Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-06-28
COLORED COLUMN
(W. B. Chenault)
Agriculture and the New Day

Agriculture and the New Day
The address CT H. A. Lame be-
fore the Teachers Review class,
at the Richmond Colored High
School building, June "a, 1921.
Fellow Teachers =
have been asked by Professor
Bates to say (; word along the
line of Agriculture to this assem-
! bly, Of teachers of the Teachers
Review class. | always feel hap
| Ply and at home among teachers.
because for twenty-six years [
taught in the rural schools and
know something of the drudgery
monotony, the heart breaking
daily grind OF the rural teacher.
Today on the summit of happi-
ness, tomorrow in the valley of
! despair. Yet | know Of no call
ing in which one has such an OPP
portunity to render real service
to humanity services of such vital
and far reaching Importance. You
stand as an army guarding civil
cation. You are the vanguard of
progress. You are the worlds
torchbearers. You are the light
houses along LIES rocky shore.
We stand this afternoon at the
dawning OF a great day, Civil
zation recently severely tested. |
moves ever onward, touching and
awakening races and nations.
New relationships are being es~
tablished, new ideals, new stan
dards of living are being set up.
New ambitions and aspirations
are everywhere. moving people to
give to the world the best service
they can render Agriculture,
the k.-is Of all business and pro-
LESSONS, commands the attention
Of the world rs never before, for
the question OF food is ever be-
lore us, with ever increasing i'm
portance. The obsolete methods |
of agriculture of the past must |
be supplanted with the newer
and better methods Of today i'll
this country is to escape the ter
rible fate of China, starving on
those broad and once fertile |
plains, because she closed herI
eyes to agricultural progress and
refused to advance with the rest
of the world. She still plows |
with the same kind of crooked |
stick she ploWed with two thou
sand years ago, while the ives
tern American farmer mounts his
tractor hitched to gang plows
and turns twenty burrows at
once. She still cuts her grain
with the ancient reap hook andI
threshes it out with old time fails
while our western farmer mounts
his tractor hitched to a machine
which cuts off the heads of the
gran, threshes and sacks it at
one operation. She has allowed
lumber spectators to cut down
her once magnificent forests. per-
hitting rapid erosion of soil. car
rled by transforms down into her
river beds, filling them up and
causing frequent Overhows. de-
stroying towns and cities, follow |
ed by drouths and epidemics and
famine which threatens the veryI
existence of the Chinese nation.
Lack of civic pride has resulted |
in poor roads and bridges. and
poor transportation facilities. ma
king it almost impossible to get
help to her in time and as a re-
suit, China is starving. The en-
tire worlds business structure
rests upon agriculture and rea-
lizing that fact governments, ma
tional and state, are cooperating
with colleges Of agriculture to
promote farming, stock raising
and community life. Books are
being written, lectures given, il
Illustrated by screen pictures, to
impress agriculture upon the pub
lie mind and laws are being made
requiring agriculture to be taught
in our public schools, and every
thing points to a universal awak-
ening in the agricultural world.
Let us rejoice that we live in this
great day and have a hand in
training the men and women who
are to be the actors in the great
drama of the new day, for the
greatest product OF the farms are
the bright-eyed boys and girls, !
and what an array of talent from
humble farm homes has marshal
led the forces of progress in the
past! George Washington. oil
Virginia, Abraham Lincoln, of
Kentucky, Frederick Douglas, of
Maryland, and Booker T. Wash