Farm Boys and GirlsMcKeever, William A. (William Arch)
Science
Farm Boys and Girls
McKeever, William A. (William Arch)
Boys; Farm life; Girls
It is most encouraging to observe the changing ideals of business
and industry now in progress throughout the nation. The many
vocational-training schools and the increasing attendance at the
mechanical and industrial colleges bear witness of this fact. The
American Negro, ever a faithful laborer, is now being taught in such
institutions as Tuskegee and Hampton, not only to perform some honest
work well but also to plan and prepare for a business of his own.
The son of the southern planter is becoming more and more imbued with
the new spirit of efficiency through personal industry. On this matter a
member of the faculty of the Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanical
College says: "It is a mistake to think that the best of the country
youth of the south are continuing in the old-fashioned ideal of becoming
mere gentlemen of culture and leisure. In 1910 there were nearly 50,000
boys living in a dozen of the southern states, who astonished the entire
country with their achievements in corn-raising. They ranged in age from
fifteen to eighteen years. At the national exhibit held in Columbus,
Ohio, one hundred of them showed an average yield of 134 bushels of corn
to the acre. This corn-growing practice is under the direction of the
national government, and is more than a big, exciting contest, it is a
splendid course in rural home education.
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.
FIG. 32.--A group of "coming" Kansans. Every boy pictured here carried
away some sort of prize at a state corn show.]
"We have at this college hundreds of young men from the plantations and
they are intensely interested in working out the industrial problems
that pertain to their own home affairs. I have been surprised at their
eagerness to get into the soil and to do the mechanical work
connected with their studies. All over the south there seems to be an
awakening among the boys and young men, of an interest in the industrial
and commercial problems of the plantation."
The farm papers and the educational magazines in the southern states
give much evidence of this same sort of awakening. The farmers' and
planters' organizations, the local improvement and school betterment
clubs, and many other movements, are giving both incentive and direction
to the country youths who are at all inclined to find an interest in the
home affairs. The rural parents who desire outside aid in arousing their
boys' interest in the home business may well seek such assistance by
bringing the latter into closer touch with one of these progressive
organizations.
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN FATHER AND SON
After the farmer's son has fully settled upon his father's business as
an ideal one for himself, there may be brought to the latter a gradual
relief from the worry of details, and that through a partnership
management. A. G. Hulting, Jr., of Geneseo, Illinois, thus describes
such a plan of cooperation in a letter to Arthur J. Bill, the
agricultural writer:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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