Chapters in Rural ProgressButterfield, Kenyon L. (Kenyon Leech)
Science
Chapters in Rural Progress
Butterfield, Kenyon L. (Kenyon Leech)
Agriculture -- United States
This specialization, or intensification, of agriculture makes a new
demand, upon those who pursue it, in the way of mental and business
training. This training is being furnished by a multitude of agencies,
and the younger generation of farmers is taking proper advantage of the
opportunities thus offered. What are some of these regular agencies? (1)
An alert farm press, containing contributions from both successful
farmers and scientific workers. (2) Farmers' institutes, which are
traveling schools of technical instruction for farmers. (3) The
bulletins issued by the government experiment stations located in every
state, and by the federal Department of Agriculture. (4) Special winter
courses (of from two to twelve weeks), offered at nearly all the
agricultural colleges of the country, for instruction in practical
agriculture. (5) Regular college courses in agriculture at these same
colleges. (6) Extension instruction by lectures and correspondence. (7)
A growing book literature of technical agriculture. (8) More encouraging
than all else is the spirit of inquiry that prevails among farmers the
country over--the recognition that there is a basis of science in
agriculture. No stronger pleas for the advancement of agricultural
education can be found than those that have recently been formulated by
farmers themselves.
If this regeneration of farm life were wholly material it would be worth
noting; for it promises a prosperity built on foundations sufficiently
strong to withstand ordinary storms. Yet this is but a chapter of the
story. Not only are our American farmers making a study of their
business, bringing to it the resources of advancing knowledge and good
mental training, and hence deriving from it the strong, alert mental
character that comes to all business men who pursue equally intelligent
methods, but the farmers are by no means neglecting their duty to
broaden along general intellectual lines. Farmers have always been
interested in politics; there is no reason to think that their interest
is declining. The Grange and other organizations keep their attention on
current problems. Traveling libraries, school libraries, and Grange
libraries are giving new opportunities for general reading, and the
farmer's family is not slow to accept the chance. Low prices for
magazines and family papers bring to these periodicals an increasing
list from the rural offices. Rural free mail delivery promises, among
many other results of vast importance, to enlarge the circulation of
daily papers among farmers not less than tenfold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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