The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-06-19
NEGROES NEED
FARM TRAINING
Rather Than the Higher Learning of the
Printed Page, According to Opin-
ion of DR.. Thomas Jesse
Jones.

Washington, d. c., June l9.--Investi-
among negroes in the South recently
completed by the federal bureau OF edu-
cation and made possible by the co-opera-
ton of the Phelps Stokes fund of New
York, emphasizes more than anything
| else the need of rural education, par
ticularly the education of negro children
in agriculture and simple trades rather
than the higher learning of the printed
! page.
The investigation made by DR.. Thomas
Jesse Jones, specialist in the bureau
of education, with a corps of assistants
under the direction of Commissioner
Claxton, reviews so years of effort by
public authorities, northern philanthrop-
lists and churches, and negroes themselves
to educate the black race in the South.
The report says three -fourths of the
100000 negroes in the South live in
rural communities, and that there are
100000 negroes engaged in agricultural
pursuits, cultivating fully l00,000,000
acres. As owners and renters OF land,
they are cultivating 4l,500,000 acres.
This acreage is twice that under cultiva.
tion either in Virginia or in New Eng
land, according to the report. Neverthe-
less, the South does not produce enough
food to feet itself, drawing on the rest
of the country annually for farm prod
ucts recently estimated as worth $780,
100000.
Despite the overwhelming proportion
of negroes living in the rural districts of
the South" says DR.. Jones, ''the elemen-
tary public school systems ignore the
teaching of agriculture and the simple
trades needed constantly on the farms
Few states provide higher schools of
agriculture or supplement adequately the
federal funds appropriated for the joint
operation of such schools for the negroes.
The schools conducted entirely by the
colored people teach the classics and
modern languages when they might rath
er be emphasizing agricultural and in
dustrisl training, and the other private
schools as whole teach farming and |
its supplemental trades only in a per !,
functory way.
Preparation for rural life is the great |
est euutdtiotidi pspDieHl vi bHc Nllikt /
and colored people of the South. The |
rural education of the negro Is essential,
not only to the welfare of the race, but
also to the successful development Of
the southern states.
"Of the private schools, Hampton insti
tute, Tuskegee institute, and few
smaller institutions are making a genu-
inc effort to prepare pupils for rural
life. With very few exceptions, how /.
yer, the colored schools have failed to
develop an interest in rural problems.
The large majority have not even tried.
"The explanation of the indifference is
in the conviction of the colored people
that the way to prosperity and happiness
is the study of literary subjects and es
pecially the classical languages. In this
way they are following the example Of
the white people, who are only now be-
ginning to see the error of their belief.
This conviction is emphasized by the life
Of drudgery which the pupils in colored
schools have always seen TO be the lot of I
The colored farmers. Their own limited ;
also, makes them loath to lose