The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-05
Give FARM STUDY
Agriculture Should Be Taught
in Rural Schools.
Aggie President Tells Pam
American Congress.
STUDENTS EXCEL FARMERS
Advocates Farm Training for
City School Pupils.
Twenty Thousand Study Agri-
culture in United States.

Washington. Jan. THAT Ameri-
can agriculture may be successfully
continued IL is necessary that a sys-
ten of agricultural education be de-
vised for the grade and rural schools
Of the United states, DR.. Henry Jack
son Walker, president of the Kansas
State Agricultural college, told dele
gates to the second Pan-American
Scientific Congress in an address here
today
Doctor Waters urged that such ed
ucation should be available to every
school child both in the city and in
the country He pointed out that per-
haps nine-tentEs OF the farmers 90 di-
rectly to their Occuption from the ru-
raj schools and that from IS per cent
to 80 per cent of the boys and girls
of the country leave school and enter
their LIES occupation before they
reach the high school Again, he as
serted that city children should learn
that no civilization has withstoOd the
decay Of its rural people
students trained in agricultural col
leges and pupils trained in agricul-
ture in the high schools and graded
and rural schools are smarter than
some farmers" he said. When
young man. who had been reared in
watch factory. who had never visited
n stock farm, could, in his junior year
in the Delaware Agricultural college
win first place in "A national STOCK
judging contest. in competition with
young men from the entire United
States and Canada. evidence IS shown
that the colleges are teaching agrl-
culture that commands respect
When pupils Of a high school in
Texas under direction of a teacher Of
agriculture. can produce three-fold
more cotton, not on city lot. but in
the field, than the farmers OF the
community produced, there IS no long
er any question concerning the ad-
r--e- bill of teaching "a grfR1r1rTrra
the school. When children OF a rural
school in Kansas at an educational
rally pass better examination than
do their parents on how TO build a
dairy COWS. the possibilities of InproV-
ing AGRICULTURAL practice through in
struction in the rural schools are
clearly shown"
Can Train Leaders.
Agricultural colleges cannot do more
than train the leaders in agriculture.
according to President Waters In the
United states fewer than 20. 600 stu
dents are pursuing courses in agricul-
ture. he asserted If all these stu
dents should be graduated and return
to The farm the agricultural colleges
would be contributing. on an average.
5000 scientifically trained agricultur-
.sts a year to be distributed over $
100000 farms, or an average of one
graduate to 1000 farms. he pointed
out.
The United States needs a suffi-
cient number of rural high schools so
that every boy and girl in the coun-
try may have the same opportunity to
secure a high school education as have
the boys and girls in the city Doctor
Waters continued. But the problem
of educating farmers is by no means
solved when agriculture is successfully
taught in all the high schools for COM
paratively few of those who farm ever
attend a high school.
succeed by Cooperation.
The early attempts at teaching
agriculture were failures, principally
because the men on the farms knew
more about farming than did the