THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
Tuesday, November 17,
1903.
The Progressive Farmer.
CLARENCE H. POB,
J. W. DENMARK,
- Editor.
Proprietor and Publisher.
S0HE OBJECTIONS TO AGRICULTURE HI THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
In a letter printed on page 11 of this issue,
our friend, Mr. E. E. Miller, of Tennessee, sets
forth some objections to. teaching agriculture
in the public schools or rather some objections
to some possible methods of teaching it, Wejlo
not know what the Tennessee leaders are plan
ning to do, but the system in operation in North
Carolina is not open to many of the objections
named by Mr. Miller. We are not trying "to
teach agriculture to boys who know nothing
else." Under the rules sent out by Superintend
ent Joyner, children under fourteen years, of
age, unless unusually well advanced, are not
taken into the agricultural classes. Our chil
dren at this age are usually studying other sub
jects in addition to the three It's. And whatever
Mr. Miller may think about it, our opinion is
that the average country boy who has to choose
between "Agriculture for . Beginners" on ' one
hand, and geography, history, or grammar on the
other, will make a mistake if he does not choose
the first. He more sorely needs to know about
things in his own life than things in the life of
men dead a hundred years; he more sorely needs
to know about conditions on his father's farm
than about conditions in China or Kamchntka;
and while there ought to be persistent effort
to encourage correct speaking and writing, the
average grammar fails lamentably in this par
ticularso conspicuously fails that we are glad
to see Herbert Spencer referring to" the usual
grammar drill as "an intensely stupid custom."
And it is certainly no more a "waste of time"
to talk about soils and plant growth and animal
feeding things that are a part of the student's
e very-day life and thought than it is to talk
about the capital of New Mexico, the landing of
John Smith, or the conjugation of the verb "to
love." .
We are getting away from the old idea that
education is for -purposes 0f ornament rather
than of use; that it must deal with artificiali
ties rather than actual life; that training can
not be had through the practical studies as well
as through the studies that are of little or no
benefit and Mr. Miller, as a thoughtful young
man, will doubtless fall in with the current be
fore he gets much older. "A century ago," says
Dr. George T. Winston, "education was fop the
few and was intended to fit men for the learned
professions; to-day education is for the many
and is intended to fit men for life's practical
work." And we have found that we can train
men's minds just as wellby the new system as
by the old.
Finally, our correspondent is about a hundred
years ahead of his timei possibly five hundred
years with his warning against "making - the
schools mere schools of primary agriculture."
We may sometime need such a warning, but that
time is not yet in sight. The danger is entirely
in the other direction. To warn people now
against too much agriculture in the schools is
like warning famine sufferers against the dang
ers of over-eating. It reminds us of the minis
ter who preached a sermon to newspaper men
on the deceitfulness of riches. The warning
that is really needed now is that given by Prof.
W. L. Poteat in his address before the North
Carolina State Literary and Historical Associa
tion last week. We quote:
"I beg to point out. the danger that the rural
school, instead of serving to enrich and adorn
country life, may be the most efficient agent in
perpetuating its poverty. Under the operation
of the French Education Bill of 1833, - revised
in 1871, there was a fearful exodus from the
farms and villages to the towns and to Pnris.
I have little doubt that many of you can dupli
cate the observation of Prof. Bailey in a county
in New York. He asked the forty-five children of
a rural school how many of them lived on farms.
All hands went up but one. When he asked how
many wished to live on the farm, no hand was
raised but the one which was down before.
Clearly that school had been educating the chil
dren- away from the farm, killing with bookish
and city methods their native sympathy with the
country and its pursuits. In this matter indiffer
ence or compromise will lead , to disaster. We
need to insist that the rural school shall apply
the fundamental principle of all education, and
put the rural child into:( direct i sympathy with
his rural environment and into intelligent rela
tion with the life which he is going to lead. The
text-book made by the city man , for the only
child he knows, namely, the city child, will have
to be rigidly excluded. The teacher must be less
urban and literary in his ideals and methods and
more at home amid natural objects."
THE BOLL WEEVIL EXHIBITORS ARE PLAY-
OTG WITH DYNAMITE.
We are not in favor of mob law, but if there is
no other way to stop -foolish North Carolinians
from obtaining and exhibiting Texas boll weevils,
to the great peril of our cotton-growing inter
ests, then a resort to Ku-Klux methods might be
justifiable. These boll weevils have more lives
than, a cat has, and they multiply faster than any
mathematician in the universe. Once let a few
of them get loose in our State and get a hold
on our cotton, and we shall have no end of trou
ble. They have cost Texas millions of dollars
within the last, five years, and are likely to cost
it many more millions within the next five. And
Secretary Wilson, we observe, says that they are
going to cross the Mississippi River and probably
cover tlie entire Cotton Belt. They move slowly,
however, and in the ordinary course of events,
it would be a long time before they would reach
North Carolina; while if a few more Texans
whether knaves' or fools will not effect the re
sult send a few more live specimens to North
Carolinians of the same class as themselves, the
boll weevil may start here next year. , A Wake
County farmer had some of the weevils on ex
hibition last week and a Scotland County farm
er also entertained his neighbors in the same
way. Of course, in both , instances, the pests
were "securely corked in a bottle," but in a State
where somebody is killed with an unloaded (?)
gun every week or two, this alleged evidence of
safety in not assuring.
The Cotton States Association of Commis
sioners of Agriculture at its recent session in
Montgomery very properly condemned this ex
ceedingly silly and dangerous practice in the
following resolution:
"Resolved, That this Association severely con
demns the imporation into non-infected areas of
live weevils by persons or organizations" curious
to know what the weevil is like, or anxious to con
duct experiments for the purpose of procuring
remedies, and "that we ask all the cotton States
to pass such laws as to make it a criminal of
fence to bring live weevils into non-infected dis
tricts; and that the Legislatures of the cotton
States authorize their Boards of Agriculture,
or in the absence of such, the Experiment Sta
tion authorities, to establish quarantine or other
necessary regulations that will prevent the spread
.of the weevil. We also urge all non-infected
States to strenuously guard against , the importa
tion of cotton, cottonseed, hulls, corn," hay and
any other farm products from Texas, that are
naDie to introduce the weevil.
. fc,miC yjx xi ui m uarouna is not in ses
sion, ana the .Board of Agriculture seems to have
no power to act, but public opinion should be
strong enough to protect the State against this
xouy.
CURRENT EVENTS : THE DRIFT OF THINGS
AS Wis biiJfi IT.
Congress mt last week, but it is only trettin
on its working clothes, getting itself organized
In the feenate an eliort to oust Mr. Smoot th
Morman Senator from Utah, has occupied most
of the spare time. This matter is explained at
greater length in our General News columns, and
we only pause here to record the opinion that
Smoot will keep his seat as he probably ought
under the i Constitution. In-the House, the new
Speaker, Mr. 'Cannon, is losing sleep trying to
hear, the claims of everybody who wishes a com
mittee appointment In this particular Xorth
Carolina is most interested in Congressman
Small's effort to get on the River and Harbor
Committee, where He would be able to do effective
work for the proposed inland waterway. The
State, in our opinion, has no more efficient or
worthy representative- than Mr. Small, and we
hope that he will win this point of vantage.
Congressman Kitchin has introduced a bill to
repeal, the Fifteenth Amendment, but of course
he doesn't expect anything to come of it. And
it strikes us that it is very foolish for our South
ern representatives to be agitating the question
of negro suffrage. We are doing as we please
down here anyhow, and if it consoles the hearts
of Northern fire-eaters to know that the Fif
teenth is still (nominally) alive, why should we
quarrel with them?
County School Superintendents.
' The meeting of county school superintendents
held in Raleigh last week was largely attended,
and the discussion of educational methods, ex
change of views and experiences, cannot fail to
have a helpful effect. In his opening address,
State Superintendent Joyner reported that dur
ing the past year the high-water mark in length
of public school term 16.47 weeks has been
reached; the salary of white teachers has in
creased $1.58 (to $28.36) and of negro teachers
44 cents (to $22.63);- and more than two hun
dred school libraries have been established. As
to illiteracy and school attendance, Prof. Joyner
said:
"The United Stages census of 1900 shows 175,
645 white illiterates over ten years old in North
Carolina, 19.5 per cent of white illiteracy. I
have no doubt that this per cent has been consid
erably decreased during the past three years. For
your encouragement, I should perhaps state that
the census reports show the per cent of illiteracy
to have been in 1880, 31.5"; in 1890, 23.10; so that
since 1880, we have reduced it 12 per cent, and
since 1890, 3.5 per cent. The per cent of negro
illiteracy is even much larger. The percentage
of illiteracy is still appalling and suggests, espe
cially in view of the possible disfranchisement
of .thousands" of white voters, a stupendous work
to be done in removing this illiteracy before
1908. .My report for the past year shows 161,
797 white: children of school age not enrolled m
the public schools, . A comparatively small num
ber of these were enrolled in private schools.
A large number of them, between the ages of sa
teen and twenty-one years, had either completed
the course of study in their public schools or
were compelled to stop permanently to wor .
With these exceptions, every one of the otne
is on the straight road to illiteracy and en
franchisement, and can be saved from both only
by the earnest efforts of all friends of public edu
cation in improving the public schools and
bringing the children into them. I am gjjd
be able to report an increase in the enro
of the rural public schools and an increase
10,000 children in the average daily attfnda
of the white rural schools. This is an inert
of at least 6 per cent in the average daily at
ance of the white schools during the P8 y
The increase in average daily attendance m
X