Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-29
BY ERNEST ]. HOPKINS.

DAVIS, Cal.-Who says that leg
or an arm left in northern France
units a man for the best life on
carth-the life of the farm?
abled ex-soldiers, men whose bodies
were field Scared by German bull
lets, are proving that you can. pillow
n straight furrow and irrigate
bearing orchard, legs or no legs,
shell-shock or no shell-shock.
farm school. located in the Sacra-
mento valley, near Davis, these men
are fitting themselves by special
courses in agriculture, to become
producers, not onaumers-farmers,
not pensioners.
University experts give the courses
under the direction of the federal
board for vocational training. The
men are living on the government
allowance of $50 a month. .
H.: MANNED Men Succeed.
According to Dean H. +. Van Nor
man, there is nothing about the mod
ern small, intensely cultivated farm,
that a disabled man cannot do.
At the Davis school, an armless
man is studying to be a horticulture.
inspector for large establishment.
His Job is already promised him.
Another one-armed man is to be
an agronomy expert for a sugar-beet
concern. He can analyze soils as Wen
with one hand as two.
A veteran who left one leg in the
Argonne Is studying now TO produce
vegetable seed. He will buy q small,
fertile plot, and will be rich when
city workers, with two good legs,
are walking to save carfare.
Another legless man is training to
become a horticultural expert ana
manager. He can sit still ana ooss
A totally deaf man is mastering
| lin-reading and horticulture - a
unique combination.
They'll Buy Farms studv
Most of the lsS men are study o,I,y
animal husbandry, dairying, decid7
uous fruit production, agricultural
chemistry farm machinery, poultry
with the intention of buying farms
The state of California has farms
for them to, buy. DR.. Elwood Mead's
Cal.-the first state-managed farming
colony in the United States--has re-
Gently been extended under a new
1000, 900 appropriation, and there
are now 800 farms at Durham to be
sold fully furnished, over twenty
year payments, to soldiers exclusive
A second state land settlement is
shortly to open Soldiers will be
given the preference as purchasers,
Private land projects are oftering
similar opportunities. At least two
million acres of newly reclaimed
flood lands, not far from DaviA are
offering to sell Furnished farms to
ej-soldiers witout the oold-time Tor
mality of cash down"
Boys Study Hard
Ralph T. Fisher, district vocation
al officer of the federal board, says
these boys are the most sincere stu
dents that ever attended the DAVIS
farm.
dious, and their experience seems 10
have given them a remarkable adap-
liability for mastering new things,
I'VE have anticipated that men
suffering from shell shock might
have difficulty in the theoretical part
of the work The remedy; accord
ingly, has been to put all nervous
men into practical work, not over
straining them by book-study.
Shell shocked men are spending
their time in fields, orchards stock
by doing and at the same time the
quiet and peace of farm life heips
them recover their nerve-strength."
The soldier-students have formed
an organization, meeting weekly,
which carries on athletic activities
baseball, boxing, tennis-and Is as
sisted, as in camp, by the Y. M.
G. A, Knights of Columbus and War
Camp Community Service
sity for the fall term, the soldiers
are to be put as far as possible in
the regular classes. with special
training for those who require it.