The Country-Life Movement in the United StatesBailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
History
The Country-Life Movement in the United States
Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Country life
Eventually there should be an agricultural agent resident in every
county, and perhaps even for smaller regions, whose office should be to
give advice, to keep track of animal and plant diseases and pests and
secure the services of experts in their control, to organize
conferences, winter-courses, and the like, and otherwise to be to the
agricultural affairs what the pastor is to religious affairs and the
teacher to educational affairs. (See "The Training of Farmers," p. 257.)
Finally, we may ask the state to place a special school of agriculture
in the locality, but only after it is clear that other means cannot
produce the desired results. An unattached school of agriculture is not
an easy thing to administer successfully, even at the best; and the
difficulty would be all the greater if its care were to be confined to
local boards, which would probably have small understanding of the
peculiar educational requirements. It is probable that a state may
wisely establish a very few special schools, but an educational program
needs first to be worked out, a competent system of control must be
found, and the people should know in advance what is involved. It is not
enough merely that a locality desires a school: the larger question is
the state's interest. In all local enterprises of this kind in which
state aid is asked for, it ought to be understood that the locality
itself is to coöperate in the securing of equipment and funds.
_The lessons of experience._
The demand for agriculture-education is now widespread; the subject is
becoming "popular." All kinds of plans are being tried or discussed.
Persons do not seem to realize that we have had about one hundred years
of experience in the United States in agriculture-education, and that
this experience ought to point the way to success, or at least to the
avoiding of serious errors. The agricultural colleges have come up
through a long and difficult route, and their present success is not
accidental, nor is it easy to duplicate or imitate. First and last,
about every conceivable plan has been tried by them, or by others in
their time or preceding them; and this experience ought to be utilized
by the other institutions that are now being projected in all parts of
the country.
Plans that certainly cannot succeed are now being projected. The
projectors seem to proceed on the idea that it requires no background of
experience to enable an institution to teach agriculture, whereas
agriculture-education is the most difficult and also the most expensive
of all education yet undertaken.
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