The Prescott daily news., 1914-12-05
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS
 'BACKBONE OF THE STATE''
Schools Located in Geographical Gen. ter of Each Four Sections of State. There are No "En-
 trance Requirements"

One of the most striking features
 of the Profitable Farming Campaign is the part being taken in it by the four District Agricultural Schools. Before the campaign started even ac- tive interest was taken in it by the
 V. C. Rays, of the Jonesboro School, G. A. Cole, of the Russellville School
 Frank Horsfall, of the Monticello School, and E.. E. Austin, of the Mag nolia School. These farming men not only got out and worked on the cam paign them selves, but they enlisted the support of the men and women as sociated with them in the schools.
 No other state perhaps has such schools as these in Arkansas. They are called by those who know their work, "The Backbone of the State." They are the result of the pioneer work done by Geo. A. Cole and the Farmers Union. Some years ago the farmers all over the State saw the need for such schools as these, and they made a successful fight to get them.
 The schools are located in the geo. graphical center of each of the four sections of the State. There are no "entrance requirements" If boy or girl is fifteen years of age, he or she may attend any one of these schools at minimum cost. The idea in founding these schools was to train the farmer boy to be a better farmer, and the farmer girl to be a better home-maker. That was four year ago. Today the schools have over one thousand farmer boys and girls, not only from Arkansas, but from other States, who are training them selves, not to teach farming, but to go back to the farm home and make farming and home building a success.
 Run By Farmers.
 One of the reasons for the success of these schools is that each one is managed by a local board of five members, all of whom are farmers. Thus, the schools are run by farmers are filled with farmers children, and the instructors are farmer men and farmer women They are schools of the farmers, and by the farmers, and for the farms. The cost to the State per student was only 800 and his tui- tion, room, heat and light and all in cidentals except board. The board bill for each student for nine months was about S1OO and the text book bill averaged only about S7.50 apiece. Some of the boys and girls are working their way through the schools and the schools now have applicants for three thousand young men and women who want to work their way through. Of course all of these ap- plications cannot be taken care of ow- ing to lack of accommodation. The farmers who have supported the schools are working now to get more money lO Dullu more uOrInllOfleS to take care of the earnest young men and women who want to live on and build up the farms in this State. Theory has no part in the schools. Work is what counts. The boys work in the fields and with the livestock, and in the shops. The girls work in the kitchen and in the laundries and in the sewing rooms, and in the do- mestic art departments. They learn not only how to plan and take care of home, but how to make that home attractive.
 "The man who marries one of our farmer girls from the Agricultural Schools is a lucky man" says one of the most successful farmers in the State. "The good these schools are doing cannot be estimated. The farmers who control them and whose boys and girls are being educated in them know that Arkansas is being made better and richer State for this work"