The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1912-11-08
OUR SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOL.

Agriculture in its various branch
Is Is now receiving more study In
kentucky than ever before. This
study has not been free and volun'
fary on the part of the people oil
Kentucky, but has been the natural
outgrowth of conditions that hava
come into existence. These conditions
may be summarized as follows;
Kentucky originally had enormous
natural wealth in soils. in minerals
and in forests. The early Ken
tnckians began to draw upon these
natural resources and soon the OPP
portunities offered by Kentucky be-
came known to the outside world. In
the field of agriculture the live
stock industry soon came to the
'front.' and in the first half of the
18th century this state became the
Mecca toward which many seekers OF
the best blood in beef cattle and
light horses turned. From an indus
trial standpoint the cattle interests
were the more important and while
the light horse interests of Kentucky
have always maintained their pres
tige, it is lamentable fact that
In the latter part of the 18th ecu
fury we fell sadly behind in the
breeding of other fine stock and N
general agriculture. This period may
almost be called period of de-
cadence. The soil had become sadly
depleted, the forests had been butch
cred and the mining interests had
fallen largely into the hands OF peo-
ple who were not Kentuckians. All
these circumstances conspired to
drain Kentdcky's wealth. With the
Incoming * the goth century, how
ever. IT, people who had already
como o realize that things were go
40 wrong, began to look about for
.eans of improvement.
The writer happens to be one who
Is enlisted in the work of agricul-
tural improvement. A person at
tempting such work has various dill
ficulties to encounter, The task is a
hard one in itself, even if all con-
cerned had heart and hand to
help. One of the principal difficult
ties is the prejudice against the
theoretical farmer, many insisting
that the teacher should be, above
all things. practical farmer. We
should here recall the fact that the
practical farmer has had his way
since the country was first settled
and the result of his operations is
such depletion of the soil that 1t
produces in most cases less than
half of what 1t could have condemn
ed themselves. AS matter of fact,
the theoretical farmer who is en-
gagged in improving agriculture has
in every case been made to put his
theory into practice and to succeed
with II before he has been licensed
to teach others. The state and fed
eral authorities realize that the
problem is so important that none
other than proven masters are en-
ployed for such work.
Conditions, however, must be TAX
en- as they are found and the pref
udice of many of the older farmers
has been taken into due account.
With this in mind, the boys and
girls, less circumscribed and dog
matte in their ideas, are being Civ
en- large proportion of the atten-
ton of experts in agriculture. The
result is that these boys and girls
are putting into practice the things
that they have learned, are making
them succeed, and, largely as a re-
suit Of their work, the adult farm
ers are being led to see that farm
ing is business and science
which must have study If 1t is to
succeed.
Agriculture should be taught not
only in every high school and pri-
vate school of the country. but also
In every district school. and IL is