East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-07-01

upon a subject Of such vital interest
to the material welfare of the state
and nation, especially at such an au-
spicious time and in a place unusu
lily blessed by nature in scenic beau
ty, a most hospitable climate and a
productive soil
This section Of the state, like
nary other sections has latent ag-
ricultural possibilities capable of de-
velopment under modern systems of
husbandry beyond the imaginative
conception of the most optimistic
mind. The climate and soil combine
to make ideal conditions for the
growing of the very best products of
the farm, garden and orchard. 1t is
truly a favored land. But despite
those great advantages the highest
success in production cannot be
achieved without an intelligent grasp
of the fundamental principles of
crop production. Thus education of
the proper class is indispensable for
the highest success in the field of
agriculture.
Prejudice Is Passing.
at is fortunate indeed that the
one time popular prejudice against
higher education for the farmer is
rapidly disappearing. This is plainly
shown by the records of our agri-
cultural colleges. The report of the
! United states Commissioner of Edu-
cation for the seven years preceding
| 1909 shows an increased enrolment
| in the various courses in agricultural
colleges,-in the engineering courses
| it was 66 per cent, while in the cours-
es in agriculture it was 1873 per cent.
This excellent showing made by
our agricultural colleges should be
supplemented by our primary and
| high schools. 1t is here where the
real foundation must be laid for a
successful agriculture. The public
! school must become the recruiting
ground for the farm. Vocational
training should become an active fac
| tor in our public school work. There
| is perhaps less than two per cent of
the children of rural districts who go
on to higher institutions of learning.
and not to exceed five per cent, who
even attend high school. This would
indicate without question that If the
thing of technical agriculture it must
come through the primary school.
Idea Is Not New.
THE advocacy of agricultural in
struction in the public school is not
a new idea, neither is the thought
! OF establishing agricultural colleges a
comparatively modern one. Alexan-
| der Campbell founder of the Chris
tian church, seventy years ago de-
clared that agriculture ought to be
taught in all of its branches from the
infant school and upwards to the last
| lecture in the last couse. Nearly one
hundred years ago Governor Dewitt
Clinton of New York recommended a
complete course of agricultural edu-
| cation. That great seer of all early
agricultural writer's Marshall, in his
Minutes OF Agriculture, 1774, says:
A Vice i'm The Past.
THE wastes of England are nu-
merous and extensive; and the gentle
ness of the rising generation is in
suspicious to this country, at least to
its constitution; would it not be po-
litical in the present race to check
the torrents of dissipation and ef-
feminacy, by teaching their offspring
to think and act with manliness, in
colleges of agriculture. reared in
those wastes which now are a shame
on their country.
Let agriculture be the prime object
of these establishments where actual
wastes do not occur plant them in
the least populous districts. Admit
all degrees of men from the peasant
To the prince. Let every student
handle the plow, WELD alike the
prong and fail and eat the bread he
has aided nature in producing. Let
the progress of experimental agricul-
ture be considered as their employ
ment. Let their amusements be the
chase and observatory excursions,
their studies the theory and the ap-
uendages of agriculture.
THE theory of agriculture, there
fore, ought not to be neglected: but
let 1t be such architecture as may
convey moral lessons to the minds
o. the students; let ingenuity give
place to somplicity, and elegance to
greatness.
Let each college be regular for
tification, supplied with artillery,
arms and ammunition: let every stu
dent be soldier; let regular guard
be kept and field days be observed;
let tactics and Notifications be their
studies; racing. wrestling. boxing,
fencing and swimming be the amuse-
ments of their department.
Let each college be a court of
moral Justice; let virtue be borne in
triumph, and vice punished without
reluctance; let ethics be taught in
their fullest extent and let this leading
truth he inculcated.
The Agricultural Colleges.
Our present agricultural colleges |
are largely based upon the funda- |
mental principles enumerated by |
this early writer yet they reach but |
a very small fraction of our popula-
tion to whom agricultural education
is of vital interest. The want of this
education and inspiration of the farm
is perhaps where lies the cause of the
drift from the country to the cities
and towns.
Oregon is preeminently an agricul-
tural state, a land rich in the op-
portunities for profitable farming,
yet our towns and cities are largely