The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-13
Efficient LEADERSHIP THE
NEED IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
This the Great Opportunity for the Agricultural College
Graduate Who Must Prove by Actual Demonstration
That lis Ideas Are Right.

a more and better system CT educd-
ton. a longer school term, a pupilc
health officer and various Ctner Things
OF an educational nature. 1t IS ap-
solutely essential that such g person
take a tremendous and active interest,"
in everything Of an educatlonai, soclai
and religious nature in the nelghbOr-
hood if he wishes to make himself a
real and s~ure-enoUgh leader. NO one
questions but that as our rural SchOoiS
progress, u civilization IS pound 10
advance. Therefore, one of the things
that any person who asrlres TO pc
come a leader in his community
should do is to work day IN ana DAY
out for the upbuilding Of the school
system.
Significant Development.
Our agriculture of today is new. 1t
is so very different from the aSrlcul-
ture practiced q few years g tha1
there is little comparison between the
two. We might term our new agrl-
culture as a happy combination OF
science and practice, plus a pre-direct-
ed education. Forty years 3 ag-
riculture was by brute strength and
practice. With the advent of ex-
pertinent stations and colleges, the
pendulum swung far back and talk
was cheap. Now We combine the
two. and the result is the most signi-
fcant development that American ag-
riculture has ever known d to
this q re-directed education in our
schools, and you have a new aSrl-
culture pregnant with amazing prom
| Uses of a remunerative and r~evivified
rural life.
What this happy combination era
upon which we are Just entering
will accomplish is seen by the insplr-
ing results of the farm demOnStra-
ton work; by the changed attitude
Of agricultural colleges through the
extension service as it reaches edu-
Cational, civic, recreational, religious
and community betterment. Agricul-
ture a passed through the brute
strength period. 1t has passed
through the theoretical era, and is
now coming to an era where theory
and science unite with strength to
accomplish tangible results for which
mankind has been cropping the past
half century. These few sentences
just spoken sound academic. but it
is the why agriculture is finding it
self, why communities, States and
the government are spending more
for its promotion. why distribution
is to be studied as we'll as production,
why the spirit OF cooperation is sup
plementing the idea, why production
cost is being compared with price,
why the diSpensation of time in poor
planting, and too large acreage is
being discouraged, why crop rota-
ton, legume growing and adaptibil-
ity Of soil and location are demand
ing farmers attention, and finally
why agricultural is COM
ing to the farmers themselves in
stead of being handed down to then
from the dusty library shelves O.
highly educated philanthropists.
Rural Life Being Recognized.
r Great progress is ours by thu
realization that agricultural instruc
tors cannot teach successfully tina
D which they have not lived. The hu
: mar and humble phases of rural lif'
/ are at last %ecognized by q few. To-
many are only talking it because i
is popular.
The above is the reason why ever.
S farmer, regardless Of his section, ma,
: rejoice that the new agriculture will
e mean something to him. II is her
t that the young agricultural gradual
may make himself felt. BY identify
y ing himself with every forwar'
movement that comes up, he ca
S build for himself in his communit
back at home a hat viii
y perpetuate his far longe
o than any marble slab can possibl
o do. Our agriculture has passe
through and will continue to pas
e through periods Of development. An
right here the leaders are needed
They are needed to help carry u
d over and through from one to an
other development. We have gon
d through several periods of develop
ment already-colonial a%gricultur
e was one. Up to the time Of the cast
6 iron ploy was another; and tn
scientific, which had its beginnin
with the agricultural press, a thir6
# We are now emerging from this int
is one of exploitation and adjust
le ment.
e In the adjustment that is takin
g place fundamentally country life Wi
e. be enriched. The advance guard G
II this is agriculture in the schools. Yo
m won't make much progress in bette
farming until the spirit is properl
d touched in youth. Agriculture ha
f. been wandering. Everybody has bee
n talking abou this exemption frol
II the moral ~obliquities which swar1
l. on the surface of the rowded an