The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-08-29

of agriculture, the itinerant teacher
of better farming methods has fol
years followed the highways of the
South and wrought a peaceful revolu.
ton in the crop system of the cotton
country. In the North, however
the wandering farm teacher is still
something of novelty, and there re-
main plenty of tillers of the soil who
regard him as a new-fangled intruder
of doubtful antecedents.
By the oldschool farmers he is
generously suspected of being good
man at making a fat job for himself
"a job compounded of equal parts of
college theory and gift of CAB. But
the burden of the indictment against
the travelling instructor is that he is
a novelty and lacks the background
of solid and established tradition. In
spite of his large profession of democ-
racy, no man in America has a more
tenacious respect for tradition than
the farmer who is still filling the land
according to the rules by which his
grandfather raised crops.
This attitude Of the older farmers
toward the travelling teacher of ag-
riculture is not a trivial matter in its
relation to the immediate future OF
better farming in America, for the far
mers of this class still hold the title
deeds to most of the farmlands under
cultivation. This fact should never
be forgotten by the man who hopes
to do something for the American
farmer"
1t is we'll, then, to ask: Has the
county demonstration, the travelling
teacher of agriculture, anything be-
hind him in the shape of solid tradi-
'tion and convincing precedent that
the man who clings to old traditions
and the established order of things
Is bound to respect? Have they
tried this thing out in any country of
the old world where all things are
done thoroughly and where it is a
virtue to make haste slowly? Is the
travelling teacher of farm methods
the rank innovation that he seems. or
Is he, perchance, an Americanized
adaptation of an old-world institution
that has been developed in the prac-
tlcal way that the older nations have
OF testing methods before giving them
the seal of approval?
The travelling teacher of farming is
an old-world institution. Along with
many of the most serviceable things
used IN this country he should bear
the trademark, Made in Germany
lie is the product of one of the Oldest
ara most conservative countries in
the Europe-and one of the most
scientific and efficient too
Not long ago Mr.. Edwin G. Cooiav
returned from two years in investiga-
ton in Germany, where he was sent
as the educational industrial commits
sloner of the commercial club of Chi
cago.
The farm demonstration, declares
Mr.. Cooley, lis so new in America
that he is good for a first-pa story
IN almost any metropolitan newspaDer
having country circulation. In the
empire of the Kaiser he is an old
story--a tried and tested coz in the
great educational machine of a conn
try that leads the world in education {
al methods" S
what German Farm-Boys Study
Here large proportion of our
Iarmers-those who cling to the an
client traditions and the time-honored
Nethods-look upon the county dem !
as an intruder, half-baked t
'nd rather expensive experiment |
)Ver there the travelling teacher is an t
established part of the rural land t
cape, as firmly rooted and familiar Z
IS field of red cabbage. If you hit S
ne country roads at the right season t
u the year in Prussia you are as GER p
am to encounter one of these tramp Il
hg teachers CT farming as you are to fl
meet the omnipresent military officer ST
the town. The Wanderlebrer is no b,
Eperlment there. His status is set n
lea and his value in the great edu- be
ational scheme of the empire is fix -
q ana permanent. He is there be- til
ause the farsighted men who worked de-
ut that remarkable and marvelouslv tn
educational plan saw that wi
e was needed to discharge an edu-
itlonal function that NO other kind
teacher could discharge. hi
When the great thinkers of Ger. H.
any recognized, few years ago. is
at their natural material resources an
ere limited and that the great re- an