Chapters in Rural Progress Part 4

Give us a state filled with such farmers and we can guarantee a strong system of agricultural education. But the seeds of education cannot grow in a soil barren of the richness of sentiment for and confidence in the farm. Our agricultural colleges have been criticized because they have graduated so few farmers. But the fault is not all with the colleges.

The farmers also are to blame. They have not had faith enough in the farm to advise young men to go to college to prepare for farming. They admit the value of education for the law, for building railroads, but not for farming. This must be changed, is being changed. The last ten years have seen a revolution in this respect, and the result is a mighty increase in agricultural educational interest.

One powerful means of agricultural education is the farmers'

organization or a.s.sociation. All our dairy, horticultural, poultry, and live-stock a.s.sociations are great educators. So of an organization like the Grange, its chief work is education. It brings mind in contact with mind; it gives chance for discussion and interchange of ideas; it trains in power of expression; it teaches the virtue of co-operation. Farmers blunder when they fail to encourage organization. Sometimes, out of foolish notions of independence, they neglect to unite their forces.

They are utterly blind to their best interests when they do so. They should encourage organization if for no other reason than for the splendid educational advantages that flow from it.

However, our chief interest is, perhaps, in those inst.i.tutions that are formed purposely and especially for agricultural education and which are usually supported out of public funds. There are three great fields of endeavor in which these inst.i.tutions are working. The first step is to know--to know the truth. So in agriculture we must know. Know what? Know how nature works. So the man of science studies the soil and finds out what plant-food it contains, how the water acts in it, what heat and air do, and the inter-relation of all these elements. He studies the plant and its habits and tries to discover how it grows and how it can be improved for man's use. He studies the animal and endeavors to learn what are the best foods for it and what laws govern its adaptation to human food. He studies climate and tries to find out what plants and animals are most appropriate to different locations. He studies injurious insects and diseases and devises remedies for them. He discovers, experiments. So we have research as the first term in agricultural education. The inst.i.tutions of research are our experiment stations and United States Department of Agriculture. Their work may be likened to the plowing of the field. They strive to know how nature works, and how man can make use of her laws in the growing of plant and animal.

The next thing is to teach. The farmer too must know. Knowledge confined to the scientist has little practical use. It is the farmer who can use it. Moreover, new teachers must be trained, new experimenters equipped, and leaders in every direction prepared. So we have agricultural colleges and schools. If experiment is to be likened to plowing, the work of the schools may be compared to sowing and cultivating.

Agricultural colleges have been in existence in America almost fifty years. Their careers have been both inspiring and disappointing. They have had to train their own teachers, create a body of knowledge, break down the bars of educational prejudice. This work has taken time. The results justify the time and effort. For today agricultural education is becoming organized, the subjects of study are well planned, and competent men are teaching and experimenting. The disappointment is twofold. They have not graduated as many farmers as they should have.

This is due not wholly to wrong notions in the colleges. It is, as suggested before, partly due to the lack of faith in agriculture on the part of the farmers themselves. But the colleges are in part to blame.

Many of them have not been in close touch with the farmers. They have often been out of sympathy with the interests of the farmers. They have too frequently been servile imitators of the traditions of the older colleges, instead of striking out boldly on a line of original and helpful work for agriculture. Today, however, we see a rapid change going on in most of our agricultural colleges. They are seeking to help solve the farmers' difficulties. They are training young men for farm life. The farmers are responding to this new interest and are beginning to have great confidence in the colleges.

It is sometimes said that most farmers who get an agricultural education cannot be trained in the colleges. Doubtless this is true. Probably a very small proportion even of educated farmers can or will graduate from a full course in an agricultural college. Many will do so. There is no reason why a large proportion of the graduates of our college courses in agriculture may not go to the farm. I have no sympathy with the idea that those courses are too elaborate for those young men who want to farm. It must be recognized, however, that even if our agricultural colleges shall graduate hundreds and thousands every year who return to the farm, it still leaves the great majority of farmers untouched in an educational way unless other means are devised. But there are other means at hand.

We have first the agricultural school. The typical agricultural high school gives a course of two or three years, offering work of high-school grade in mathematics and English, with about half the time devoted to teaching in agriculture. Many young men want to get an insight into the principles of modern agriculture, but cannot afford time or money for college work. This course fits their need. A splendid school of this design has been in successful operation in Minnesota for more than a dozen years, and has nearly five hundred students. In Wisconsin there are two county schools of agriculture for a similar purpose. Other schools could be named.

The agricultural colleges also offer shorter courses of college grade, perhaps of two years. These are very practical and useful courses. Not only that, but nearly all the colleges give special winter courses of from ten days to fourteen weeks. These are patronized by thousands of young men. So in many ways are the colleges meeting the need. We all agree that it is desirable for a young man to take a full college course, even in agriculture. But it is better to have a half-loaf than no bread. Yes, better to have a _slice_ than no bread. The colleges furnish the whole loaf, the half-loaf, and the slice. And young men are nourished by all.

One reason why agricultural education has not made more rapid progress is because the children of the country schools have been taught in such a manner as to lead them to think that there is no chance for brains in farming. Both their home influence and their school atmosphere have, in most cases perhaps, been working against their choice of agriculture as a vocation. It therefore becomes important that these children shall be so taught that they can see the opportunity in farming. They must, moreover, be so trained that they will be nature students; for the farmer above all men must be a nature student. So we see the need of introducing into our rural schools nature-study for the young pupils and elementary agriculture for the older ones. This is being successfully accomplished in many cases, and is arousing the greatest interest and meeting with gratifying success. We shall within ten years have a new generation of young men and women ready for college who have had their eyes opened as never before to the beauties of nature and to the fascination there is in the farmer's task of using nature for his own advantage.

But when we have increased the attendance at our agricultural colleges tenfold; when we have hundreds of agricultural schools teaching thousands of our youth the fundamentals of agriculture; when each rural school in our broad land is instilling into the minds of children the nearness and beauty of nature and is teaching the young eyes to see and the young ears to hear what G.o.d hath wrought in his many works of land and sea and sky, in soil, and plant, and living animal--even when that happy day shall dawn will we find mult.i.tudes of men and women on our farms still untouched by agricultural education. These people must be reached. The mere fact that their school days are forever behind them is no reason why they shall not receive somewhat of the inspiration and guidance that flow from the schools. So we have an imperative demand for the extension of agricultural teaching out from the schools to the farm community. The school thus not only sheds its light upon those who are within its gates, but sets out on the beautiful errand of carrying this same light into every farm home in the land. This work is being done today by thousands of farmers' inst.i.tutes, by demonstrations in spraying and in many other similar lines, by home-study courses and correspondence courses, by co-operative experiments, by the distribution of leaflets and bulletins, by lectures at farmers' gatherings, by traveling schools of dairying. These methods and others like them are being invoked for the purpose of bringing to the farmers in their homes and neighborhoods some of the benefits that the colleges and schools bestow upon their pupils.

We have seen something of the need of agricultural education, of the kind of education required, and of the means used to secure it. Does not this discussion at least show the supreme importance of the question?

Will not the farmers rally themselves to and league themselves with the men who are trying to forward the best interests of the farm? Shall we not all work together for the betterment both of the farm and of the farmer?

CHAPTER VII

FARMERS' INSt.i.tUTES

A decade and a half ago, there was a vigorous campaign for the establishment of university extension throughout the United States.

Generally speaking the campaign was a losing one--with but a few successes amid general failure. But many years before this agitation, there was begun a work among farmers, which in form and spirit was university extension, and which has constantly developed until it is today one of the most potent among the forces making for rural progress.

This work has been done chiefly by what are now universally known as farmers' inst.i.tutes.

The typical farmers' inst.i.tute is a meeting usually lasting two days, held for the purpose of discussing subjects that relate to the interests of farmers, more particularly those of a practical character. As a rule, the speakers to whom set topics are a.s.signed are composed of two cla.s.ses: the first cla.s.s is made up of experts, either professors or experimenters in agricultural colleges and similar inst.i.tutions, or practical farmers who have made such a study of, and such a conspicuous success in, some branch of agriculture that they may well be called experts; the second cla.s.s comprises farmers living in the locality in which the inst.i.tute is held. The experts are expected to understand general principles or methods, and the local speakers the conditions peculiar to the neighborhood.

The meeting usually begins in the forenoon and ends with the afternoon session of the second day--five sessions being held. As a rule, not over two or three separate topics are treated in any one session, and in a well-planned inst.i.tute topics of a like character are grouped together, so that there may be a fruit session, a dairy session, etc. Each topic is commonly introduced by a talk or paper of twenty to forty minutes'

length. This is followed by a general discussion in which those in the audience are invited to ask questions of the speaker relevant to the topic under consideration, or to express opinions and give experiences of their own.

This is a rough outline of the average farmers' inst.i.tute, but of course there are many variations. There are one-day meetings and there are three-day meetings, and in recent years the one-day meetings have grown in favor; in some states local speakers take little part; in some inst.i.tutes a question-box is a very prominent feature, in others it is omitted altogether; in some cases the evening programme is made up of educational topics, or of home topics, or is even arranged largely for amus.e.m.e.nt; in other instances the evening session is omitted. In most inst.i.tutes women are recognized through programme topics of special interest to them.

It is not important to trace the early history of the farmers' inst.i.tute movement, and indeed it is not very easy to say precisely when and where the modern inst.i.tute originated. Farmers' meetings of various sorts were held early in the century. As far back as 1853 the secretary of the Ma.s.sachusetts Board of Agriculture recommended that farmers' inst.i.tutes be made an established means of agricultural education. By 1871 Illinois and Iowa held meetings called farmers' inst.i.tutes, itinerant in character, and designed to call together both experts and farmers, but neither state kept up the work systematically. Both Vermont and New Hamps.h.i.+re have held inst.i.tutes annually since 1871, though they did not bear that name in the early years. Michigan has a unique record, having held regularly, since 1876, annual farmers' inst.i.tutes, "so known and designated," which always have contained practically the essential features of the present-day inst.i.tute. The Michigan legislature pa.s.sed a law in 1861 providing for "lectures to others than students of the Agricultural College," and has made biennial appropriations for inst.i.tutes since 1877. Ohio, in 1881, extended the inst.i.tute idea to include every county in the state.

More important than the origin of the farmers' inst.i.tute movement is the present status. Practically every state and territory in the Union carries on inst.i.tutes under some form or other. In somewhat more than half the states, the authorities of the land-grant colleges have charge of the work. In the other states, the board of agriculture or the department of agriculture has control.

In 1905-6 there were held 3,500 inst.i.tutes, in 45 states and territories, with a total reported attendance of 1,300,000 people, at a cost of nearly $350,000. The work is largely supported by the state treasuries, some of the states showing a most generous spirit. The annual state appropriations for the work in leading inst.i.tute states are as follows: Pennsylvania, $20,500; New York, $20,000; Minnesota, $18,000; Illinois, $17,150; Ohio, $16,747; Wisconsin, $12,000; Indiana, $10,000. In these states practically every county has annually from one to five inst.i.tutes.

Inst.i.tutes in no two states are managed in the same way, but the system has fitted itself to local notions and perhaps to local needs. A rough division may be made--those states which have some form of central control and those which do not have. Even among states having a central management are found all degrees of centralization; Wisconsin and Ohio may be taken as the extremes. In Wisconsin the director of inst.i.tutes, who is an employee of the university, has practically complete charge of the inst.i.tutes. He a.s.signs the places where the meetings are to be held, basing his decision upon the location of former inst.i.tutes in the various counties, upon the eagerness which the neighborhoods seem to manifest toward securing the inst.i.tute, etc. He arranges the programme for each meeting, suiting the topics and speakers to local needs, prepares advertising materials, and sets the dates of the meeting. A local correspondent looks after a proper hall for meeting, distributes the advertising posters, and bears a certain responsibility for the success of the inst.i.tute. Meetings are arranged in series, and a corps of two or three lecturers is sent by the director upon a week's tour.

One of these lecturers is called a conductor. He usually presides over the inst.i.tute and keeps the discussions in proper channels. Practice makes him an expert. The state lecturers do most of the talking. Local speakers do not bear any large share in the programme. Questions are freely asked, however.

Ohio has an inst.i.tute society in each county, and this society largely controls its own inst.i.tutes. The secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, who has charge of the system, a.s.signs dates and speakers to each inst.i.tute. After that everything is in the hands of the local society, which chooses the topics to be presented by the state speakers, advertises the meeting, and the society president acts as presiding officer. Local speakers usually occupy half the time.

It does not seem as if either of these plans in its entirety were ideal--the one an extreme of centralized control, the other an extreme of local management. Yet in practice both plans work well. No states in the Union have better inst.i.tutes nor better results from inst.i.tute work than Wisconsin and Ohio. Skill, intelligence, and tact count for more than particular inst.i.tutions.

New York may be said to follow the Wisconsin plan. Minnesota goes even a step farther; instead of holding several series of inst.i.tutes simultaneously in different parts of the state, attended by different "crews," the whole corps of state speakers attends every inst.i.tute. No set programmes are arranged. Everything depends upon local conditions.

This system is expensive, but under present guidance very effective.

Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania have adopted systems which are a mean between the plan of centralization and the plan of localization.

Illinois has a plan admirably designed to encourage local interest, while providing for central management.

Few other states have carried inst.i.tute work so far as the states already named, and in some cases there seems to be a prejudice against a well-centralized and fully-developed system--a feeling that each locality may be self-sufficing in inst.i.tute work. But this att.i.tude is wearing away, for experience serves to demonstrate fully the value of system. The danger of centralization is bureaucracy; but in inst.i.tute work, if the management fails to provide for local needs, and to furnish acceptable speakers, vigorous protests soon correct the aberration.

It has been stated that in America we have no educational _system_--that spontaneity is the dominant feature of American education. This is certainly true of farmers' inst.i.tutes. So it has transpired that numerous special features have come in to use in various states--features of value and interest. It may be worth while to suggest some of the more characteristic of these features, without attempting an exact category.

Formerly the only way in which women were recognized at the inst.i.tutes was by home and social topics on the programme, though women have always attended the meetings freely. Some years ago Minnesota and Wisconsin added women speakers to their list of state speakers, and in the case of Wisconsin, at least, held a separate session for women, simultaneously with one or two sessions of the regular inst.i.tute, with demonstration lectures in cooking as the chief features. Michigan holds "women's sections" in connection with inst.i.tutes, but general topics are taken up. In Ontario separate women's inst.i.tutes have been organized. In Illinois a State a.s.sociation of Domestic Science has grown out of the inst.i.tutes. Thus inst.i.tute work has broadened to the advantage of farm women.

At many inst.i.tutes there are exhibits of farm and domestic products--a sort of midwinter fair. Oftentimes the merchants of the town in which the inst.i.tute is held offer premiums as an inducement to the farmers.

In Wisconsin an educational feature of much value takes the form of stock-judging--usually at the regular autumn fairs. The judges give their reasons for their decisions, thus emphasizing the qualities that go to make up a perfect or desirable animal.

In several states there is held an annual state inst.i.tute called a "round-up," "closing inst.i.tute," or the like. It is intended to be a largely attended and representative state convention of agriculturists, for the purpose of discussing topics of general interest to men and women from the farms. These meetings are frequently very large and enthusiastic gatherings.

The county inst.i.tute society is a part of the organization in some instances very well developed. It gives permanency to the work and arouses local interest and pride.

The development of men and women into suitable state speakers is an interesting phase. As a rule the most acceptable speakers are men who have made a success in some branch of farming, and who also have cultivated the gift of clear and simple expression. Not a few of these men become adepts in public speaking and achieve a reputation outside of their own states. In several states there is held a "normal inst.i.tute"--an autumn meeting lasting a week or two weeks, and bringing together, usually at the state college of agriculture, the men who are to give the lectures at the inst.i.tutes of the winter to follow. The object of the gathering is to bring the lecturers into close contact with the latest things in agricultural science, and to train them for more effective work.

A few years ago the United States Department of Agriculture employed an experienced inst.i.tute director to give all his time to the study and promotion of farmers' inst.i.tutes. This incident is suggestive of the important place which inst.i.tutes have secured in the work for better farming.

The results of a generation of inst.i.tute work are not easy to summarize.

It is safe to make a broad generalization by a.s.serting that this form of agricultural education has contributed in a remarkable degree to better farming. The best methods of farming have been advocated from the inst.i.tute platform. Agricultural college professors, and agricultural experimenters have talked of the relations of science to practical farming. The farmers have come to depend upon the inst.i.tute as a means for gaining up-to-date information.

And if inst.i.tutes have informed, they have also done what is still better--they have inspired. They have gone into many a dormant farm community and awakened the whole neighborhood to a quicker life. They have started discussions, set men thinking, brought in a breath of fresh air. They have given to many a farmer an opportunity for self-development as a ready speaker.

Other educational agencies, such as the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, have profited by inst.i.tutes. No one thing has done more than the inst.i.tutes to popularize agricultural education, to stir up interest in the colleges, to make the farmers feel in touch with the scientists.

Farmers' inst.i.tutes are a phase of university extension, and it is as a part of the extension movement that they are bound to increase in value and importance. Reading-courses and correspondence-courses are growing factors in this extension movement, but the power of the spoken word is guarantee that the farmers' inst.i.tute cannot be superseded in fact. And it is worth noting again, that while university extension has not been the success in this country which its friends of a decade ago fondly prophesied for it, its humbler cousin--agricultural college extension--has been a conspicuous success, and is acquiring a constantly increasing power among the educational agencies that are trying to deal with the farm problem.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HESPERIA MOVEMENT