The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27

1 A 1 Agricultural schools of Alabama are on the job and are doing wonderful work among the farm boys and girls of Ala bama. according to w. J. Strickland of this city, who from his own observa- lions of the work of the Albertville az agricultural school, has written an ar- ticle in defense of them. He cites ex- periences of his son in farm projects under the direction of the school.
 His letter in full is as follows:
 livery well-informed man in the | state knows that not so many years ago this SSme mountain country was considered almost a worthless waste by the people living in the older settled sections of the state. Then that was literally true, for then there were no roads. no schools, no churches and the shanties of the backwoodsmen were few and far between. But all this is changed now.
 .'The primeval forest has nearly all been cleared away; roads and bridges have been built, schools and churches are everywhere and on almost every forty acres of land there are from one to two pretty cottage homes, with their flowers, shade trees, gardens, or chards, etc.
 MiddIe-C Class People
 'There are but few large landowners here, almost every man owning and living on his own little twenty, forty or eightyacre farm. Consequently, there are no rich people here and no poor ones either.
 "Outside of the>towns there is not a l foreigner not q negrD even in all this country. They are all genuine Anglo Saxon, nattIral-born Americans, abso- lutely the best people on top side of earth. Situated right in the midst of scenes like these stands the old seventh district agricultural school, honestly trying to reach and to serve such peo- pie as these.
 Now. l have no ax to grind, no land to sell and am not a candidate for any office under the sun. I am nothing and do not claim to be anything ex- cept just one of the plain people, with l no other desire than to simply state 1 the facts as 1 know them to be- In some circles there seems to be preju- dice against our costly agricultural schools as they are called, and this prejudice seems to be based mainly on the fact that not all of the boys and girls who graduate from these schools stay on the farms and that the schools do not really serve the purpose for which they were intended.
 NOW, do not presume to say what they are doing in other sections of the state, but l do know not only what they are trying to do here, but what 1 they are actually accomplishing In the first place. let me say something of the men and the work they are ac- tually doing every day in the year here in this school
 Professor J. w. Letson, president of this school, is one of the very best school men in the state and he is put ting the very best efforts of his life unseltishly and unreservedly into every phase of the schools life and work.
 Associated with him are AIessrs. Brumfield and Branyan, both experts in their line, who are giving the very best in them to the agricultural interest of this country. Are they succeeding? We'll here are the facts, and let every impartial man be bis own judge
 Every boy in school is required to study some phase of agriculture. Of course, these boys are taught the prac- tlcal as well as the scientific principles ot aSrculture every day in the class rooms, but the work does not stop there ! II" oi Il4NNV DbHS CtEfI on Jnelr own farms, projects or experiments un- der the digect supervision of the agri- cultural teachers at school.
 Cites Own Boys Work
 Here were some of the tangible re- suits of this work:
 My own boy carried two such prof. ects here on my own farm this wear. He had two acres of cotton and one acre of corn. Both projects were fer i tilized, cultivated and all the records kept exactly according to instructions given hila at school. So under the very worst conditions ever known in this country, wet weather. lOll wceviIs. cat- ] erpillarS al.i almost everything else i imaginable, and after counting off ev l cry ceht for fertilizers and p0isons. os well as every cent allowed for the ,prc- railing customary prices for every hour of work done. Seed. expense of pick ing ginning, aS well as all taxes. inter- est on the value of the land at q high price. After deductinS all this he made a net profit of moro than $lG0 an acre
 "A bale to every thrce acres was about the average for tAe rest of the l farm.
 And the corn he made more than IS bushels per acre. while even better land iSht beside his acre with almost as much fertilizer and more work, did not 'iai.a bht 20 bushels per acre. These I are facts and are on record here
 'Now, did Professor BrumtieH. who had direct charge of this department of l tlfp school stand lII in tIn .l,,.,. ,..