The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-05-04

you have so severely criticised
the Agricultural train.
l have nothing to say in favor of
an appropriation to teach the country
women how to make f1ap-jacks, but
feel moved, as one of the Hayseed
family, to defend the experts who OPP
Grated the train, in their unselfish
desire to teach old man Hayseed how
to produce more of the ingredients of
which f1ap-jacks are composed.
In the first place, 1 shall endeavor
to show that the Agricultural train
cost the taxpayers of Georgia prac-
tically nothing. In the second place,
that it was no financial gain to the
experts who operated it; and, thirdly,
that it was benefit to the farmers.
The Agricultural train was furn-
ished to the college without cost by
the railroads. In addition, several
thousand dollars were subscribed
from private sources to defray the ex-
penses and maintain the train on the
road. All the figures relative to the
cost are not at hand as yet, but be-
lieve I am safe in saying that the
actual net cost to the taxpayers of
Georgia will not be over $1,000. If
that was furnished, it would have
represented an outlay of $4,000.
You can thus see the movement cost
the taxpayers practically nothing.
The experts who conducted the train
were salaried men. Their salaries
were not increased, and as some of
them left families at home to sup
port, their living expenses were very
little decreased. They were not
forced to take this tiresome tour of
the state, speaking several times each
day in the open air. It was done at
their own volition. Out Of love for
the agricultural classes of Georgia,
their eager desire to uplift them,
prompted their untiring work done
throughout the entire state.
That some of these agricultural
experts would fail on the best farm
in the world within five years, may
be true, also that many hard working
men who have never seen an agricul-
tural college have been bankrupted
on some of the most fertile farms in
Georgia in a remarkably short time.
One would infer from your article,
that experience is the only agricul-
tural teacher. You would then wipe
out every agricultural college, boy
colt all agricultural papers, forbid
the existence of an experiment station
and forever protest against agricul-
ture being taught in our public
schools.
The Agricultural train benefited
the farmer first by not only showing
him the live stock best adapted to do
a specific work, but by giving an il
Illustrative lecture on each one.
At the hardware stores we see the
utensils which give the merchant the
most profit; on the Agricultural train
we saw the implements best suited
for farm work. BY what other method
could this good have been accom-
plished? By itinerant schools? The
college would not have been able to
hold more than fifteen itinerant
schools in as many counties at cost
of $1,000. AS it was, the train trav-
eled nearly 5000 miles, visited 12O
counties, reached 100000 people, dis
tributed two million pages of printed
matter, and left hundred new and
useful ideas in the communities Wis
tied, which will be put into practice
this year and add several millions to
the revenues of our Georgia farmers.
Not only the farmers, but the world
at large, has for years realized the
greatest need of the farmer to be
cooperation, and it is stated that in