Class :^^^l Book E3— CoijyrigtitN? COPYRIGHT DEPOSn^ THE TRAINING OF FARMERS THE TRAINING OF FARMERS BY L. H. BAILEY NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1909 .1)' <=>'\-^ Copyright, 1909, by L. H. Bailey Published October, 1909 Z^IS^J^4. ANALYSIS PAGE THE NATUEE OF THE PROBLEM 6 The schools and colleges — The indigenous forces — Individualism— Not an ''uplift." THE INSUFFICIENCIES IN COUNTRY LIFE . 15 The better country life — Striking insuf&ciencies. PART I THE MEANS OF TRAINING FARMERS (Pages 21-82) RURAL GOVERNMENT 26 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STATE GOVERN- MENT AND OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS . . 29 1. Public demonstration farms 29 2. Inventories of rural resources 32 3. Attitude toward the farmer in legislation . . 35 THE READING HABIT 37 Rural literature — Need of organization — The li- braries — The world outlook. V ANALYSIS PAGE HEALTH CONDITIONS IN THE OPEN COUNTEY 46 1. Some of the specific health deficiencies ... 48 Physical training — Long hours — Cleanness — Good air — Ignorance of disease — Diet — Waters and wastes — Sanitary houses — Highways — Eural diseases. 2. Some of the remedies for health conditions . . 60 New kind of dwelling — Inspections — Attitude of societies— Farm laborer— The school— Su- pervision. ORGANIZATION 69 The farm home is a democracy — The farmer's fatalism — The community should prove up — The country church— Y. M. C. A. FEDERATION OF RURAL FORCES 79 PART II THE SCHOOL AND THE COLLEGE IN RELATION TO FARM TRAINING (Pages 83-262) WHY DO THE BOYS LEAVE THE FARM? . . 89 Character of the problem — An inquiry of students — Letters from those who have left — Questions raised by the replies. vi ANALYSIS PAGE WHY SOME BOYS AND GIRLS TAKE TO FARMING 115 1. City to country 116 The nature of the replies — What the letters say. 2. Coiiirtry to country 123 Replies from farm students — Letters from farm-bred students.. 3. The conclusion 134 THE COMMON SCHOOLS AND FARMING . . 137 Responsibility of the school — Educational values. 1. The question of the equivalency of studies . . 140 The older order — The newer order. 2. The nature of the forthcoming school . . . 148 The four R*s — Agriculture in the schools — School to represent the community — The high-school — Process of evolution. 3. A school man 's outlook to the rural school . . 158 4. The need of a recognized system 166 Schools and departments in colleges and uni- versities — In normal schools — Separate schools of agriculture — In secondary schools — Rela- tion of the whole. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND THE FARM YOUTH 173 1. Opinions of students 173 The students and their replies — Comments on the replies. 2. What is to become of the educated farm youth? 180 vii ANALYSIS PAGE The part played by the college— The part played by the farm — Back to the farm — Should all the students become farmers? 3, The summary 193 COLLEGE MEN AS FAEM MANAGERS . . .195 1. The problems involved 196 Outlook of students on the question— Students' replies— Winter-course students — Managers are not ''hired men." 2. Can farming pay such salaries? 206 The economic question — The farm itself has a responsibility — The reconstructive movement. 3. How shall the inexperienced college man secure a farm training? 212 4. Review 217 THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND THE STATE 219 Obligation on the part of the people — Different kinds of colleges of agriculture. 1. Scope of a highly developed college of agri- culture 226 Three great lines of work — Crops and live- stock — Particular examples of crops and live- stock (grass, live-stock, forests, an acre of water) — Household subjects — The mechanical side — Engineering questions — Farm architec- ture — The landscape — Farm management — The human problems — Training teachers — The outside or extension work — Kinds of ex- tension work — Lectures and traveling teach- ers—Teaching on farms — Local leaders. 2. The work is upon us 258 viii THE TEAINING OF FARMERS THE TRAINING OF FARMERS The so-called rural problem is one of the great public questions of the day. It is the problem of how to develop a rural civilization that is permanently satisfying and worthy of the best desires. It is a com- plex problem, for it involves the whole question of making the farms profitable (that is, of improving farming methods), perfecting the business or trade relations of farming people, and developing an ac- tive and efficient social structure. As the problem is complex, so there is no simple or easy solution. The present status is, of course, a phase or stage in social evo- lution; and the improvement of the condi- tion must be a process of further evolution. 3 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS The existing condition is not inherently bad or ineffective, as a whole ; but in some of its aspects it is relatively inefficient and un- developed as compared with the best urban conditions. It is not because the rural status may be less or more efficient than city conditions, however, that I am inter- ested in it, but rather because it is not what it is capable of becoming, and is therefore in need of improvement. The rural problem is being attacked on many sides by very many persons. In this book, I speak of only one phase of the prob- lem,— the means of training the farmer himself, both as a craftsman and as a citi- zen. From the point of view of the college and school I have contributed several ar- ticles on the subject to The Century Mag- azine. With these articles, I have now incorporated others that discuss the same general subject, together with much new writing, so that the whole may comprise a homogeneous statement. I hope that these contributions may have more value rather than less from the fact that they have been separate studies, made at long enough in- 4 THE EUEAL PROBLEM tervals so that the conclusions have had time to season. I have discussed some of these questions in ^'The State and the Farmer ''; but in the present book I bring the subjects together for the purpose of showing some of the means now in exis- tence whereby farmers may be trained. The future will develop other means ; I am here speaking of what it is possible and practicable to do in the present state of so- ciety. The Nature of the Problem IF the betterment of rural conditions is a process of evolution, then all persons who are to be concerned in the evolution must take active part in it if they are to enjoy the benefits of the progress; and I like to think that each person will enjoy these benefits in about the proportion that he actively participates in the work of re- construction. That is to say, we all bear a natural responsibility, as citizens, to for- ward the rural status as well as the urban status; and this responsibility rests spe- cially on all those who are near the problem or are a part of it. The countryman must not be one of a re'cipient or receptive class, but he must himself promptly help and co- operate to solve the rural problems and to discharge his full obligations to society. This is in large part the theme of the book. Even a farm is not a private business in 6 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM the sense that it should be absolved of re- sponsibility to society and be outside all regulations in the interest of society. The schools and colleges Schools, colleges, experiment stations, departments and bureaus devoted to agri- culture and country life are now many and they are increasing. They mark a distinct advance in the application of knowledge and teaching to the plain daily problems of the people. They are rapidly becoming the best expressions of the social responsibility of government. Their work is free of cost to individuals ; and in this fact lies a dan- ger, now becoming real, that their benefits will be accepted as a matter of course and of right, and that the individual will not contribute in return as much as he is under obligation to contribute or as will make the help that he receives of real value to him; for I assume that when a person receives personal help and encouragement from so- ciety (or government) he contracts an ob- ligation to aid society and his fellow man. The institutions will render the best service 7 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS when they help persons to help themselves and when they stimulate active local initia- tive on the part of those with whom they deal or work. The indigenous forces If the countryman is to be trained to the greatest advantage, it will not be enough merely to bring in things from the outside and present them to him. Farming is a local business. The farmer stands on the land. In a highly developed society, he does not sell his farm and move on as soon as fertility is in part exhausted. This being true, he must be reached in terms of his environment. He should be developed natively from his own standpoint and work ; and all schools, all libraries, and or- ganizations of whatever kind that would give the most help to the man on the land must begin with this point of view. I will illustrate this by speaking of the current country movement to revive sports and games. More games and recreation are needed in the country as much as in the city. In fact, there may be greater 8 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM need of tliem in the country than else- where. The tendency seems to be just now, however, to introduce old folk-games. We must remember that folk-games such as we are likely to introduce have been de- veloped in other countries and in other times. They represent the life of other peo- ples. To a large extent they are love-mak- ing games. They are not adapted in most cases to our climate. To introduce them is merely to bring in another exotic factor and to develop a species of theatricals. I would rather use good games that have come directly out of the land. Or if new games are wanted I should like to try to in- vent them, having in mind the real needs of a community. I suspect that suggestions of many good sports can be found in the open country, that might be capable of considerable extension and development, and be made a means not only of relaxation but of real education. We need a broad constructive development of rural recrea- tion, but it should be evolved out of rural conditions and not transplanted from the city. 9 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Individualism We are gradually evolving into a social conception of government, by which I mean that the inherent rights and welfare of all the citizens are to be recognized and safe- guarded and that the whole body of citi- zens shall work together cooperatively for these common ends. Privilege and oppor- tunity belong to every man, according to his ability and deserts. It is a common misapprehension that this gradually ap- proaching social stage will eliminate indi- vidualism and that its methods will con- stitute a leveling process; but individual- ism and social solidarity are not at all antipodal. Individuality and personality are much to be desired, and we are under obligation to see that they are not lost in our pro- gressing civilization. The farmer is the individualist. His isolation, and his owner- ship of land and of tools, make him so. He may lose his individualism when he at- tempts to dispose of his product, but he nevertheless retains his feeling of individ- 10 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM uality and independence throughout life. He may even resent any inquiry into his welfare by government, even though it is apparent that the sole purpose of the in- quiry is to aid him. We need to preserve and even encourage the spirit of independ- ence, at the same time that we forward the social cohesion and working together of farmers on all points of mutual or collec- tive interest. The educational and other institutions should help to do these two things,— to assist the farmer to rely on himself and to be resourceful, and to en- courage him to work with other farmers for the purpose of increasing the profit- ableness of farming and of developing a good social life in rural communities. Not an ^^upliff It will be seen at once that this is not at all a question of ^^ uplift,'' as this word is commonly understood. The rural ques- tion is broadly a problem of stimulation, redirection, and reconstruction. Nor is it, therefore, merely a problem of technical agriculture as an occupation, 11 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS although, of course, the whole rural con- dition rests on the agricultural condition. All citizenship must rest ultimately on oc- cupation, for all good citizens must be workers of one kind or another, and there must be no parasitic class. The question directly concerns all persons who live in rural communities, whatever their occupa- tion, and it concerns them in all their rela- tions,— in relations to church, school, co- operation, organization, to politics and all public improvement, and in the general outlook on life and the attitude toward all matters that afPect the general welfare. It is not a problem merely of the thinly settled farming regions, but of the entire country outside distinctly urban influences, comprising hamlets, villages, and even small cities that sit in an agricultural region and are controlled by agricultural sentiment. To designate this extra-urban realm I have used, for several years, the term '^the open country,'^ and this has now become current in this semi-technical or special signification. Considered as a whole, the people 12 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM of the open country have not yet arrived at a conception of a thoroughly social or cooperative society. The farm- ing people have been obliged— and are still obliged— to give too great a pro- portion of their thought and energy merely to making a living. They have not entered on the social phase and they scarcely know what it means. They are tied to the daily routine both because they have not learned how to organize and con- duct an agricultural business effectively, and because they are preyed upon and sub- jugated by interests that control distribu- tion, exchange, and markets and that divert or exploit the common resources of the earth. The farmer must be aided in his busi- ness of farming, and the artificial hin- drances that are not a part of this business must be removed or checked by govern- ment ; then he must be made to feel that he is to give of his time and talent to the com- munity. In the largest sense, no person is a good citizen, whether in country or town, who merely has good character and is pas- 13 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS sively inoffensive and is a ^^good neigh- bor. '^ He must be actively interested in the public welfare, and be willing to put himself under the guidance of a good local leader, if he does not himself attain to leadership. 14 The Insufficiencies in Country Life A FEW months ago I attended a meet- ing in one of the best parts of the corn-belt, that was called for the purpose of discussing the condition of country life in that region. The first testimony of those who spoke was uniformly to the ef- fect that farm life in that part of the world was all that could be desired. All farmers who had given any worthy attention to their business were prosperous, farms were paid for, the men had the best of turnouts and some of them had automobiles, and many of them not only had money in the bank but were bank directors or concerned in other important business enterprises. The farmers were not complaining, and town people considered farm land to be a good investment. In fact, the farmers were so prosperous that they were able to move to town at fifty years of age. 15 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS I asked why they desired to move to town. The answer was, to secure good school facilities, to escape bad roads and isolation, to have church privileges and to be able to enjoy social advantages. In other words, the country life of the region was successful only on its business side, and a satisfying rural society had not developed. The town was the center of interest. The country was not sufficient unto itself as a permanent place of abode. The better country life What I mean by a better country life is a rural civilization that meets the needs of the twentieth century, and that is able to hold the center of one's interest through- out life. Primarily, it must be profitable in money; but it is not a good civilization until it develops good social and educa- tional institutions of its own, directly from the resident or native forces, and until it appeals both to youth and old age because of its intrinsic attractiveness and advan- tages. A civilization of this kind will be the country life of tomorrow. 16 THE INSUFFICIENCIES Striking insufficiencies The most apparent deficiencies are lack of effective rural institutions, as of really live and progressive social organizations, churches and schools; but all these are of course dependent on the earning-power of the farmer ; and this earning-power is con- ditioned on the freedom and fairness with which the farmer may conduct his busi- ness, as compared with other men. The middleman system needs to be overhauled and the abuses removed. This ought to come about through the operation of a public-service commission or similar body. Foreign markets should be opened. The inequalities of taxation should be evened up. The discriminations in transporta- tion rates and regulations must be cor- rected by the constant oversight of some competent authority. Parcels posts and postal savings banks must be provided. A useful system of agricultural credit and banking needs to be worked out. Injus- tices in general legislation that bear spe- cially heavily on the farmer need to be cor- rected. Monopolistic control of streams, 2 17 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS forests, lands, and other resources must be regulated. Good highways and other means of communication are to be provided. Sanitary conditions are to be studied and supervision provided for public health in the open country. Intemperance must be reduced. The labor and immigration prob- lems as they affect agriculture are in great need of thorough study. The woman's part in farm life must be redirected. The scenery attractiveness of the farming coun- try should be appreciated, and the land- scape features preserved and improved. A new rural architecture must be devel- oped. There is the greatest necessity for a more fundamental, accurate, and under- standable knowledge of the processes of farming, to the end that a perfectly ra- tional agriculture may be developed. The countryman of the future must be trained for his work. I am not to be understood as saying that all these shortcomings characterize all agri- cultural regions. In some country com- munities, they are not marked ; but, on the whole, the rural social structure is unde- 18 THE INSUFFICIENCIES veloped, and even some of the most pros- perous or profitable agricultural regions are the most barren of social and intellec- tual resources. How to bring about reconstructive ends is now the problem; but it is certain that the essentials of the problem are these: (1) better knowledge; (2) better educa- tion; (3) better and completer organiza- tion; (4) quickened social and spiritual forces. I shall now name some of the public agencies that may help to bring about the new order. 19 PART I THE MEANS OF TRAININa FARMERS The Means of Training Farmees The farm home itself is the most impor- tant training place for farmers ; but in this book I am not considering personal and domestic questions. The training of the farmer must be largely in the hands of government (or society), both because the stimulation and direction of persons who need stimulation must come from the out- side, and because government can com- mand the services of leaders and experts. Government will not impart information alone, but it will set up local organizations and institutions to apply the information and to set the people to work. It is essential that government should train farmers because this is the readiest and most effective means, in the long run, of saving our natural resources, and be- cause the rural problem is in the best sense a national problem and on its solu- tion rests the permanent welfare of society. 23 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS As a means to these ends, government should encourage all voluntary efforts of the people of the communities. In North America, the governmental activi- ties have outrun the organized voluntary activities. This is rather remarkable in a country in which the theory of gov- ernment has been to govern as little as possible. Yet it should be explained that these governmental activities are not a part of ' ^ go vernment ' ^ in the narrow sense of official procedure, control, and paternal- ism, but are institutions of public better- ment maintained by the people. The most direct means of training farmers is through the schools and col- leges of various kinds. There are many other means, however, although they may not be recognized as such; I propose now (in Part I) to enumerate enough of these to explain what I mean, and then to pass (in Part II) to a fuller discussion of regu- lar educational agencies. I shall not enter into any argument to show that it is necessary to train farmers. I presume that there is no disagreement on 24 MEANS OF TEAINING FARMERS this point. I assume that farmers, as other men, must be trained if they are to be effective workers in the world. From the point of view of society, it is essential that farmers be trained in order that the fertility of the land— on which the exis- tence of mankind depends— shall be safe- guarded. Other interests have been the beneficiaries of protection and special privilege; the training that the farmer re- ceives is calculated to develop the man him- self rather than to succor and shield his business. 25 Rural Government THE American system of government is theoretically a process of self-educa- tion. All rural government should produce improved conditions of living in country communities. Unfortunately, parts of it have fallen into the hands of men who seek mere personal advantage, and to that ex- tent the system has been deflected from an organism to serve and develop the people into one that serves to place men in power ; it has to this degree ceased to be educa- tional, and therefore has missed its func- tion. The subversion of government is spe- cially marked in many rural communities, where local incentive is often so completely stifled by machinery, domination and cus- tom that the community is unable to work out any real improvement in its condition. There is a general lack of any fundamental 26 EUEAL GOVERNMENT or structural plan to improve the neigh- borhood in a broad or effective way. The county board of supervisors, or equivalent group, for example, is not usually a body that is much concerned with any large plans for the development of the county as a whole ; each supervisor is likely to be chiefly concerned to force down the expenses in his own township and to put the cost of im- provements oif on somebody else. This spirit runs through rural government. In most cases, such government is dead, as compared with what it might be. We hear much of boss rule and of graft in municipal politics, but it is probable that the difficulty is as great in rural poli- tics in proportion to the population, to the opportunities, and to the stakes that are involved. The whole country status should be brightened up and loosened up, with new life put into it. I doubt whether this can come about until we evolve different pro- cesses in government of rural communities. We may even need new schemes of govern- ment in these communities. I am not at 27 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS all sure that the schemes now chiefly in vogue are such as are designed to develop a new structure of society or to encourage the best leadership; they certainly have not proved themselves. We are beginning to study municipal government; we are in equal need of a fundamental reconsidera- tion of the way in which rural communities may be governed. To this subject I hope to return at some future time. 28 The Eesponsibility of State Goveknment AND OF Public Institutions A MODERN government not only ad- ^ ministers and executes, but it devel- ops the business and the welfare of society. There is an educational side to government that we will recognize more clearly as time goes on. Public institutions bear a respon- sibility to the community aside from exe- cuting their own plans or performing their legal functions. I will first illustrate this by speaking of the idle farms belonging to the public or semi-public institutions. Now that we are beginning to recognize the very great importance of ^^demonstration farms ' ' as means of teaching the best agri- cultural practice, the state or institutional farms assume a new significance. 1. PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION FARMS i The United States Department of Agri- culture, experiment stations, and agri- "^ 29 THE TEAINING OF FARMERS cultural colleges are beginning to estab- lish demonstration farms to teach the people in the localities. Every public in- stitution that owns a farm should contrib- ute to this movement. There are prison farms, asylum farms, almshouse farms, and other land properties, comprising many thousands of acres and located in all parts of the states, that might be local teaching agents. It is not enough that public farms of this kind be merely well farmed (some of them do not even meet this requirement) ; they should all be demonstration areas, at least in part, to exhibit and explain to the communities the newer and better facts of agriculture. They should have some kind of relation with a supervising educational institution, and their work should be broadly organized on an educational basis. We need to go still farther than this. There are thousands of good acres of land in the states, located directly in the centers of the best communities, that are used only one week each year and even then perhaps with little effect on the betterment of coun- 30 RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT try life. These properties belong to the fairs. It is apparent that here is also an enormous property and opportunity that might be made of direct and continuing use to the people of the communities. It would be possible in many cases to grow experimental crops on certain parts of the fair grounds, to be standing in exhibition when the fair meets; or if not that, cer- tainly the entire grounds could contribute to the public good fifty weeks in the year if they were carefully laid out with trees and shrubs and kept open as exhibition parks. All of them could in this way become test grounds and recreation grounds. They should be tied up to the idea of public bet- terment. And the fair itself should be so directed as to be an educational enter- prise : there is no other reason for holding a fair. No country-life institutions are so expensive for the length of time that they are in service for the public as the fairs. We may look for the time when the fairs themselves will be more continuous, with educational exhibitions given at intervals throughout the year when their effect will 31 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS be greatest. All exhibits should be ex- plained by a good teacher. An inquiry in an eastern state (not yet complete) shows that at least 156 public in- stitutions have farms, aggregating more than 25,000 acres, and only three of the institutions are conducting agricultural experiments. Of semi-public institutions, twenty-one have farms, with more than 2,500 acres, but no experiments are con- ducted. Two of the institutions that make experiments are poor-farms or almshouses and one is a state school. Of the sixty-two fairs reporting, none conducts tests or ex- periments on the grounds. 2. INVENTOKIES OF KURAL RESOURCES The government of the state has a larger responsibility to the country problem than merely to turn over the rural institutions to the general good. It must set constructive forces in motion. It must develop the busi- ness and welfare of country life. 32 EESPONSIBILITY OF GOVEBNMENT We must know exactly what our re- sources are. We are accustomed to geo- logical surveys and to censuses to count the voters and make apportionment of voting districts. We inventory our min- eral resources. But we have no accurate knowledge of the soils in the different localities, of local climate, the wealth of localities in the way of woodlots and small streams, the feasibility of developing small industries in the communities (and the open country needs new industries and new interests), no good studies of local mar- kets or of the kinds of agriculture that it would be best to encourage in any section. The central experiment station or col- lege engages in the discovery of principles, but it may not be able to apply them in other parts of the state, because it has no specifications of conditions in these parts. Neither has the farmer himself any ade- quate concept of the conditions, because no one has given him the knowledge and no one has it to give. We are now passing the stage of exploitation in agriculture. We are rapidly coming to a time when spe- ^ 33 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS cial skill must develop on our farms. This skill is, of course, conditioned on local knowledge. The greatest fundamental need in country life is a thorough-going survey in detail of our agricultural resources. Something is being done in this direction by the colleges of agriculture, but it is pitiably small when compared with the needs. Within such a survey scheme should be included, as component parts, all soil surveys, orchard surveys, live-stock and dairy surveys, and whatever other system- atic studies are made of the products, in- dustries, people, and institutions of the localities. All this geographical know- ledge should be mapped and platted. An agricultural survey of national scope should be set on foot, with all the states cooperating. The work should be nation- alized under the United States Department of Agriculture. A well-analyzed plan should be made by a committee of com- petent persons representing many regions and many lines of study. The scheme hav- ing been perfected, the work could proceed systematically year after year, each state 34 KESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT completing its own field as rapidly as it chose. Certain phases or parts of the in- vestigation could probably best be carried by the national government. The im- portant considerations are that the plan shall be well studied, the work correlated, and the movement progressive. It will be only when we collect and compare such data that we can hope to take the best steps to establish a thoroughly sound country life in the localities. 3. ATTITUDE TOWARD THE FARMER IN LEGISLATION Because the farmers are not organized, their interests are likely to suffer or to be overlooked in the making of legislation. I will illustrate what I mean by the game- law legislation. No type of legislation seems to be in a more hopeless or chaotic condition than that relating to the pres- ervation of small game. Laws are enacted that apply to particular localities and not 35 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS to localities adjacent to them, or that please a certain set of sportsmen, or that have certain special interests in mind. Now, small game is to a large extent a natural product of farms. All game is a product of the earth. So far as the earth is owned for productive purposes, it is controlled by the farmer. The general result of game- law legislation and agitation is to antag- onize the farmer against the sportsman, whereas their interests ought to be har- monized and unified. There must be funda- mental principles on which such legislation may rest, and these principles would neces- sarily recognize that the farmer has rights as well as the sportsman. Laws so made would put the farmer and the sportsman into sympathy and cause them to work to- gether to the betterment of each. The reader can extend this observation to many other forms of legislation. 36 The Reading Habit WHAT the farmer reads has great influence on his training. The li- braries carry a distinct obligation here, particularly since traveling libraries and rural libraries are being greatly extended. To a large extent the effect of library work is to cause persons to read for entertain- ment. The countryman, however, needs to read for courage, that he may overcome his fatalism and inertia. Herein is where library schemes are likely to be fundamen- tally weak, if in fact not radically wrong for the countryman. I would not eliminate the natural desire of anybody to read for entertainment ; but I would make a special effort to develop in the countryman a habit of reading such things as will give him per- sonal mastery over his conditions. Rural literature There is very little good literature that is specially adapted to rural communities 37 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS except the technical agricultural books and bulletins. It is often said that farm homes are greatly lacking in books and in maga- zines. This is often true. One reason is that there is so little literature that is really applicable to the farmer's general condition and also because his whole train- ing -leads him to think in terms of experi- ence rather than in terms of books. There are many farm homes that are well sup- plied with good literature, and the number is rapidly increasing. In the old days one would be likely to find a copy of ^^ Pilgrim's Progress, ' ' the novels of Scott and Dickens, a copy of ^'Robinson Crusoe" and other books of the earlier order. The Bible is found everywhere, but it is too often read in the country, as in the city, from the point of view of ^' texts'^ and not interpreted in terms of present-day life. If I were mak- ing out a set of books for reading any- where, I should want to include some of the modern expositions or adaptations of biblical literature in order that the Scrip- ture might be made applicable and vital to the lives of the people. 38 EEADING HABIT The novels have no special relation to the actual conditions under which the farmer lives. I would not advise that all reading have relation to the life of the present, but some of it certainly should be applicable in order that it may have mean- ing. We have very few good novels de- picting the real farmer. A good many farmer characters have been drawn, but most of them are caricatures, whether so intended or not, and present a type of life and a vocabulary which, if they exist at all, are greatly the exception. Com- mon novels are likely to be exotic. A good part of them are read because they are the best sellers of the time. The bulletins of the experiment stations and departments of agriculture are now widely distributed ; but they are not read as much as they ought to be. This is in part because the mailing lists are not selective, and in part because the reader may have no fundamental knowledge to enable him to use them. In many cases the bulletins themselves are unreadable and are only reference texts. 39 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS We have practically no good poems of American farm life. A poem of the plow- boy is very likely to be one that sees the plow-boy from the highway rather than one that expresses the real sentiment of labor on the land. I do not know where I can find a dozen first-class poems of farming. Farm poems usually are written from the study outward, and by persons who see farming at long range, or who come to it with the city man's point of view. The nature books are largely forced and lack personality. There are, of course, distinct exceptions; but taking the books as a whole my experience seems to justify this judgment. We need native and sen- sible books with country direction in them. We need something like the Burroughs mode applied to farm operations and farm objects. Of late the reportorial type of literature has forced itself into country-life subjects. The reporter discovers a high point here and there, does not understand relation- ships, writes something that is efferves- cent and entertaining and very likely mis- 40 READING HABIT leading. The ' ^ wonders-of-science ' ' idea has also expressed itself in agricultural writing, and we are beginning to produce a type of literature that is unsafe. Some person who is doing good quiet work in the improving of crops, or in other agricul- tural fields, is likely to be discovered by a facile reporter, and his work may be made to appear as a sensation. We have no history of farm life or farm people. I have recently been much im- pressed with this lack, when I have been trying to find biographical data of a great many persons who have had much influence in developing good country life in North America. The careers of these persons do not appear in our standard biographies, although persons who may have accom- plished much less may be included. The result is that no ideal of leadership in agricultural or country-life affairs is put before the boy or girl. The biogra- phies that the youth reads are of persons who have made their way in other careers. Yet, as a matter of fact, scores of per- sons whose names are unknown to the 41 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS standard books have exerted an influence that is truly national in its character. These persons should be listed among the heroes to whose accomplishments the young generation may aspire. There are gilded publications that appeal to city persons who have an extrinsic in- terest in the country, or to those who have abundant money to spend; but they exert little, if any, influence on the development of a native country life. The agricultural press is now very exten- sive and is contributing to the developing of the reading habit, at the same time that it spreads information and puts the reader in touch with current topics. We need a high-class journal of a new type that will interest men sympathetically and psychologically in farm life, devoting only a secondary part of its space to the smaller questions of technical farming. Another mode of developing the reading habit is by means of reading-courses and reading-clubs, which are now beginning to be organized by the agricultural colleges. These are likely to have great influence in 42 READING HABIT rural communities because (1) they are directly related to the life of the people, and (2) because they are dynamic or have an active follow-up system. Need of organization Every social or educational organization that exists in the open country should be a means of developing and spreading the reading habit. Local granges should be reading centers. The farmers' institutes should leave behind them some kind of an organization that will continue the work of the institute and develop the reading habit. All country churches, and all country schools, should also be agents in the same cause. All these organizations should be made distributive centers for good litera- ture. They should all aid in distributing the bulletins of the experiment station of that state. The local library will often be able to distribute the experiment station bulletins much more effectively than the experiment station itself, because the library should know the local needs and the habits of life of its constituents. 43 THE TRAINING OF FAEMERS We are much in need of a coordination or association of all these various efforts. If there is no formal organization as be- tween them all, I am sure that there should be a cooperative interest between them so that they will all work k)gether harmoni- ously toward one end. All these agencies should be active. They should know what other agencies are doing. Each one of them should preserve its full autonomy, but it will do more concrete work if it knows its own field, and will be stimulated to greater effort if it knows what other or- ganizations are doing. The libraries There should be a library in every rural town. This library should have relation to its community, as a school or a church has. It should be an educational center. The traveling libraries have provided a new way of developing the reading habit in the country and in remote towns. It un- doubtedly has had great influence, although I think that the character of its literature needs to be reconsidered. If libraries and librarians are only a 44 READING HABIT means of distributing books, all that needs to be done is to perfect the machinery or the mechanics of the work. If they are to energize the people and to redirect the cur- rents of local civilization, they must do very much more than this. They must in- spire the reading habit, direct it, and then satisfy it. We need not so much to know Just what kind of books to put in the hands of readers as to establish a new purpose in library effort. It is not enough to sat- isfy the demands of readers: we must do constructive work by creating new de- mands. The world outlook Of course, I would not limit the country- man's view to his own environment. I would begin with the things at home, as I would begin to teach the child by means of what is within its range ; and then I would lead out to the world activities. There is every reason why a farmer should have as broad a view of life and of the things that lie beyond as any other man has, but this comes as a natural extension of his proper education. 45 Health Conditions in the Open Country IN our approach to country-life ques- tions, we have largely overlooked the subject of the physical efficiency of country people; yet here is a problem of funda- mental importance, and attention to it by all public agencies becomes at once a powerful factor in education. The rural districts cannot develop to their greatest possibilities until every precaution is taken to preserve the health of the resident in- habitants. This is nowhere more marked than in the necessity of controlling the farm-labor supply. The excessive death rate among children, which obtains in some parts of the country, may be a direct cause of scarcity of farm labor. We must also develop strong and resistant bodies at maturity in order that the real work of the farm may be well accomplished. Public health is one of our greatest natural re- sources, as important to conserve as iron, 46 HEALTH CONDITIONS coal, or timber. No doubt our greatest national loss and waste lies in disease and reduced bodily efficiency of the citizens of the Kepublic. The sanitary condition of the open coun- try is also of the greatest importance to the city and the town. From the country are derived water, milk, and nearly all the food consumed in the cities. The condi- tion of these supplies is of the greatest con- sequence to every person living in an urban community. As society becomes better organized, every member of it bears increasing responsibilities toward the other members. Therefore there is a distinct brotherhood responsibility on the part of the country toward the healthfulness of urban regions ; and a no less reciprocal re- sponsibility on the part of the city toward the country. I do not know whether the health condi- tions of the country are worse than those of the city; I make no comparison what- ever as between rural and urban communi- ties. I mean only to state what some of the country conditions are. 47 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 1. SOME OF THE SPECIFIC HEALTH DEFICIENCIES I will mention some of the deficiencies of public health in rural districts. In mak- ing these remarks I do not have in mind merely the question of disease. I wish to consider the whole question broadly, to in- clude the lack of physical efficiency in what- ever way it may be expressed. Physical training There is a widespread lack of apprecia- tion on the part of the farmer of the neces- sity of good physical training. He is likely to feel that because he leads an outdoor life and has muscular exercise, he does not need to give attention to physical develop- ment. The fact is, however, that the farmer is as much in need of * ^ setting-up ' ' as any other man. His routine work may not contribute to the development of a well- proportioned and strong physique. The number of ill-formed, broken, lame and im- perfectly developed men and women im- 48 HEALTH CONDITIONS presses this fact. The modern riding ma- chinery has not contributed to the physical development of the farmer. One has only to note the posture of the man as he sits on the plow,, the reaper, or the wagon-seat to see that this is true. He is likely to. take the position of a horseshoe rather than to sit upright with straight back and well- carried shoulders. We need to give more attention to the mode of construction of seats on our farm machinery and vehicles. The man who follows the plow is very likely to fall into a loose and shambling gait, with stooped shoulders and an unequal poise of the body ; the plow-handles are per- haps too low to allow him to stand erect and carry himself well. The lack of good posture and good carriage (both of which contribute greatly to physical efficiency) is also marked in most housewives. They have not learned how to stand or to walk or even how to sit. Directors of gymnasia find that country youth usually need a radi- cal setting-up, even though they may have strong muscles, clear complexions, and robust health. If, in addition to these use- * 49 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS ful native qualities, the young man or young woman could acquire the proper physical carriage and development, much would be gained toward resisting the de- mands of later life. The farmer is likely to be careless of his body. I do not know whether any careful sta- tistics have been made comparing the physical development of farm folk with other folk. It is not unusual for persons of good observation and in full sympathy with rural conditions to say to me that the physical health and development of farm people is lower than of other people of comparable position in life, although this is contrary to the prevailing opinion. It is said that flattened chests, spinal curvature, weak arches of the feet, and similar defi- ciences, are marked in certain classes of students coming largjely from rural dis- tricts. It is a current saying that the isola- tion drives many farm women insane ; this, I think, is an error. If it is true, it affords the best possible argument for such an educational program as will give the 50 HEALTH CONDITIONS woman new interests in life; there is no doubt about the necessity of the program^ from every point of view. Long hours As a whole, the farm exacts too long- hours of work to enable the farmer and his wife to develop the best physical resis- tance. They become fagged ; they have too little time and strength to give to recrea- tion, reading, and to intellectual pursuits in general, thereby making life exclusively physical. A shortening of the hours of labor must come about through a general reorganization of the farm scheme follow- ing the gradual application of science and business to the work of the farm. In some of the best farming regions, a farmer's day does not now average more than about nine and one half hours. It is especially nec- essary that woman's work be so reorganized that she will have time enough and strength enough to enable her to take part in some of the larger affairs of the community. There is no one way whereby the farm work and 51 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS the housework can be reorganized, but the reorganization must come as a matter of necessity. We are now making the mistake of trying merely to improve the present order, whereas we need to develop a new point of view and to realize that all our systems and modes of life must change in order that they may be adapted to changing condi- tions. At a time when there is a marked tendency to shorten the hours of physical toil and expand the intellectual opportuni- ties, we cannot expect that the farmer will be an exception, although his hours can never be arbitrarily regulated. Cleanness Greater attention needs to be given to common cleanliness. The whole question of sanitation is said to be one of cleanness, although this statement is too sweeping. I have in mind not only bodily cleanliness, but also the general appreciation of the importance of tidy and well-kept surround- ings. This is fundamefntally a question of attitude toward life, but it also has very 52 HEALTH CONDITIONS distinct special bearing on the spread of disease. Whether in city or country, the first essential to conditions of good health is the elimination of all wastes, the destruc- tion of all rubbish and refuse, and the free use of water, soap, and disinfectants. Many uncleanly personal habits must be overcome and banished from rural com- munities. In the remoter parts, these habits are likely to persist. Perhaps noth- ing has done more to challenge attention to the essentials of cleanliness than the recent agitation for ' ^ clean milk. ' ' A man cannot make clean milk without himself being clean; and being clean of germs in person and in barns, enforces a wholly new conception of what cleanliness is. The agitation against promiscuous expectora- tion should be extended to the country dis- tricts, not only for protection against tuberculosis but to enforce standards of decency. A sensitive civilization cannot be developed in a spitting community. 53 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Good air There is still great need of emphasizing the importance of fresh air. It is most strange that persons who spend the day in the open air are likely to bottle them- selves np at night. I suppose that the fear of fresh air is in part expressive of our general philosophy of life, whereby we unconsciously carry the idea that man is in warfare with nature. We shut our doors to nature. Our windows are small and cramped, as if we only grudgingly let in the out-of-doors. Before we knew the nature of contagious disease, it was very natural that we should consider the atmosphere to be responsible for all kinds of insidious enemies. Disease was supposed to be due to some effluence or miasma, and we shut our doors to it. Now that we are able to distinguish the effects of air from mosqui- toes, flies, and germs, we should begin to discriminate in our habits. The best civili- zation will come when we put ourselves in sympathetic attitude toward nature, rather than when we antagonize it; and we shall 54 HEALTH CONDITIONS learn what things are noxious and take means to avoid them. The spread of tu- berculosis in northern regions in former time was due not so much to the fact that winters were cold as to the battening up of doors and windows. Sometime we shall learn how to warm our houses and at the same time supply them with clean air. Ignorance of disease There is still widespread ignorance of the nature of contagious disease. There are those who think that a swale or an overflowed stream is in itself a source of disease. The result is, in some parts of the country, that there is too much visiting in case of contagious disease; or persons may have a white fear of all sickness that they cannot understand and thereby avoid the sufferer and leave him without suffi- cient care. The lack of knowledge of the nature of disease and 'the difficulty of securing a phy- sician quickly, no doubt contribute largely to the use of what are called patent medi- cines. I would not condemn all proprie- 55 THE TKAINING OF FARMEES tary remedies ; but it is really a marvelous thing what faith we have in the label on the bottle. It is a curious psychological state. Without knowing what ails him or what the bottle contains, if only the label is reassuring, the man puts the contents into his stomach. He asks no questions; he takes no advice. I do not know of any other habit that exhibits such supreme faith; and the signs on the fences and barns show that our faith still abides. We need to appreciate the nature of our dependence on domestic animals. This re- lationship has its sanitary bearings. A number of the animal diseases are trans- missible to man. A healthy herd goes far toward insuring a healthy family; and the habit that develops good health in animals is likely also to develop good health in human beings. Diet In many families the diet is monotonous, innutritions, and poorly prepared. It is not such as to develop strong and resistant bodies. There are some geographical 56 HEALTH CONDITIONS regions in which this deficiency is marked. We are beginning to feed our cattle directly for milk-production or beef-production, that is, for efficiency. We ought also to begin to feed ourselves for efficiency. What- ever is said of the country cooking, how- ever, it has the transcendent merit of being honest; it is just what it pretends to be. The most artistic fabrications (with music) may be compounded in the victuals that one finds at the polite hotels and restaurants. Waters and wastes The general dependence on wells has an important bearing on health in the open country. We all know what dangers are likely to overtake the well, unless it is very carefully safeguarded. The spring may be safer or it may not, depending on cir- cumstances. The point is that we need to give increased attention to the guarding of our water supplies, whatever their source. The greatest care must be taken to re- move the wastes. Perhaps there is no single deficiency in country life that is more marked than this. Soil-pollution and 57 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS water-pollution are responsible for a num- ber of our most widespread and danger- ous diseases. Typhoid fever is one; the hook-worm disease of the South is another. Sanitary houses There are very few sanitary dwellings. This is true of country and city alike. We have builded houses for protection and to cover our household gods, but we have given very little attention to building houses for health. Fresh air, sunlight, water sup- plies, removal of wastes, the saving of steps and of useless effort, cleanliness, cheerfulness, restfulness, must all be con- sidered in a residence that is really good to live in. Highways The lack of good highways has its public health significance. It is difficult to secure expeditious medical and surgical service in many parts of the country because of the lack of traversable roads. It is natural that the physician or surgeon should dread such roads. This lack of service is likely 58 HEALTH CONDITIONS to increase the countryman ^s confidence in the medicine bottle, and also the depend- ence on the midwife who in many cases may not be too cleanly or too well informed and the results of whose practice may not at once be apparent. Rural diseases A number of important diseases are mostly rural and need to be given special attention by those who are interested in country-life affairs. Typhoid fever is es- sentially a rural disease in its origin ; so is malaria. Perhaps the most remarkable example now before the public is the hook- worm disease of the South, to which I have already referred, and which is said to in- volve four million people. The parasite that produces this disease has been termed ^^the germ of laziness. '' It is quite hope- less to rely only on teaching and preaching with persons who are ill with hook-worm; they need medical attendance. 59 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 2. SOME OF THE REMEDIES FOR HEALTH CONDITIONS My first observation is that it is natural to be healthy. I do not know whether most of us have discovered this fact. We have put the emphasis on disease. We have thought sickness to be a kind of judgment or punishment, as if we were all doing penance in this world. When we meet a friend, we say ^ ^ I hope you are well : ' ' the presumption is that he is sick, but we still have hopes that he may have escaped. We must overcome the notion that disease is an act of Providence. There seems to be a widespread belief that the organs of the human body tend to go wrong and that therefore they must be regulated; so we have liver regulators, stomach regulators, nerve regulators, and others. We are begin- ning to place the emphasis on sanitation rather than on disease. It is natural for a fruit-tree to bear : it is our business to re- move the obstacles to its bearing; it is natural for human beings to be healthy : it 60 HEALTH CONDITIONS is our part to remove the obstacles. We now have colleges of medicine and of dis- ease, but we shall sometime have colleges of health. The mental attitude toward health and disease is the first thing to be considered. To a great extent, our state of mind determines the bodily functions and controls the progress of disease. This is well illustrated in the undoubted success of many of the systems of faith cure. We must arrive at a sense of mastery over our- selves. New kind of dwelling We must have a new kind of country residence. Every building should be adapted to its place and its uses, and it should be built as largely as possible of native and local material. Many a farm- er's wife has worn herself out by going up- stairs and downstairs and traveling through intermediate rooms, when a different plan of the building might have placed the kitchen and dining-room and the supplies within easy reach. Water must be taken into the house and all wastes must be taken 61 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS out and safely disposed of. It is not diffi- cult to supply water to a farm residence. It can be supplied from springs, pumped by windmills or gas engines, syphoned from wells on higher land, provided from roof water stored in attics, or by the pres- sure-tank system. The time will soon come when every first-class farm home will be supplied with these essentials. It is the part of the colleges of agriculture to intro- duce a new rural architecture. I know it is difficult to overcome the prej- udice, but I think that I have the solution to the question : I advise country girls not to accept the proposal of any young man until he promises to provide the house with water supplies and a sanitary kitchen. The question could be settled in ten years. Inspections Rural manufacturing establishments that prepare food must be inspected, not only as to the honesty of the product but as to its wholesomeness and healthfulness. Creameries, cheese factories, canning fac- tories, and others are of this kind. Of late 62 HEALTH CONDITIONS years the practice has developed of inspec- tion of dairies and creameries by city boards of health. The city considers this to be necessary in order to protect its people. The city inspector, however, is likely not to understand the practical con- ditions under which the farmer works, and antagonism often arises between the city officers and the producers. It is really not a city function to inspect dairies and creameries. It is a state function. This work should be performed by a state de- partment or state college or some similar institution that is entirely unpartisan and non-political and that is thoroughly con- versant with farm conditions and in sym- pathy with the farmer as well as the con- sumer. Greater attention needs to be given to local slaughter-houses. Many of them are not only an offense to the community but present most unsanitary conditions through the feeding of the offal to swine, and other practices. 63 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Attitude of societies The regular rural societies and organi- zations should now begin to discuss public- health questions in the same spirit in which they are accustomed to consider purely agricultural questions. The wide-awake physician should be interested in these sub- jects, and the sanitary engineer and others should have a modern and rational point of view on the question of good health and physical development. It is especially im- portant that women's clubs take up this kind of work energetically, and they have done this in many places. The rural organizations carry a respon- sibility in the training of farmers in other than the technical agricultural relations. Farm laborer We must develop a new attitude, at least in some parts of the country, toward the laboring man. We must regard him not only as a fellow man, but we need also to see that he does not become a spreader of disease and thereby a menace to the com- 64 HEALTH CONDITIONS munity. No doubt a part of the typhoid fever is due to cases of ' ^ walking typhoid ' ' ; and the danger of the spread of tubercu- losis and other diseases by means of poorly housed, unguided and transient farm labor is by no means inconsiderable. The school Of course, the school has a responsibility to public health, for good health is mostly a direct question of teaching. The school should teach persons how to live. This means that every pupil who has had any school training should have some kind of an idea of the bodily functions and their control, and how and what to eat. It is less important to teach physiology as ordi- narily understood than to teach hygiene. It is the part of the schools to correct and eliminate the mock sentiment that now precludes an understanding of the natural functions of the human body. The lack of discussion and rational knowledge of these subjects contributes directly not only to physical inefficiency but to a coarse vul- garity. It is a good suggestion recently 5 65 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS made that one week of each year be given over in the schools to the discussion of health and sanitation, this period to be called a '^Health Week/' Supervision I may summarize these suggestions by saying that every one of us carries a nat- ural responsibility to develop good pub- lic health. We are all under obligation to see that society is effective, and it cannot be effective without strong and smoothly working bodies. We must develop a new spirit toward the isolated and the disad- vantaged man. This spirit would have great results in the training of rural people. Government must interest itself in health as well as in other social and economic questions. The federal government has no legal right or power to investigate human diseases in any of the sovereign states, ex- cept at quarantine stations, although it may freely investigate the diseases of chickens, cattle, and pigs. Certain sani- tary questions are so important and wide- spread that they become national rather HEALTH CONDITIONS than state problems. One of these is the hook-worm disease of the South, mentioned before. If society has a right to compel persons to go to school, it has an equal moral right to compel them to be healthy. We concede the right of government of calling men out to war. It is a marvelous thing that the mass of mankind will allow itself to be driven to slaughter. I am won- dering whether the time will not come when it will allow itself to be driven to life and health. Society now has a right to kill, but it has not an equal right to make well. The last right that a man surrenders is the right to be sick. We must establish a better regulation of health in the open country. City boards of health are continuously in operation and usually they are effective. If the open country has a board of health, it is usually operative only when some epidemic or other dire necessity arises. A thorough- going health organization for the open country is as important as similar organ- izations for the city, and it is to the inter- est of society and of each of us to see that 67 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS such a provision comes about. This regu- lation must be both state and local ; and the work should be nationalized by the estab- lishment of public-health work on a worthy- basis at Washington, and by a widespread educational propaganda. 68 Organization FARMEES have not yet learned how to work together effectively. They have numberless organizations, but there is a lack of good ^ ' team work. ' ^ The very indi- vidualism of the man makes him either suspicious of other men or undesirous of working with them. The farmers in any region are engaged mostly in the same kind of farming, and they regard them- selves as competitors rather than coopera- tors. It is now beginning to appear that it is usually more profitable for a farmer to grow the same crops that his neighbors do, for the community comes to have a reputation for certain products and it at- tracts buyers and bidders ; better transpor- tation rates and facilities are secured ; and the common interest brings expert know- ledge into the community. The immediate region, rather than the separate man, should be conceived of as an economic unit. 69 THE TRAINING OF FAEMERS When firmly united on correct principles, a community of farmers can accomplish anything within reason in the regulation of production, labor, markets, schools, churches, and general betterment. They should seldom organize merely to oppose or expose the existing conditions, even though these conditions are bad, but gradually, by careful study and systematic action, to bring a new condition out of the old. The educational results of organized ef- fort must not be overlooked. Many boys and girls have been put in the way of im- proving themselves by the local grange, pomological society, or other club or so- ciety. Organized effort becomes an active means of real training of farmers, a kind of community school. There are localities in which organizations of one kind or an- other have transformed the life of the region. The farm home is a democracy The farmer really has the very best school in cooperative democracy in his own 70 ORGANIZATION farming, if his business is properly con- ducted. All members of the family are workers. The home is so much a part of the farm that one is not sold without the other. If the boys and girls are given a share-interest in a good farm (and allowed to keep it), they usually like the business and stay on the farm. The same principle might be applied to the community. Inasmuch as the city, speaking broadly, has not yet solved the problem of perma- nently providing a growing population, the farm home assumes a most important rela- tion to civilization. It is charged with the duty not only of maintaining the open coun- try but of contributing population to the city. The farm home also carries an obligation to maintain the quality of the population. It is a preservator of morals, and it is well, therefore, that the farming people is conservative. I hope that the country folk realize these responsibilities. The farmer's fatalism Experience in working together has its psychological results. The real country- 71 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS man is likely to be a fatalist, althonigh he may not know it and he may resent it if told. His work is in the presence of the elemental forces of nature. These forces are beyond his power to make or to un- make. He cannot change the rain or sun- shine or storm or drought. The result of this is that the man may either develop a complacent and joyful resignation, taking- things as they come and making the best of them, or else a species of rebellion that leads to a hopeless and pessimistic outlook on life. I am convinced that much of the in- ertia of country people is traceable to the essential fatalism of their outlook on the world. This outlook of helplessness is to be overcome by giving the man the power and courage of science, whereby he may in some degree overcome, control, or mitigate the forces of nature, or at least effectively ad- just himself to them ; and by securing the impulse of collected action. Agricultural colleges, experiment sta- tions, and other institutions are giving the countryman no end of fact. We have not 72 / OEGANIZATION yet organized this fact into such a philos- ophy of application, however, as to give the countryman full confidence in his ability to contend with his native conditions. The new knowledge that the farmer acquires is likely to be held as a mere passive posses- sion ; it does not work itself out into action as it would in the case of men who are or- ganized to accomplish definite results. An organized community is one in which the new knowledge and appliances are put into use. I The community should prove up Eural societies can accomplish much for the community by putting up money to have special investigations made of the lo- cal or special problems. A society of gin- seng growers recently made a purse to call in a plant pathologist to make investiga- tions of ginseng diseases. This illustrates a very important principle: the college of agriculture or the experiment station of the state cannot find the funds to meet all the difficulties in the state, and the people should be willing to contribute money for 73 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS the solution of the problems of their special business or region (page 6). It is no doubt the part of the institution or of far- mers' institutes or other agencies to set backward neighborhoods into action, but it does not follow that the institution should forever carry the neighborhood or indus- try. As a neighborhood becomes pros- perous, it should be glad to help those who are less fortunate. The farmer has been so long accustomed to saving that it is hard for him to acquire the habit of giving. If a stock-growing community is per- plexed by a feeding problem or a pear- growing community is injured by the pear-blight, let the people unite and call the best advice. If investigations are needed that the college or experiment station can- not undertake, let the people collect a purse of say $600 a year for two or three years and have the institution send a special post- graduate or advanced student into the re- gion to work the problem out under the immediate direction of the college author- ities. This would give the locality the benefit of the most expert help at the mini- 74 ORGANIZATION mum cost, and it might be helping a needy and worthy student at the same time; in this way, the locality could have the dis- tinction and satisfaction of maintaining what would be practically a scholarship or fellowship, and the people would become active cooperators in the public work of the state. In very many cases this method would be far better than the common prac- tice of running to the legislature for every difficulty, and it would eliminate the neces- sity of depending for betterment work on the politician and office-holder. It would strongly develop the ability of self-gov- ernment. It does not follow, because a county fair, a farmers' club or a shipping association asks the college of agriculture or experi- ment station to send exhibits or a lecturer or an investigator, that the institution is under obligation to do so. It may be quite as important that the local organization ^ ^ prove up, ' ' show that it deserves the help, that it will take pains to cooperate and to execute the work. I have known many cases in which the people in the locality sit 75 THE TRAINING OF FAEMERS idly by or look on in curiosity while investi- gators work hard to throw light on a local problem; and I have gone back into the community years after to find the same difficulties and to hear the same questions as to cause and remedy. This is not fair. The country church It is not only a question of making new organizations, but quite as much of re- directing old ones. The country church is one of the organizations that need to enter new fields, or, perhaps better, to do some of their work in a new way. All of us and all organizations bear responsibility to soci- ety, the church as much as any and perhaps more than any. Rev. S. W. Pratt, in Al- legany County, N. Y., suggests that ^^a country church might organize a Farmers' Brotherhood to good advantage.'' There are many country churches that are carry- ing this responsibility. The system of cooperative creameries in Minnesota grew out of an organization at Clark's Grove, and this parent organization came out of the local church. 76 ORGANIZATION The country church has a much larger responsibility, and, therefore, a much larger opportunity than the public in gen- eral has realized. If it once recognizes its social responsibility to its community, it will exercise an even more powerful influ- ence than it does at present, and will be one of the very important factors in our rural progress. In many places the rural church has practically died out. In other places it is very weak. Many persons have felt that the usefulness of the country church is passing. This may be true to some degree if the church is to hold merely to the kind of work that has been done in the past ; but the best outlook is that which would reorganize the church, wherever necessary, into a much more energetic engine for the public good. The country saloon is open continually. The country church ought also to be open continually, or at least it ought to have a continual personal contact with its people; and this contact must be much more than through customary reli- gious work. 77 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Young Men^s Christian Association A typical example of the application of organized effort in rural problems, is the new ^^ county work'' of the Young Men's Christian Association. A rural county, rather than a city or town, becomes the unit of organization, with minor divisions and leaders. The motive of the work is to de- velop local leadership and imagination in all ways that will permanently help the young men in the localities. We may ex- pect to see this new movement become one of the recognized agencies of constructive rural development. 78 Federation of Kural Forces IT is possible for all the foregoing agencies, and many others, to be organ- ized into one or more federations and to be united in a general campaign for rural progress. One of the earliest writers and workers in the federating of rural organi- zations in a comprehensive way was Kenyon L. Butterfield, now president of the Massa- chusetts Agricultural College. Following his suggestion, the New England Confer- ence on Rural Progress was organized in 1907. The organization idea, as a force in rural betterment, is well expressed in his book, ^^ Chapters in Rural Progress.'* A successful campaign must come as the result of the uniting or working together of all rural forces within given regions. We already have the beginnings of enough institutions and of sufficient forces to recon- struct our rural civilization if only they are 79 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS well supported and if they cooperate genu- inely for the general good. This coopera- tion can come about in such a way as not to interfere with the essential autonomy of any institution or organization, while at the same time it ties them all together into one broad and common effort. The respon- sible heads of all existing rural agencies and movements in any state should consti- tute a kind of consulting board to stimulate and direct country-life work. It should be important to combine small agencies into state and national federations, when per- sons of wise leadership can be found, who are free from partisanship and per- sonal ambition. Such movements should be intrusted only to persons who see the whole problem of rural life. Movements of national importance must be carried through to a finish by some responsible agency. If the middleman sys- tem is to be regulated, some one must take the lead and be supported by the forces representing rural affairs. If the church is to take a new hold on country people, the movement should be nationalized under 80 FEDERATION good leadership. If the general welfare of a certain region is to be considered with any effect, some kind of organization must take up the work and bring the people to- gether; this is what the New England Conference on Rural Progress aims to ac- complish. In every state or region some such open organization should stand in a large way for the working together of all other organizations so far as they touch public rural questions. Reforms and progress are not to be brought about by abuse of the present con- ditions or by a process of muck-raking. The work must be shaped up in a construc- tive way and put through by a body that is beyond reproach and that has fairly defi- nite aims. The greatest function of a Commission on Country Life would be the handling of such questions as these. A national Commission is much needed to serve as a clearing-house on rural problems, as an organ through which the people can ex- press themselves, and as an agency to study the whole situation. 6 81 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS We are just now in need of a National Conference on Rural Progress, associating the ablest men and women, for the purpose of laying all these questions before the public. Such a conference would crystal- lize the slowly forming movement toward state and national unity in rural affairs. 82 PAET II THE SCHOOL AND THE COLLEGE IN RELATION TO FARM TRAINING 4 The School and the College in Relation TO Farm Training The special emphasis of this book lies on the relation of the school and college to the training of farmers : I shall therefore enter into this subject in greater detail. The American movement to reach the last man on the land originated in a chain of colleges of agriculture. The present institutions in the United States are founded on the Land-grant Act of 1862 and on subsequent acts, one college in each state and territory ^ ^ to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and pro- fessions of life.'^ These institutions '^ teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. ' ^ There are agricultural institutions of similar scope in Canada. I These colleges are reinforced by a chain of experiment stations, founded on the ^ federal grant of 1887 and a subsequent act. THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Practically all of these stations are con- nected with the Land-grant colleges. ^"~ Official departments of agriculture, rep- resenting several types of organization, have been established in most of the states. These departments or bureaus represent the police powers of the state in respect to agricultural matters, or become offices for the advertising of the agricultural possi- bilities of the commonwealth, or they do certain educational work, as the holding of institutes or the giving of instruction to dairymen. For the most part, they do not represent high types of governmental or- ganization or efficiency. They should be strongly capable, however, of training the I people in legal and governmental affairs as these matters apply to rural conditions. The United States Department of Agri- culture represents the interest of the fed- eral government in agricultural affairs. It has recently grown immensely in extent and influence, and has become one of the great coordinate executive departments of government. Much of its work is educa- tional, and therefore it may be considered 86 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE to be one of the institutions that are con- tributing powerfully to the training of farmers. These three types of effort,— colleges, experiment stations, departments of agri- culture—constitute the recognized Amer- ican system of reaching the rural problem. Great numbers of other educational agencies are contributing much to the solution of the same problem, but they are not a part of the regular public ma- chinery. In this book, no effort is made to discuss the experiment stations and the departments of agriculture: attention is given to some phases of the college work, since it is the chief function of these insti- tutions to train farmers.^ The colleges alone cannot solve the prob- lem of developing a better country life. The school training is more important than the college training ; yet the schools have really not entered the field of train- ing the farmer. There is universal demand 1 1 have made a discussion of the history and scope of these colleges in Vol. iv of the Cyclopedia of American Agriculture. 87 THE TKAINING OF FAEMERS that they relate themselves to this kind of work, and many beginnings have been made. Naturally, these beginnings are an adaptation of present school methods to agricultural subjects; but the outcome, if they meet the situation, will be a wholly new or different type of school effort. In other words, the agricultural and other industrial teaching will eventually redirect the schools, so that we shall have a new conception of what schooling and educa- tion is, or should be. In approaching these educational ques- tions, we may first ask why some boys and girls leave the farm and why others take to farming, in order that we may have before us some of the influences that are to be cor- rected or encouraged. We may then ask what the schools are doing to help the situ- ation. Then we may consider the influence of the college of agriculture on country youth, and thereafter discuss college men as farm managers. Finally, we may dis- cuss the general relation of the college of agriculture to the state. 88 Why Do the Boys Leave the Fakm? THERE are several ways of attempting to answer the question why the young folks leave the farm for other occupations or professions. The commonest way is to give probable reasons drawn from general observation of farm conditions. The ob- server can readily see many unattractive features of farm life that he supposes might influence the young. Another method is that of the advocate or propa- gandist, who is likely to fix his attention on one discouraging feature and to make it the motive force in the exodus from coun- try to city. He may see this cause in some governmental or other disability, which he conceives to press with particular hardship on the farmer, and which he de- sires to correct or reform. A third method is to ask persons who have joined in this exodus why they have done so. This is the 89 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS natural and scientific method, but because of the difficulty of reaching these persons, this method seems not to have been em- ployed to any useful extent. It is this direct method and its results that I pur- pose now to discuss. Character of the problem It is difficult to choose the persons of whom one may inquire in hope of securing usable information. Persons in middle life who are now deeply immersed in affairs are too far away from the farm to be trusted to give an account of the motives that guided them in their youthful choice; I have usually found that such persons are likely unconsciously to color their replies by the experience of subsequent years. Those who work at day labor have usually drifted away from the farm rather than purposely left it, and their ideas commonly lack definiteness ; and, moreover, these per- sons are laborers rather than farmers, and their case does not greatly influence the larger agricultural and social questions. I have therefore chosen to inquire of stu- 90 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM dents, for they leave the farm, if at all, with a definite purpose, and they are still near the point of their departure. Before taking up the details of my in- vestigation, I should say, perhaps, that such an inquiry is well worth making wholly aside from its bearing on technical agricultural questions. In its larger phases, the problem is both an economic and a social question. A migration city- ward imposes problems of addition on the city as well as problems of subtraction on the country. It has a direct relation to all general questions of population. It seriously affects land values, and, there- fore, other values. It has an important bearing on the vital problem as to where our people shall be bred. I have elsewhere tried to show (''The Outlook to Nature'') that farmers constitute the chief nature- bred class of men now remaining to us, and this fact cannot help having a far-reaching effect on the character of future popula- tions. I am not now discussing the question as to whether there is, in fact, a general exo- 91 THE TRAINING OF FAEMEES diis from farm to town, but am only con- sidering specific instances; nor am I assuming that because a person is born on a farm he should therefore remain on a farm. Many persons have left the farm, and we may ask them why they have gone. An inquiry of students In 1904-5, I addressed a circular letter to all students in Cornell University out- side the College of Agriculture who, I had reason to believe, were born in the country, asking (1) whether the person were reared on a farm, (2) where, (3) whether he in- tended following some other business than farming, and why. I also addressed a let- ter to the nearly 400 students then in the College of Agriculture of Cornell Univer- sity, asking similar questions, and inquiring why they desire to pursue agricultural occupations. In all cases I asked for first- hand personal reasons, and, in order that the respondent might not be embarrassed, I promised not to make the names public. The replies fall chiefly into four groups : (1) persons reared on the farm, but now 92 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM planning to leave it; (2) persons born in towns or cities, and purposing to remain in them; (3) those bred in towns or cities, and planning to go to the farm; (4) those raised on farms, and expecting to remain there. We may now discuss those who plan to leave the farm. I make no attempt to discuss the merits and demerits of farm life, or to place values on the replies, or to enter the tempting field of discussion of the psycho- logical aspects of the cases. I mean to put before the reader only the reasons that these earnest young persons think to be the ones that have determined their choice of careers. Of course these replies in this chapter are against the farm. They comprise a series of vigorous indictments against the business of farming by persons who have known the business; for nearly all these persons were born and reared on farms, and the few others have lived on farms long enough to make them essentially farm boys. In this farm-exodus class I have 155 re- plies. Although the number of respondents 93 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS is not great enough to warrant statistical conclusions,— I am not making a scientific investigation,— yet they probably state the larger part of the reasons that a much greater number of similar persons would allege. These replies come largely from New York, but those from other states, chiefly in the West, are the same in tenor. Most of the respondents give more than one reason for planning to leave the farm. These reasons I have roughly classified be- low. It will be seen that the predominant reason is that farming does not pay in money, and other reasons are that the physical labor is too great and the social advantages are too small ; but I prefer not to comment. The figures give the number of persons who allege the different reasons : The question of financial reward Farming does not pay ; no money in the busi- ness 62 Difficult to acquire a farm without a start . 10 Farming requires too much capital .... 5 94 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM Discouraged by the fact that farms are mort- gaged 5 Farmer cannot control prices 2 The farmer buys high and sells low .... 1 High taxes near the city 1 Expect to farm some day, after making money in some other business . . . . .15 The question of physical labor Too much hard work 26 Hours too long 17 Work too monotonous 11 Farming is drudgery 8 Work is unattractive and uncongenial ... 6 The work is not intellectual 6 No machinery can perform the hard work of the farm 2 The work is too hard in old age 1 The farmer is too tired to enjoy reading . . 1 The social and intellectual ideals No social advantages or activities .... 26 More opportunity for advancement elsewhere 14 The farmer cannot be known in the world . . 5 Life is monotonous 4 95 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS The social and intellectual ideals (continued) The life is confining ; no freedom 4 The association is with uncultivated people . 3 The occupation is too narrow 3 The farm is isolated 3 Women are overworked on the farm .... 3 Farming is physical labor only 2 People have a low regard for the farmer . . 2 No higher and nobler achievement possible . 2 No high ideals in farming 1 Education gave higher ideals and needs . . 1 College training unfits for farm work ... 1 Farmer cannot serve humanity 1 Farming has little excitement 1 Has come to know the city and likes it ... 1 Farmer has no political advantages .... 1 Miscellaneous handicaps Natural bent elsewhere 24 Parental influence against farming .... 6 Teacher influenced against it 1 Father was unsuccessful 2 The home was unpleasant 2 Health not sufficient for the work .... 3 Difficult to secure help 3 96 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM Letters from those tvho have left Every one of the 155 letters is worth reading, because these letters express personal points of view. There is every internal evidence that they are genuine expressions of conviction, and are not written for effect. Since it is not possible to print all these letters in the space at my disposal, I have chosen those that seem to be most definite or emphatic, and at the same time present divergent points of view. I first transcribe seventeen letters from persons reared on farms in New York state, and then follow with charac- teristic statements from farm boys of other geographical regions. (1) "The principal reason why I left the farm and am here in college, working toward another business, is the influence of the prin- cipal of the village school which I attended for several years. He continually urged me to get away from the farm, to go to college, and prepare myself for something better. ''While I was living at home, on the farm, the attractive side of farm life, as I believe is 7 97 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS very generally the case, was not brought out. It was merely hard work all the time. So I, like the majority of farm boys, was not at all unwilling to leave the farm. ''However, I now sincerely think that I shall sometime return. I truly love the country and all the attractions of nature. Since I left it, I have constantly come to appreciate the country more. I have spent my summers on the farm, and very pleasantly spent them, too. I now firmly believe that farm life may be made the most attractive kind of life. The trouble is, in the majority of cases that have come under my observation, that farm life is not made attrac- tive for the boys. Many of them have very little education, and their life is to them merely hard drudgery from early morning to late at night, with only a bare living as a return. Hence, they are only too glad to leave it. They are in the dark, and don't know that there is light for them. ''With the increase of agricultural education and betterment of conditions in the country, I believe this will change. The young men will come to see the brighter side of farm life, and the attractions and advantages in staying on the farm. ' ' (2) "I intend to follow some other business 98 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM than farming because I consider that farming is all work and no pay. It is nothing but drudgery from morning — early morning — until late even- ing, and there is little chance for social and intel- lectual advantages." (3) ''I have lived on a farm, except for the last year before entering Cornell, all my life. j\Iy reason for not wishing to continue on a farm is the financial side of the question. The work is also distasteful to me, not because it is hard, for I think a farmer 's life is a comparatively easy one, but because a farmer's work is never done." (4) *'The duty of securing from the soil the means of sustenance for the race belongs to the farmer. This involves hard and incessant toil with no adequate reward. The scope of the far- mer's activities is limited to the farm upon which he toils, as is that of his enjoyment. ''The farmer's burden is heavy, painful, and without reward, with no prospect of a change in his condition. Life is short and uncertain. Why spend it performing a painful task, which is at the same time a thankless one?" (5) "I intend to follow civil engineering be- cause it gives a better chance to get out in the world and keep in better touch with a broader kind of life. The farm is far from unattractive to me, and I think the farmer's life as near the 99 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS ideal life as it is possible to get. I like the life, could have a farm of 150 acres for the trouble of working it, and there is no more fertile land in the state than that same farm ; but a farmer 's life is rather too monotonous, and it has been my experience that he vegetates if he is not careful. This is noticed on going to the city after some months on the farm. ' ' (6) ''I left the farm because I realized that farming, like any other productive business, needs capital, and I had only the questionable posses- sion of brains to capitalize. The only unattrac- tive feature to me was the young farmer start- ing out in life with a mortgaged farm having to compete with men who owned their farms." (7) *'I do not intend to follow farming as a business, for the following reasons : ^'a. It is unprofitable. ^^b. It is a life solely of physical labor. I consider myself better adapted naturally for mental work. ^'c. Although a respectable occupation (all honest work is respectable), it does not offer a field for extensive development of the broader and nobler of human faculties. ^^d. It is a life which involves a never-ending monotony of daily routine. ^^e. Viewed from its present status, it is a 100 WHY BOYS LEAVE FAEM life in which no self-respecting man should ask a woman to participate. I say this because of the ceaseless care and unlimited toil which fall to the lot of the farmer ^s wife. ^' While I have many minor reasons, the fore- going are the most important that occur to me at the present time." (8) ''On the farm, there are longer hours, harder work, and smaller compensation. ' ' (9) ''It has been a matter more of accident than of choice. When I was fifteen my father retired, being then fifty-five or more. My elder brother is a farmer (market-gardener on about fifty acres) and my other brother a civil engi- neer. As far as finances go, the farmer does better than the civil engineer, although I judge their abilities equal, each in his line. The civil engineer has perhaps less work and more time for recreation. I believe, however, that if the farmer would be satisfied with savings per year equal to the civil engineer, this condition would be reversed. "I believe the answer to your question lies in the narrow-minded and selfish attitude of far- mers toward their sons rather than in anything unattractive in farm life itself. In my own case, my choice is by no means final and is due to accident rather than to deliberation." 101 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS (10) ''Farm life is unattractive to me because of the social conditions. Social life on the farm is simply stagnation. I dread the horrible mo- notony of such a life. I love farming, I love the farm. I like to go out in the fields and work under the clear open sky ; but man is a social be- ing, and is not destined to live an isolated life." (11) "It seems to me that one can never, without assistance, become independent on a farm, and without independence farm life is little more than drudgery. Life on a farm is bound to be, to a certain extent, dull and tedi- ous, with little variety or relaxation. One tends to become narrow, sordid, and self -centered, with few interests, and to lose his inspirations for higher things. His finer sensibilities are deadened by toil, and he becomes entirely uncon- scious of the many interesting and beautiful things around him. It is the man who was not born there who really sees and appreciates the beautiful things in the country. ' ' (12) "If I had been heir to a large or even a good-sized farm, I would probably have en- gaged in farming. "The chief reason why farmers' sons leave the farm, from my observation, is that their fathers or their neighbors are always crowded by their work, and have no time to spend in va- 102 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM cations or reasonable rest periods. This is not the fault of farm life, but rather the result of unbusinesslike management and unscientific operation. ' ' (13) "My father was a very poor farmer, although one of the few in the neighborhood owning his farm, and as I wished to advance according to new ideas, we could not agree. I went into the sale-stable business, but wishing to be more than a horseman, I am seeking for a degree of doctor of veterinary medicine. Being heir to farm land, I shall be interested in the ad- vancement of agricultural lines. When I retire from active professional life, it will probably be to the farm. ' ' (14) ''When I entered the university and registered in mechanical engineering, I had the idea that a fellow had to get off the farm, as the saying goes, 'to make something of himself in the world,' and that a living could be made more easily, with more enjoyment, in another profession. But now, after seeing a little of the other side of the question, if I had the four years back again, agriculture would be my col- lege course. As for country life being unat- tractive, I have always found it much the reverse. The best and happiest days of my life have been on the farm, and I cannot but wish 103 THE TEAINING OF FARMERS that I were going back again when through with school work." (15) "The struggle for a mere living is too strenuous. Reliable help, a necessity on a large farm, is very difficult to obtain, either male or female. The life is pleasant enough in summer, but the cold and snow of winter and the deep mud of spring virtually shut out many farmers' families from social intercourse with their friends, and tend to make them narrow-minded. With smaller farms, more scientifically managed, employing labor-saving devices more generally, especially in the performance of household work, and with improved roads and daily mails, the life would be almost ideal. ' ' (16) '^I was reared on a farm in central New York. It is my intention to go into some other business than farming because there is not enough money in it, and because one has to depend too much on the seasons for the produc- tion of good crops. One disadvantage is, that if a farmer wishes to sell anything, he must take what is offered him, instead of setting his own price. On the other hand, if he wishes to buy, he must pay what is asked. In regard to work- ing farms on shares, there is but very little money made. Also, the >vork is too hard and the hours are too long. ' ' 104 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM (17) (From a woman) '*A woman must be primarily a cook, whether on a farm or in the city. It is difficult for a woman to fill this posi- tion and at the same time manage outside work. Not so much of this outside work comes to the woman in the city as in the country. If a hus- band considers the farm a place to which he declines to be 'tied down/ a woman finds it rather difficult to get things done on the farm, enough to keep it in good condition. ' ' (18) (Connecticut) "I intend, to follow the profession of civil engineering. I did not take up farming because in New England a farm is not of much value for earning a living unless situated near enough to a large city to sell gar- den truck. Dairy farming is about all there is left to a farmer, and one firm virtually controls the market at my place, and places the price very nearly as low as the cost of production. *'My town is a summer resort for New York- ers, and being thus thrown into close connection with them, the young people, as a rule, desire to be like them. So they either take some course in a business college and start for the city, or they start for the city without such training at their first opportunity. ''Then, too, there are excellent schools scat- tered all about New England, and the height 105 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS of the ambition of the young country lad is to enter one of these schools, and be with the sons of the 'big men' of the country. After he has passed through the school, he will naturally wish to follow his classmates on through college. Since most of these colleges lack an agricultural department, he chooses some other profession. "The older farmers of my section of New England are quite often wealthy, but they se- cured their wealth in former years, and they themselves say that farming at the present time does not pay, and are educating and encourag- ing their sons to seek business in -other fields. "Outside of going to the country fair once a year, the farmer's son does not see in what way other more successful farmers are attain- ing their success. Of course every farmer takes farm literature, but this does not appeal to him so strongly as to visit and see for himself these successful farms. ' ' When I had finished my common-school edu- cation, my father came to the conclusion that since, in his opinion, farming did not pay, he would send me through college, although he hated to see me leave the farm. "I might add that the drudgery of such long hours as are necessary on a dairy farm is an unattractive feature of farm life in my locality. ' ' 106 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM (19) (Pennsylvania) "a. The drudgery of life on a small farm. "h. The small profits. '^c. The farmer is tied down, because crops, etc., cannot wait. ^'d. Other fields seem to offer possibilities for greater and nobler achievements. ''These are a few of the unattractive features of farming that come to my mind. If, when younger, I had seen more of farming on a large scale or had known more successful farmers, I might now be taking agriculture. Even now I hope some day to own a farm." (20) (Maryland) "I am intending to be a civil engineer. There are several reasons why I did not care to be a farmer. First, farming in my country, where I naturally w^ould want to farm, does not pay fair return for efforts. Sec- ond, the influence exerted at home was opposed t© such a life without a strong desire on my part, which I did not have. Third, I had a strong desire to become an engineer. ' ' (21) (Ohio) "Because I was not born the heir to a fortune. Had I been, I can think of no more attractive place to spend life than a farm. Without plenty of money from other sources than the farm itself, a farmer's life is too limited. He cannot travel, he cannot have 107 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS a large acquaintance, or make himself known in the world. Other lines of business offer more money, especially if one is naturally qualified to enter them, and hence broader and more profitable careers." (22) (Illinois) "No money in farming. I like the city and its pleasures. There is nothing 'doing' on a farm." (23) (Wisconsin) "On a farm, especially dairy, a person is kept at work each day, no time to be away more than half a day at a time, as help on a farm is not always to be trusted. As compared with other occupations, farm life demands longer hours, harder work, and less pay; so, being in a position to leave the farm and receive an education, I did so, knowing that at any time the farm is there. For inde- pendence there is no person that can be more so than a farmer." (24) (Missouri) "I do not intend to return to the farm because, with my present education, I can do better as an engineer. "I think I can best give you the information you wish by answering the question, Why did I decide to leave the farm ? "a. There was no money in farming, unless a man had money to invest. Even then there was but little. 108 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM '^6. Disadvantages of being away from schools, churches, entertainments, social life, etc., which a city affords. "c. Somewhat too ambitious to be content with the quiet life of a farmer. ^^d. A natural liking for machinery and engi- neering work. ^'e. I was physically not strong enough to do the heavy, hard work which farm life demands of the man unable to hire it done. The most unattractive part of farm life is the long day's work, under a hot, sweltering sun, following a harrow or pitching hay or doing similar work. Plowing was an exception : I like to plow. ''Farm life has changed a great deal since I left the farm twelve years ago. Machinery has been added, making the work easier; farming has become more scientific, giving scope to the man who does not wish to be a mere nobody. For the last few years there has been more money in farming. "At the end of my arts course I could have returned to the farm, made a better farmer, been more contented, and worth decidedly more to mankind and to my country than I could ever have been without it." (25) (Arkansas) "In my part of the coun- try cotton is the only staple crop, the produc- 109 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS tion of which is too monotonous. The labor in that part of the country is all done by negroes, and, owing to the climate, must always be. The race question has never affected us materially, but it must be solved in the next few years, and the outcome is uncertain." (26) (Mississippi) ''Lack of remuneration in proportion to the amount of labor. Lack of opportunities for social intercourse. ''I was too far from school, church, and post- office." (27) (North Dakota) ''I do not care to be a farmer because, first, I do not like farm work ; second, I do not think there is the chance for ad- vancement on a farm that there is in other lines, either social or financial ; third, the farmer in general is not looked up to intellectually ; fourth, there is not enough 'doing' on the farm for a boy." (28) (From a large ranch in Montana) "Yes, I intend to follow some other business, but not because farm life is unattractive, for my opin- ion of the farm is health and true freedom ; but I can follow a professional business and have the farm as a side issue, and through it always have a steady income." (29) (Washington State) "I did not leave the farm because it was unattractive or because 110 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM my home was not a pleasant one. Had there been only one boy in the family, I should prob- ably be there to-day. As there were two, one was naturally the farmer and the other the mechanic, gunsmith, and engineer. My reputa- tion in these lines made it necessary for me to do much technical reading, even before entering the high school, and every step after that car- ried me farther from the farm. A year with the IT. S. engineers put the question beyond further doubt. I enjoy farm life and farm work. ' ' Questions raised hy the replies These native replies at once bring np many questions of great public concern, for they have to do, in a broad way, with the position that the farmer occupies in the economic and social structure. These young persons come from good or at least average farm homes; otherwise it would be wholly improbable that they would seek a university training. Exactly forty per cent, of them desire to leave the farm be- cause it is not remunerative. It is easy to say that this financial unsuccess is due to poor individual farming; but it is a ques- 111 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS tion whether a good part is not due to causes that go further and deeper than this ; and it is the part of the publicist and statesman to determine what these causes are. Farming is virtually the only great series of occupations that is unorganized, unsyndicated, unmonopolized^ uncontrolled, except as it is dominated by natural laws of commerce and the arbitrary limitations imposed by organization in other business. In a time of extreme organization and sub- ordination of the individual, the farmer still retains his traditional individualism and economic separateness. His entire scheme of life rests on intrinsic earning by means of his own efforts. The scheme in most other businesses is to make profits, and these profits are often non-intrinsic and fictitious, as, for example, in the habit of gambling in stocks, in which the specu- lator, by mere shrewdness, turns over his money to advantage, but earns nothing in the process and contributes little to civ- ilization in the effort. If the farmer steps outside his own realm, he is met on one 112 WHY BOYS LEAVE FARM side by organized capital and on the other by organized labor. He is confronted by fixed earnings. What he himself secures is a remainder left at the end of a year's business. Neither can the question of the onerous- ness of physical labor be overlooked in the replies. About one-fifth of the replies men- tion this as a distinct handicap. This will no doubt surprise those persons who have thought of machinery as eliminating the toil of farming; but it must be remem- bered that the farmer is both capitalist and workingman (in this respect being almost unique, as a large class of the community), and that this question takes a different as- pect according to the point of view from which the farmer looks at it. The replies raise the question as to whether the far- mer is to continue to occupy this dual position. The replies of these serious-minded youths should also set every thoughtful person wondering what is to be the place of the farmer in the social scheme of things, and whether the present trend is doing ^ 113 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS him complete justice. About seventeen per cent, of the replies consider that the farmer has distinct social disabilities. They suggest the question as to how far agriculture is to depend for its progress on the efforts of the separate individual farmer, and how far on coordinated effort. 114 .Why Some Boys and Gikls Take to Farming IN the previous chapter I presented the reasons that 155 college students gave me for leaving the farm to engage in other occupations. These students saw little op- portunity in farming, forty per cent, of them alleging that the business offers no financial reward. Twenty per cent, said that the physical labor is too exacting, and approximately an equal number that no social opportunities are offered. These re- plies present one view of the vexed ques- tion as to what the place of the farmer is to be in our coming civilization. There was a strain of hope running through some of the replies to the effect that in the future the opportunities on the farm would be improved; but, for the most part, the responses were hopelessly against the busi- ness of farming as a means of personal achievement. 115 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS When I asked for the opinions of those who had planned to leave the farm, I asked, also, for the reasons that moved those who have planned to remove from city condi- tions to farm life and those who, reared on farms, intended to return there after leav- ing college. The responses are most illu- minating, and, of course, they are hopeful for those of us who look to the open coun- try to aid in some large way in maintain- ing and forwarding the best civilization. 1. CITY TO COUNTRY Sixty-eight town-bred or city-bred stu- dents wrote me that they intend to pursue farming as a business, and to this end had entered themselves in the College of Agri- culture. I should explain, however, that I use the word ^^ farming' ' in its broadest sense as comprising those many occupa- tions that are directly concerned with the products of the soil and are in intimate touch with actual rural-life conditions ; for some of these young men expect to be 116 WHY PEKSONS TAKE TO FARMING creamerymen in the small rural factories rather than actual tillers of the soil. The nature of the replies Many of the respondents give more than one reason for desiring to follow agricul- tural work, and in the following list the figures represent the number of times that the various reasons were alleged ; The personal or subjective desires Desire to be out of doors, and love of nature . 25 Love of farm life 12 Natural bent for farming 8 Love for growing things 6 Love for farm animals 4 Desire to change from city to country ... 1 What farming provides Farming is an independent occupation ... 18 It provides healthful life 17 There is money in farming 16 It is an interesting or fascinating occupation . 7 Provides as many advantages as does the city 3 Farming broadens one 's mind 3 A most agreeable way of making a living . . 2 117. THE TRAINING OF FARMERS What farming provides (continued) Provides good home life for self and children 4 Farmer is never out of work 1 He is not subject to unions 1 Country people hold many things cheap be- cause they do not have to pay for them . . 1 Farming requires and develops skill .... 1 There is time for study 1 Opportunity to understand nature .... 1 Great economic and social possibilities ... 1 Provides a cheap living 1 It is a noble work 1 It is a useful work 1 A means of uplifting the community ... 1 It is an active life 1 What the letters say Following are some of the letters in full, chosen because tliey strongly present va- rious points of view : (1) A town-bred boy from the South, desiring to take up '^general farming." — ''I have always had a natural desire to work among economic plants and animals, and make my soils and barns the laboratories for such economic work. It is a supreme pleasure to see and to help accomplish 118 WHY PEESONS TAKE TO FARMING^ the fulfilment of certain laws of the funda- mental sciences to a-s high a degree as possible, under the conditions put in force, and get a result, in course of time, that brings much money and happiness. A farmer of this sort becomes an independent man in every sense of the term, and should prove a valuable citizen in his home <»ommunity. His increasing love for and study of nature also become valuable assets." (2) A town boy, expecting to go on a farm.— "''I like farming because it is Independent, healthful, noble, useful, and wide enough to utilize all of one 's faculties. ' ' (3) From the city, desiring to follow farm- ing. — ''Because it is the most independent life and the most healthful one; also, a man is free to do as he pleases, for he has not a boss stand- ing over him all the time. The things around him grow up with him, and each has its own particular place in his life. ' ' (4) Reared in a city of about 100,000, ^nd now desires ''to get a position on some large, well-run farm."— "My main reasons for living on a farm are because ''a. I much prefer the country to the city; "6. I think there is a good opportunity to make a success as a scientific, businesslike far- mer on a large farm; 119 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS i ( c. The living expenses are less on a farm, and for me the pleasures are more numerous. ' ' (5) Beared in a town in Germany. — "I de- sire to have a farm after I have saved enough to get what I want, and after I have seen enough to know where my best possibilities are. I want to go on a farm because I love the independent life, because I see business there, because I have a good, strong opponent (nature) on which to grind my knowledge, and because I want to demonstrate the feasibility of some social and economic problems in which I am interested." (6) Reared in a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and desiring to be a farmer, — ''Primarily, for pecuniary profit ; secondarily, for the indepen- dent, healthful life. ' ' (7) Reared in a city. — "Perhaps the farm is attractive to me for much the same reasons that the city attracts country-bred lads — a desire far change. One thing is certain, I do not want to be cooped up in a factory or office all my life. I have seen all 1 want of factories. A farmer works hard, but he is never out of a job; never on a strike, and never subservient to a labor union. Lack of experience, lack of physical power to endure heavy labor, and the necessity for a reasonable income in the near future, will force me to take a town position; but sooner or later 120 WHY PEESONS TAKE TO FARMING I hope to be a farmer, keeping a salaried posi- tion until the farm assures me a good living and is entirely paid for." (8) From a woman bom in the city, and wishing to follow ''some not too strenuous out- door occupation."— "I desire to go on a farm probably because I never lived on one. ' * 'As a rule a man 's a fool ; When it 's hot he wants it cool, And when it 's cool he wants it hot — Always wanting what is not. ' "My father and my mother's brothers were born on the farm; but they left it as soon as they were old enough to act independently, so that, in my farming notions, I have no encourage- ment from relatives. They, however, had their way to make. I do not expect to make money on a farm,— that is, not primarily, — though I hope to make the farm support me (who am the proposed overseer) and all the other workers on it. '*A farmer who works his own farm is only, after all, an independent day-laborer, and no one can blame a young man for trying other methods of making a living. The case of some women with a small amount of capital is quite different, however. For instance, if a woman 121 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS has a strong love for green fields and trees and animals; if every living, growing thing is interesting to her; if she has had a college edu- cation ; has seen the world, or a good portion of it, knows, besides, what office work in a city is, and is thoroughly acquainted with boarding- house life, she is in a position, I fancy, thoroughly to enjoy a real home on a farm and all the luxuries which that implies. It is only people of experience who can fully appreciate the country and what it can ^ive. The country man holds many things cheap because he never paid directly for them. "To be sure, the farm must have all the so- called 'modern conveniences,' with telephone and rural free delivery, besides; and, if the woman expects to live on it the greater part of the year, it should have good railroad connec- tion with some large city. The woman whom we are considering expects neither to follow the plow, do the chores, nor the housework, except in cases of emergency ; but she should be capable of doing any one of them, and is trying to become so. What a generous life such a woman can lead on a farm on an income which would sup- port her but meagerly in a city! This is my theory. When I have put it into practice, I hope to be able to substantiate it. ' ' 122 WHY PERSONS TAKE TO FARMINa 2. COUNTRY TO COUNTRY It was to be expected that the most significant responses would come from those students who have had experience of farm life and also of college life. I have replies from 193 students of this class, all enrolled in the College of Agriculture at Cornell University. Aside from the great signifi- cance of these replies from the occupa- tional point of view, the responses afford an interesting commentary on the wide- spread notion that the agricultural col- leges '' educate the boys away from the farm"; and what is true (or not true) in this particular agricultural college is also true in others. Replies from farm students Following is a tabulation of the various reasons that are alleged by these 193 farm students for desiring to remain on the farm. I publish them only for the purpose of stating some of the motives that actuate farm boys, and not as statistics or as a con- 123 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS tribution to a scientific study of the general problem. The personal desires Love of out-of-doors and of nature .... 55 Love of farm life and of the kind of work . . 47 Love for living and growing things .... 28 Love of the free life of the farm 15 Natural bent to the farm 5 Have already a personal interest in a farm . 5 What farming offers or provides An independent life 77 A healthful life 41 A profitable occupation 39 Not a hurried life 3 A natural life 3 A simple life 2 Wide opportunities offered by farm ... 23 Ideal place for home and rearing of children 20 Involves interesting social and economic prob- lems 8 It is a pleasant and agreeable occupation and provides a happy life 17 It is instructive 6 124 WHY PERSONS TAKE TO FARMING State aid is making farming more attractive . 5 Farmer 's condition is better than the average city man's 6 A good education is essential 4 Opportunities for study 2 Best place for spiritual life and growth . . 4 Good social opportunities 4 Opportunity for individual work and in- itiative 3 Cheaper living than in the city 3 An honorable occupation 4 Has more knowledge of farming than of other occupations 5 One can see the fruits of his own labor ... 2 Provides a better life in old age 1 The life is not monotonous 1 Farmers have good food 1 Provides opportunity to acquire property . 1 Farming provides both mental and physical work 4 It offers a variety of work 4 The work is useful ; it affords good training ; it is easy in winter (each) 1 Along with these reasons for desiring to remain on the farm, some of the respon- dents also mention disadvantages ; but they regard these disadvantages as being over- 125 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS balanced by other considerations. These disabilities are as follows: No money in farming 4 Kequires better health than the respondent has 4 Farming requires more capital than respon- dent possesses 3 Farm life is lonely 3 The work is hard 2 Farmer does not control prices 1 Small opportunities for development ... 1 No employment for women 1 Letters from farm-hred students It will now be interesting to transcribe some of the reasons that these farm boys allege as determining their choice to re- main on the farm, for they may be looked on as indigenous and non-theoretical; and these reasons have the advantage, also, of having been formulated after the persons had seen something beyond the farm. It is most interesting to know, also, that nearly all these 193 students are from New York state; for it is often asserted that agriculture offers little inducement in the old East as compared with the West— a 126 WHY PEKSONS TAKE TO FARMINa statement which usually is made in igno- rance of the facts. (9) ''I was reared on the farm where my father was born and where my grandfather lived. I like dairying and general farming. I choose farming because I like to care for horses and cattle and to see the crops that I have planted grow; and I like the independent life that the farmer enjoys." (10) "I think the farm offers the best oppor- tunity for the ideal home. I believe that farm- ing is the farthest removed of any business from the blind struggle after money, and that the farmer with a modest capital can be rich in in- dependence, contentment, and happiness. I lived one year in a city (Philadelphia), which was long enough." (11) "The farmer is the most independent of men. He leads a happy, out-door life, and is his own boss. His conditions are much better than those of the average city man." (12) ''I wish to live on the farm, for I like the work. One is not doing the same thing every day, but doing a variety of things. There is satisfaction in knowing that the products of one's labors are to be his and not somebody's else. Then, there is the independent life; one's 127 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS time is his own, and if one does not use it to the best advantage, he has only himself to blame. ' * If I were unable to farm on my own account, but had to work out, then I should go to the city/' (13) "I lived in the city until I was eleven, when my parents moved to the farm. There I attended the country school until I was fifteen, when I was sent to the city high school in Buf- falo. The last six years I have been in the high school and at Cornell. ' ' I desire to go on a farm because of the inde- pendence and healthfulness of the life. The farmer has a wider field of business, which re- quires a vast range of knowledge, far beyond that required by the ordinary business man, I think that a comfortable income can be obtained. Only a few men in the cities are earning more than is required for their subsistence. My chief reason is that I like the life and the out-door work. ' ' (14) ^^a. Respect for agriculture as an occu- pation. ''&. To enjoy the freedom of the country life and the beauties of nature. ^'c. To partake of the pleasure which comes from conquering natural obstacles. 128 WHY PEKSONS TAKE TO FARMINa ^'d. To give that which is in me the best chance to develop. '^e. To have a congenial means of support. '^ (15) "I intend to stick to farm life, for I see nothing in the turmoil of city life to tempt me to leave the quiet, calm, and nearness to nature with which we, as farmers, are sur- rounded. I also see the possibilities of just as great financial success on a farm as in any profession which my» circumstances permit me to attain." (16) ''Have always lived on a farm, with the exception of three years, when I lived in town. I desire to follow farming, with stock- breeding and dairying as main branches. I be- lieve it is the most independent life ; that it has the broadest field in which to work ; that intelli- gence, judgment, and business ability are needed here as much as anywhere ; that it gives oppor- tunities for the best development of a man; that a farmer may enjoy many blessings which can not be measured by dollars and cents. It gives opportunity for study of the most inter- esting kind, and it is the best place for spiritual growth and life. ' ' (17) ''Having always lived on a dairy farm, and having taken care of domestic animals, it is virtually the only business I understand. "Although there are many discouragements 9 129 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS and a great deal of hard labor, I think a person of average ability, who enjoys farming and tak- ing care of and studying characteristics of domestic animals, will be a more independent and useful man if he sticks to the farm than if he follows any other business. ''Perhaps there would be more money in some other line of work. Money is not all of life; so I will go back to the farm." (18) ''a. I like the work. ^'h. The farmer is the most independent man that lives. ''c. It is healthful work. '^d. It is a good place for a happy home. ''e. There is profit in it, and it is gaining headway every day." (19) ''I am going back to the farm because it is the most healthful business I have ever known and I like it as a business from start to finish. The cattle alone are enough to call any one back to the farm." (20) '^a. Because agriculture seems to offer one of the greatest opportunities financially. "6. Because I see in agriculture the most pleasant and agreeable occupation. ^'c. Because I love nature, and may be brought into more intimate relations with it by this profession than by any other. 130 WHY PEESONS TAKE TO FARMINa '^d. Because a great chance for improvement and advance is offered in agriculture. ' ' (21) *'I have tried city life, and do not enjoy it. I prefer to work in the open air, and enjoy working with animals. I believe that a man can be as truly successful on the farm as any- where else, and can lead a much happier life." (22) "I was born in the country, but edu- cated in the city, returning home on vacation. I expect to follow live-stock farming : first, be- cause it is my father's desire to keep the family estate still in the family, and being the only son, it devolves upon me; apart from this, he pre- fers that I should be a farmer as a means of earning a livelihood. ''Coordinate with this is my own wish to lead the life of a farmer, probably because I inher- ited the love for it and because I have always understood, from earliest childhood, what I was to do. I love nature, and like to be closely connected with its workings. I like farm life for the freedom and opportunity offered for suc- cess from individual work." (23) ''I am an only son. My parents wish me to return, and, as I study, I see nothing more inviting. I see this more than ever after study- ing agriculture at Mount Hermon and here. Then, if a man is immortal, and I believe he is, 131 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS it is what he is that counts, and not altogether money. We need studious Christians on the farms, and I want to be one. I expect some day to have a plain country home. A good place to live is next to nature." (24) "I should like to take up experiment- station work for a number of years, then go on a farm. '^a. There is as good opportunity for one to exercise his business ability and apply his scientific knowledge on a farm as anywhere. '^b. The average man is surer of acquiring a competency, and having a good home of his own, in the country than in the city. ^*c. A good farmer will find life less monot- onous, as well as more healthful, in the country than in the city. ^'d. One man's social and intellectual in- fluence will be stronger and .last longer in the country than in the city. ^'e. The best place to bring up children, and especially boys, is on a farm in a good agricul- tural community." (25) "I was born and reared on a farm. It has always been my intention to become a far- mer. After living in the city for several years, while attending preparatory school, I have come to the conclusion that the farm is the only place 132 WHY PERSONS TAKE TO FAKMING to develop well-rounded, sturdy manhood. The farmer need not fear lest his children be led astray by the evil influences of an indolent city life; he is independent and, if temperate, sure of good health and long days." (26) ''I shall follow poultry husbandry and fruit-growing : ^'a. Because of the independent freedom of farm life. ^'h. Because of my desire to raise a family where my influence will be the dominant one. ''c. Because of the false standards set up in the modern city; namely, hurry, worry, and selfishness. ^'d. Because of the great opportunity of- fered to the man of skill. ' ' (27) ''I like the farm probably because I was brought up on one, and have learned to like the free and independent country life, to be with stock, to harvest the grain and hay, to try to raise or grow the best and most fruit on a tree. ' ' (28) ''I expect to make a business of breed- ing live-stock. I like to work out of doors, where the sun shines and the wind blows, where I can look up from my work and not be obliged to look at a wall. I dislike to use a pen as a business. I want to make new things and create new wealth, not to collect to myself the money 133 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS earned by others. I can not feel the sympathy which makes me a part of nature, unless I can be nearer to it than office or university life allows, I like to create things. Had I been dexterous with my hands, I might have been an artist ; but I have found that I can make use of as high ideals, use as much patience, and be of as much use in the world by modeling in flesh and bone as I can by modeling in marble.'^ 3. THE CONCLUSION The point of view of all these various personal replies is most significant, and it is in bold contrast to the general run of the responses of those who plan to leave the farm. The present replies are marked by the prominence given to ideals and by the subordination of mere personal emolu- ment and desire for money. Forty per \cent. of those who are leaving the farm allege that they do so because there is not money enough in it; very few of the 261 students who plan to be farmers mention the expectation of earning money as the leading motive, and a number of them men- 134 WHY PERSONS TAKE TO FAKMINa tion the relatively small earning power and then declare that they will follow the business in spite of that handicap. Nearly every one of them gives higher ideals of living as the propelling motive, and these ideals crystallize about two points— the love of nature, and the desire of a free independent life. Moreover, these are responses of strong conviction. They evidence pride of calling, and not one of them is apologetic. They are hopeful ; they all have a forward look. They are surprisingly unselfish. Not one of them asks for power. They show that even in this epoch of hurried city-building, the love of the open country and of plain quiet living still remains as a real and vital force. I was impressed, in the replies of those who are to leave the farm, with the em- phasis placed on lack of money, hard work, and small social opportunity : they had not had a vision of the new country life ; I am impressed in these replies with the recur- rence of such ideals as love for the work that one is doing, education, study, per- 135 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS sonal influence, happiness, service, home. With these young men, their business is to be an affair of the heart. We hear much about the greed of money and power and the great dangers that threaten our run- away society ; but I wonder whether, in the end, the countryman will not still have hold of one of the reins. 136 The Common Schools and Faeming THE agricultural colleges are now ac- complishing results of great and per- manent value, in spite of the fact that they are isolated from the common schools, on which good collegiate training is supposed to rest. The country is well peopled with good farmers, in spite of the fact that the school in the open country has given them no direct aid in their business. Responsibility of the school Sympathy with any kind of effort or occupation, and good preparation for en- gaging in it, are matters of slow and long- continued growth. This g'rowth should begin in childhood, and should be aided by the home and the school. The country school carrier a greater responsibility than the city school, in proportion to its advan- tages, for it is charged not only with its. 137 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS own country problems, but with the train- ing of many persons who swell the popula- tion of cities. The country school is within the sphere of a very definite series of life •occupations. The subjects taught in the common run of country schools are not the essentials; the school does not represent or express the community. I do not know that any schools teach the essentials, except as in- cidents or additions here and there, and lessentials cannot be taught incidentally or accidentally. Arithmetic and like studies are not essentials, but are means of getting at or expressing the essentials. The first effort of the school sjiould be to teach per- sons how to live. The present methods and subjects in the rural schools have come to the schools from the outside. If we begin the school work with the child's own world, not with a foreign world or with the child's world as conceived of or remembered by the teacher or the text-book maker, it is plain that we have by that very effort started a revolution. 138 SCHOOLS AND FARMING The next step that the school must take is to realize its social responsibility to its community. It should be much more than an educational organism. It must relate itself to the whole life and welfare of the people, and be one of the fountains from which good ideals of service flow. Educational values All this supposes that the school is in the process of developing into a kind of insti- tution that will serve the living needs of the time, and be even fundamentally differ- ent from the existing system. We have only begun to understand what education means and what it can do for society. If this is true, then we must first reconstruct our ideas of educational values ; and there- fore I pass to a consideration of the old courses and the new. An eminent scholar once said to me that he saw no reason why a dairy building should be placed on a university campus, for he could not see that it had any relation to education. This remark called for no justification of education by means of 139 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS dairying: it merely expressed liis concep- tion of what education is. We have so long associated educational processes with particular subjects that we are in danger of regarding these subjects as constituting the sum of education. This attitude was well illustrated to me some time ago on the occasion of my visiting a farm home. There was a disagreement be- tween father and mother as to where John should attend college, and I was asked to judge. The mother closed her argument with the remark, ^'His father wants him to go to an agricultural college, but I want him to get an education. '' In spite of all my questioning, I could not get her further than this ; but she was sure that she saw a broad distinction. 1. THE QUESTION OF THE EQUIVALENCY OP STUDIES The principle of the equality in peda- gogical value of all the different lines of study that comprise the curriculum of the modern higb-school or college, is now 140 SCHOOLS AND FAEMING widely accepted in theory, but there is much reservation in accepting it in prac- tice. This reservation is no doubt in part well founded, and it must be given due hearing. Every new thing must prove it- self as against the things that are estab- lished and accepted. It is right that pos- session is nine points in the law. The older order The old or established subjects are such as language, literature, mathematics, usu- ally typified in a ^^ Latin" course. The new subjects are science on the one hand, and the industries on the other. The science course is almost universally accepted as of equal value with a strictly classical course, often with the reservation, however, that more or less Latin and mathematics form a part of it. The industrial courses are as yet less completely organized and are of course less accepted in terms of educational equivalency. The burden of proof is sup- posed still to rest on them. The argument for the Latin course is that it has met the approval of a long 141 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS line of teachers, that its methods have been well considered and tried by long experi- ence, and that it demands snch a habit of concentration and of definite continuing effort as to give it superior training value. Latin is prized for its tense, and the under- standing it gives to the structure of lan- guage and the writing of English; this argument is well taken, although it prob- ably would be difficult if not impossible to prove that the best English writing and speaking have in practice come from a study of Latin, notwithstanding the fact that Latin has been so universally taught. There are those who still hold that in its very essence there inheres in the Latin course an educational quality that does not exist in the sciences and the industrial arts : those who hold this position naturally feel that all concessions made to the sci- ences and the industries weaken by that much the essential intellectual value of a course of study. Whether there is in essence a superior training value in the subjects that are specially associated with the narrow Latin 142 SCHOOLS AND FARMING course, is really not an academic or meta- physical question. It cannot be determined by opinion or by any process of abstract reasoning. In the end, the intellectual value of all courses of study will be deter- mined by their results in men and women. In determining these results, we must be careful not to assume an arbitrary or single standard as to what an educated man is. It is fair to assume that an educated per- son is one who is so trained that he is an honorable and efficient member of society^ whose mind is sensitive to all learning and achievement past and present, and whose sympathies extend freely to all the higher emotions of the race. If one were to mea- sure the men and women of his acquain- tance by this standard, he would probably be wholly unable to determine by what par- ticular educational route the person had arrived, notwithstanding the presumption in favor of the classical route because of its universal presence in schools and col- leges and the newness of other routes. For several years I have tried to give some attention to the character of the in- 143 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS struction by the different kinds of subjects. It has not appeared to me that language, literature, and mathematics are any better taught in the schools and colleges than the sciences and some of the industrial arts. It all resolves itself at the last into a ques- tion of the equipment and personality of the teacher; and we all know that few teachers in any subject are as good as we desire them to be. Nevertheless, it is right that in any par- ticular institution the presumption should lie with the older subjects, until the new subjects can prove their educational worth by the severest tests. There is much train- ing value in orderliness and consecutive- ness of work, in careful thoroughness, and in the moral discipline that comes from obligatory study. To my mind, the educa- tional values of the different subjects do not lie in the essence of the subject-matter so much as in the way in which they are taught. If different subjects were taught by the same person, the educational value of all of them would probably be about the same. I should not consider the acquiring 144 SCHOOLS AND FARMING of mere manual dexterity in any subject or study to be a complete educational process. Combined with all industrial work, there should be such a systematizing of subject- matter and such a method of teaching as will bring out the underlying reasons and strongly develop the mental grasp. If the educational or training value of a course in science or in an industry is not equivalent to that of a language or literary course, it must be because it is not so well taught. The newer order We are given to berating the older educa- tion for not producing better results, but the fault may not have been so much in the subjects that were taught as in the fact that in many cases no subjects were taught well. There should be a strong central backbone to any elementary or secondary course of study, and the same may probably be said of most college courses. Whether this backbone shall be the customary subjects of present courses of study, or whether the school work shall crystallize about other subject-matter, may well be left to the i<> 145 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS gradual evolution of education to deter- mine. The probability is that quite another framework will control the school life in times to come; if it does not, then the school will remain relatively stationary. As the idea grows of the necessity of a good mental equipment for all persons, we must be increasingly ready to admit new subjects into the school and college course. This means that some schools will develop strongly in one line and others strongly in another line, and that the student may exercise a choice of schools; or, that we shall come more and more to a depart- mental organization of schools. No doubt both methods of organization will develop. The essential point is that there may be more than one route in education : it is our responsibility to see that all routes are of equal value and dignity. Whatever may be said or done by the close adherents to the older means of edu- cation, it is inevitable that other means shall come in. This, of course, does not mean that the old subjects shall go out, although the teaching of them may need to 146 SCHOOLS AND FAEMINa be redirected in some cases : they will con- stitute one part, but not necessarily a so- called fundamental part, in a new scheme of school-teaching. I expect to see a re- crudescence of the so-called classical studies. I would eliminate nothing from educational programs, but I would add everything; and I would have it so ar- ranged that persons could have a choice of routes without disparagement or handicap. We must train the coming race in the means and practice of living. New ideals and aspirations must grow out of the life that they live. The means of life are con- stantly more numerous, and their relations are constantly more complex. When so- ciety was more homogeneous than at pres- ent and when it was expected that only a few persons out of many were to be well trained, one general line of study suited very well. But we can no longer neglect to teach the philosophy of life and the arts by which men and women become a useful part of a growing society. In the nature of the case, therefore, the sciences and the indus- tries will make headway in our schools and 147 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS colleges, and those who would oppose them are setting themselves against the course of human evolution. 2. THE NATURE OF THE FORTHCOMING SCHOOL The acceptance of the educational equiv- alency of studies is the very first es- sential to the development of a kind of school that is capable of redirecting coun- try life. The person who rejects this prem- ise does not accept education in terms of the daily life, or if he does accept it, his concurrence is only a concession to popular demand. The four R 's The old schools were built on the four R's,— reading, 'riting, Arithmetic, and ruler. They were a combination df certain formal subjects and what is called ^^good order'' or discipline. There are still those who held that the pursuit of reading, 'rit- ing and 'rithmetic is of itself an end in education. These subjects, however, are 148 SCHOOLS AND FARMING tools or means to be used in the acquiring of knowledge and power. Of course, the pursuit of them is an educational process; but the basis of education is at first to develop the child by means of his activities and of the things that make up his world: he needs reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic to enable him to make use of his world and to understand it. Similarly, ^^good order'' or discipline is not an end in itself. By focusing atten- tion, it develops the mind to follow a given line of thought and to be undiverted. It has its moral significance. But many teachers seem to act on the principle that there is virtue in the very act of sitting still and of not whispering. The school of the future will have the activities of life in it; and the ^^ order'' of the school-room will be the order that is naturally a part of the work that the pupils do-, not the order imposed by the ruler. The only real school discipline, in the end, is the natural con- trol that the subject and the teaching hold over the pupil; it is the pupil's interest in his work. The larger part of the really 149 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS fertile school work cannot be pursued by the pupil in silence and inaction. Agriculture in the schools I look to the school, when faced about, to be an essential factor in the evolution of the country life that we all hope for. All the people hold this hope, or something like it. We may differ as to the kind of school that is needed. The common idea seems to be to make an end of the matter by in- troducing ' ^ agriculture " into the school. Many persons object to this for the ele- mentary school and some of them for the high-school, on the ground that children should not be made or influenced to special- ize. I am not now asking that the public elementary schools teach trades and pro- fessions. George F. Warren has put the matter tersely in his sentence, ^ ^ While it is not desirable to try to make farmers, it does seem desirable to stop unmaking them. ' ' Personally, I have very little care whether a class in agriculture is introduced in any school or not: if the people are 150 SCHOOLS AND FARMING ready for it and the teacher is prepared, it should go into the high-school and possibly in lower grades; but the real nub of the matter lies much deeper than this. The whole process of the school must change. We must begin with the child's world and not with the teacher's world, and we must use the common objects, phenomena and activities as means of education. When these objects, phenomena and activities are agricultural (as they are in a rural com- munity), then agriculture becomes a means of education, but it is not agriculture in the sense of a specialty leading directly to the occupation of farming. That is to say, in such cases agriculture (which is the sum of the community life) becomes the real backbone and motive of the school. Other subjects grow out of it and are picked up with it as the school life proceeds. I would have the child know the people of his community, and how they live ; how the community supports itself; its relation to the neighboring community; how many schools there are and how many churches, and how they came to be there ; the roads ; 151 THE TRAINING OF FAEMEES the general lay of the land, and something about the soils ; how many farms in the dis- trict, and what they produce and why ; the common or significant animals and plants ; the woods and the streams ; how the local- ity is governed ; how the houses are built ; what the local factories are; and so on. And I would teach him how to keep himself from being sick or lazy. I would not have all this told to the child as news or pleasant pieces of information. I would have it constitute the real work and substance of the school, carrying the method out to the world questions as the pupil reaches the proper understanding; and I would enrich his life by bringing in the literature and the history and biography, and incor- porating them into his education, as the figures are woven into a fabric. It may seem to be a difficult thing to teach all this; but that is no argument against it, for such things must be taught. We must train the child into touch and sympathy with life, not take him out of and away from life. Ideals that are worth any- thing must grow out of the common things 152 8CH00LS AND FAEMING and the daily life. Mere abstract ideals are no ideals at all : they are only dreams. But these things are not difficult to teach. We think that they are difficult because few persons have yet been trained to teach them. We are so obsessed with the book habit, and so possessed by what has been, and so depressed by the domination of educational method, that we are not free really to teach. They say to me that this kind of teach- ing would lack definiteness and consecu- tiveness and would tend to looseness of school work. My first reply is that I would like to see school work loosened up. I am leaving the old order of school work be- hind. My second reply is that a good teacher would make this kind of teaching* just as definite and systematic as any other; and I am not at all alarmed by the old bugaboo of ^'drilP^ and *^ mental dis- cipline.'' Such work, when well done, should have vitality, and this is exactly what the old process so often lacks; it would lend itself in the least degree to memorizing and mummery. 153 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS Of course, I would not confine the work of the school to the local subjects ; but I would ground the pupil in the concepts of his own place and time. If he is started and di- rected right, he should make a better Latin scholar as well as a better nature scholar ; and it would be folly to try to bend all his energies to farming and to nature-study, or to any other special line. School to represent the community All this means that the school represents and reflects the life of the community, and works out suggestions for the betterment of the community. In other words, as I have said, the school carries a social as well as an educational responsibility. Our ideal of a state university is an in- stitution that really represents the state and helps in working out the problems of the state. It lends its aid officially in tax commissions, railway commissions, public- service commissions, in problems of agri- culture, manufacture, mining, and com- merce. It gives advice in education (which is its particular specialty) and in social, economic, and even religious questions. 154 SCHOOLS AND FARMING Now, I look on the school of the future as the little university of its community, working out the problems of the commu- nity and developing leadership. The school should aid the rural community (my sub- ject is country life, and I leave it to others to write of town life) to better roads, bet- ter cattle, better butter, to more eggs and more crops, to better seed corn and better alfalfa, and to higher efficiency everywhere. It should be a local forum. It should co- operate with the church, the library, the fair, the farmers ' organizations, with every farmer and every housewife, tying the community together and making it a better place to live in. This cannot come about without active cooperation by the people. We do not even yet take our schools seriously. They must become a part of the government of the community, and be just as essential as the crops or as politics. The school must have much more money, particularly in the rural districts, than is now given it ; and the people will provide the funds when the school begins to do the work. One of the means of improving the 155 THE TRAINING OF FARMEES schools is the consolidating of two or more districts into one. No doubt it is often necessary and advisable to consolidate schools, but I warn my reader that it is easy to carry this process too far. It usually follows that when schools are con- solidated, they begin to copy city-school methods. I much doubt whether the meth- ods of city schools are on the whole such as will endure, even for cities ; and I am much more in doubt whether they are best for country schools. There is a value in the simplicity, directness, democracy, and even the smallness of the ^^ district school' ' that we cannot afford to give up lightly ; and it is an institution of the community. The sterility of the district school lies not so much in its remoteness, separateness, and smallness as in the lack of funds to enable it to do the work of a school. The state must come to the aid of the district school. The high-school In this discussion, I have chiefly had in mind the school life below the high- school. If the primary and intermediate teaching 156 SCHOOLS AND FARMING is started right, the high- school work will largely take care of itself. The reform is needed in the beginning years, not because the work in these* years is now more imper- fect than in the high-school years, but be- cause the process is a point of view that needs to be established very early in life, and because relatively few youths reach the high- school. In the high- school, the specializing studies begin. Specially quali- fied teachers are usually provided, and these teachers should be able to handle their own subjects. It is significant that the popular agitation for agriculture teach- ing has considered chiefly the children ^ ^ in the grades,'' and that the books and leaf- lets have been written for this range. Process of evolution I am not criticizing the schools. We owe everything to the schools. I am developing a point of view. We are in the process of evolution. All the improvements in schools and the introduction of new subjects are contributing to bring about a new order; what I should like to impress is that these 157 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS improvements are only steps and are not ends in themselves. The final result must be a kind of training institution that differs radically from the present system both in its constitution and its processes. We are coming, as I have said, to a new conception of the function of education. 3. A SCHOOL man's OUTLOOK TO THE KURALr SCHOOL The following sensible and practical vision of the part that the school should play in the life of the rural community is by Fasset A. Cotton, formerly Superintendent of Public Instruction of Indiana and now President of the State Normal School, La Crosse, Wisconsin: ^^The relation of rural schools to rural life is the greatest educational problem of the present day, and as yet few have real- ized its stupendous importance. Upon its solution depends in large measure the fu- ture welfare and stability of our people. 158 SCHOOLS AND FARMING This is no idle statement. A study of the factors involved will show that it is true. To arrive at conclusions of any value, at least three phases of rural life must be studied: material and commercial prog- ress ; social life ; and the schools. *^The change in farming methods is one of the marvels of the century. With for- ests cleared and swamp lands redeemed^ the steam plow does the work of many men. The soil is prepared, planted, cultivated^ and the harvest is gathered by machinery. The sickle, the scythe, the cradle, and the flail have given way to the mower, the self- binder and header, and to the steam thresher. The dairy, from milking to but- ter-making, has become scientific. Chicken- raising and stock-growing have become matters of intelligence instead of chance. Good roads, steam railways, interurbans, rural routes and telephones, have all but eliminated time and distance, and have brought the farm into close touch with everyday life in the commercial world. Easy transportation and the knowledge of market prices have brought the farmer a 159 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS fair return for his products. While this progressive spirit has in a way touched all farm life, this does not by any means tell the whole story. **It is still a far cry from the small hill- country farm to the wide western plains where farming is done on so large a scale. The difference between what may be called domestic farming and commercial farming is tremendous. It is the difference between the small farm owned and occupied and cultivated by the owner for a living, and the landed estate owned by a syndicate or a wealthy individual and farmed for com- merce. More and more as the years come and go, must millions of our people get their living from the land; and more and more must domestic farming become a dominant factor in the life of our people. It is with this phase of farming rather than with commercial farming on a large scale that I am interested, and it involves at once the question of social life and edu- cation of the family. After all, it is the family that lives on the farm that makes the problem an interesting one. 160 SCHOOLS AND FARMING ^^ Before any reliable conclusions are reached, certain mistaken notions must be corrected. Doubtless the stories of farm- ing by machinery and the great results of commercial farming are responsible for these. To the unthinking, farming has come to be one long holiday picnic, when everybody rides. Nothing can be further from the truth. Even with the most ap- proved machinery, there is plenty of work for head and hand on the farm ; and when it is realized that the use of all this up-to- date machinery is by no means general, and, moreover, that its use would be impos- sible on small farms, it will be apparent that there is still work to do. *^It looks as though the same forces that brought farm life into touch with the com- mercial world might easily bring it into touch with the social world ; and they might make possible the pleasures, comforts, luxuries and culture of city life with none of its unpleasant features. But it must be admitted that this possibility has not been very generally realized. In many instances, the social life of the people has not kept 11 161 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS pace with material prosperity. Big barns filled with grain, wide fields over which blooded stock roams, and the latest farm machinery, have often kept the dwelling- house small and barren enough of comfort and beauty. And so it may be fairly stated that the home interests have not always kept pace with the material interests of the farm. The mothers and daughters who have borne their share of the burden of toil have been the larger sufferers. Under existing conditions, it is not strange that farmers ' children are attracted to city life, and that they leave the farm. Life is too hard and the social advantages are too few and far between. It has been suggested that the custom of European farmers who live in villages would solve the problem. It is thought that such local centers would relieve the isolation and furnish the much needed social life. *^The real solution of the problem in this country, however, lies in the coopera- tion of economic, social, and educational forces with the school as the center. There is a vital relation between country life and 162 SCHOOLS AND FARMING the country school that has not been seen. The country school has not even begun to fulfil its mission. Hitherto all schools have been alike,— city, country, and town. Their province has not been to educate, to develop boys and girls into men and women, but simply to impart facts of arithme- tic, geography, and history. The coun- try has had such schools, but they have never recognized their distinctive environ- ment or let it make any difference in their mode of procedure. They have never real- ized that their problem is a distinct one, nor that the means are peculiar. The far- mers could not solve the problem: they have their own work to do, and it is not their business; and educators have wor- shiped tradition so long that it has been almost impossible for them to look fairly and squarely at the nature, conditions, en- vironment, and needs of a child and let these determine the process and means of education. '^Now, with the school as the center of township life, economic, social, and educa- tional interests can work out the solution 163 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS together. The school center is better than the village center. It is doubtful if the latter is possible. In the nature of the case, most farmers must live on their farms. Those whose circumstances would permit could build their homes in the school center vicinity, but the school, either the consoli- dated or the large district school, must be the center. The township school should be conducted under the ideal conditions men- tioned above. The teachers should be well- prepared men and women, thormighly in touch with the problems and interests of the township, and permanent residents of the community. They should understand the relation of education and agriculture, and should be able to create in the boys and girls a love for the land. The school should be the center of social life where the farmers' families could assemble fre- quently to hear lectures, to enjoy concerts and high-class entertainments, and to dis- cuss problems of vital community interest. The teachers should be capable of direct- ing all of this life and of taking part in it. The school center should be the meeting- 164 SCHOOLS AND FARMING place for farmers' institutes and clnbs, and should be the political center of the town- ship, where all civic questions could be dis- cussed. What phases of life the principles of centralization shall include, the conunu- nity will easily decide. Good roads from every direction will center here, and con- venience will shortly locate all residences upon these direct lines. Of course, the natural conditions of the township must determine the center or centers, for hills, streams, and size of the township may make more than one center necessary. ^ ' Three things, then, are fundamental in this problem: First: the cooperation of economic, social, and educational forces with the school as the center is absolutely essential. The one-room isolated school, unless a very large one, can no longer meet the needs of the people. Second : commu- nity life with its dominant interest, agricul- ture, must determine the nature of the work in the school and the mode of pro- cedure. Third : the teachers must be well- prepared men and women, capable of dealing with the problems of life, willing to 165 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS make the community their permanent home, and to take the solution of its eco- nomic, social, and educational problems as their life work/' 4. THE NEED OF A KECOGNIZED SYSTEM The work of education by means of agri- culture is in danger of becoming scattered. It is being taken up in the public schools here and there, and the agitation for it is widespread; but there is yet little organi- zation or system in it. Schools and departments in colleges and universities Old-line colleges and universities are also seeking to have schools or departments of agriculture, often of secondary grade, at- tached to them. These, also, are no part of an organized system; and it is not always certain that their environment will be such as to insure satisfactory results without the guidance of some supervising authority or administrative method. 166 SCHOOLS AND FARMING In normal schools Normal schools, more or less indepen- dent of general supervision, are also be- ginning to teach, agriculture. They will prepare teachers for the public schools. Separate schools of agriculture There is a rapidly spreading demand for special or separate schools to teach agri- culture, and many states have already es- tablished them. These schools are mostly outside of any school system and are un- provided with supervision. In part, they are no doubt protests against the common schools, as the separate colleges of agricul- ture and mechanic arts were once protests against the established colleges and uni- versities. In part, they are founded to provide better facilities and equipment for the teaching of the rural industrial sub- jects. In part, also, they are established to satisfy the desire of communities to have some institution, establishment, or feature in their midst; and the school of agricul- ture is now one of the institutions that are 167 THE TEAINING OF FARMERS relatively easy to secure from legislatures. These special schools will undoubtedly be of great value, and they ought to lead the way in a new kind of secondary educa- tion ; but at the same time we must not for- get that we have a public-school system that ought to be developed in these very lines, and it would be a pity to cripple this system by diverting attention elsewhere. We ought not to have duplicate systems of education. These special schools, of what- ever plan of organization, should supple- ment the public-school system, providing facilities for such persons as desire to go further than the public school can take them or who desire quickly to acquire a working knowledge of particular parts of farm life. In secondary schools The special separate schools of agricul- ture cannot meet all the needs of country people for education in terms of their daily lives. A farmer has a right to ask that his son and daughter be given facili- ties for country-life education in his home 168 SCHOOLS AND FARMING school. Tlie state should not make it nec- essary for him to send them away from home for the elements of such education. It follows that all public schools should be open to education by means of agriculture on the same terms that they are open to education by other means. New York has the basis for such a development in the act of 1908 for the encouraging of industrial and trade schools. I am convinced that this act marks a clear advance in industrial education in this country. This law recog- nizes industrial education as a part of the proper educational work of the state; and the principle that the initiative should lie with the people, and the maintenance be cooperative between the locality and the state. It provides that any public school that establishes such work and maintains it for a year shall receive $500 from the state for one teacher so employed and $200 for additional teachers. It limits such in- struction to those who have taken the ele- mentary school course. It provides for an advisory board to confer with the school officers in respect to the work. Now, train- 169 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS ing in agriculture is only one phase of in- dustrial education. Training in domestic or household subjects is another phase. These principles will probably soon be' ex- tended to the encouragement of education by means of agriculture and the domestic arts in all schools, both in town and country. A statute of this kind provides a means whereby the state makes additional appro- priation to the public schools. The schools need more funds. It is going to be a seri- ous question whether the money appropri- ated to the more expensive of the separate special schools would not go farther if given to the public schools for approved work. The public schools are beginning to rise to the occasion. In nearly all the states, some scheme or mode of introducing agriculture into the public schools is being agitated or tried. In many places, the work is now actually in the schools. The work should be guided and supervised by some competent au- thority or agency, as the state department of public instruction or the college of agri- 170 SCHOOLS AND FARMING culture, or, preferably, by both,— one on the side of administration and the other on the side of subject-matter. When such work comes in the schools, the state departments of public instruc- tion must develop a broad policy of indus- trial education, with a well-equipped bureau or division to* administer it. This division should also have relation to the work in special schools of agriculture. Personally, I doubt the wisdom of sepa- rating the administration of agricultural education from that of other industrial education. The two lines should develop coordinately ; and agricultural training should be in good part manual or "indus- trial.'' Relation of the whole Time is now at hand when the agricul- ture teaching in all these institutions should be related, and when an organized system or plan should be perfected. The college of agriculture in each state should be a part of this plan, dominating at least the technical agriculture work, so that 171 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS sound subject-matter and rational points of view may run through all the schools. The entire development of agricultural training could then begin to proceed in an orderly way. Education of all kinds should be nation- alized, by the development of a strong co- ordinating department at Washington. The United States Bureau of Education should be much enlarged, by increased ap- propriations. It could greatly stimulate country-life education if it had the funds and the necessary organization. 172 The College of Agkicultuee and the Farm Youth WE may now ask what is to be the prospect for the person who is edu- cated for country life in a college of agri- culture. It is sometimes charged that the college educates ^ ^ away from ' ' or ^ ^ beyond ' ^ the farm. If this is true, it must be because it either alienates the student ^s sympathies or gives him an unpractical or not useful training. A main question, so far as the student is concerned, is whether his sym- pathies really are in danger of being alienated. 1. OPINIONS OF STUDENTS What, then, do these agricultural stu- dents propose to do with their education? 173 THE TRAINING OF FARMERS The only way to answer this question is to secure statements from the students them- selves. This I have done, and the sum- mary results are given below. It will no doubt be objected that this method is un- reliable in indicating the influence of the college, since a student may not follow his intentions ; yet it is probable that the influ- ence of a course of study may be better ex- pressed in the intentions of students than in statistics of the occupations of persons who have been some years out of college, for the occupation is in very many cases a matter of accident or of circumstances rather than of choice. The student's ideals are developed or confirmed in the college course; if later these ideals are modified, it may be no fault of the course. The students and their replies The students of whom I asked the ques- tions were members of the College of Agri- culture of Cornell University. My only reason for choosing this particular college is because I am connected with it. Prob- 174 THE COLLEGE AND FARMING ably the other agricultural colleges would give similar results. I have every reason to think that the replies express honest conviction. These persons represented three classes of students: four-year stu- dents, having entered with full university requirements and who were working for a baccalaureate degree; two-year students, pursuing general agricultural studies, ear- nest men and women, well grounded in common-school subjects, and many of them persons of maturity and strong native abil- ity, and all of them taking regular univer- sity work; and two-year specials in the teacher's course for nature-study and agri- culture, all of whom were women. Up to the time of the writing I had 179 replies to my inquiries. These replies may be roughly classified as follows : 175 THE TEAINING OF FAKMEES STATEMENT OF THE DESIRES OF 179 STUDENTS IN A COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 78 students reared on the farm 35 regular students . . 43 special students . . 69 students reared in town or city 45 regular students . . 24 special students . . 14 American women students 5 regular students . . 9 special students . . 18 foreign students 10 regular students . . 8 special students . . o a