read and write. and the schools are
yet by no means n efhcent in the North and
West
And yet In spite of all these things. I would not
live in the West Rather must the true South
erner feel that because OF these things the call is
all tho more imperative for him to stay in the
South. The task OF betterment, the task OF i'm
proving these conditions-this is his. and he dare
not run away from It. As we'll might a soldier
desert his post in time Of battle. II your neigh
boris field Is plowed well. do not wish for IT, but
plow your own well: II your neighbors children
arc well educated do not wish for his but educate
your own. And our duty In not to covet the
beauty and thrift and enterprise OF the West but
to give our lives to bringing to the South the same
high degree OF beauty and thrift and progressive
ness.
To educate all boys and girls In longer
and better and more practical public schools and
to educate our older people through farm papers
and demonstration work and farmers Institutes
etc..-this must be main hope OF deliverance
This. however is not what started out to say
There arc number OF other good ideas yet to be
reported that have gotten from this trip through
the farming sections Of Illinois, Wisconsin, and
Indiana-among others the idea that no boy who
can afford ought to start farming until he sees
how those Western farmers work.
Over In Wisconsin they have an Agricultural
College that In doing an almost marvellous work.
and We must go to work to get something like 1t
In every State In the South. Ten years ago there
were only nine students In the long agricultural
course; now there arc 332. But II is not the long
course which has done most to help Wisconsin
farming: II is the short course. This short
eouIso ID uesisneu especially 10 enapie tne Iarm
boy to 70 to college after the crops gathered
and Get back before time for starting the crops
In the spring. II 10 a two-year course OF four
teen weeks each. lasting from the nrst OF Decem-
ber to tho middle Of March. That Ia to say, the
farm boy takes tho course In the comparatively
idle weeks OF two successive winters. This short
course has grown steadily In popularity and there
were nearly 500 enrolled last winter and this. ut
Is the best educational money the State has ever
spent" Dean Russell declares. Then. too. there
Is the Farmers Tcn-Day Course which we must
also introduce into every State In the South This