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THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. 111. No. 27
Agricultural Schools Accomplish Great Work
By Isma Dooly.
‘ ‘ That Georgia through her agricultural col
lege and her district agricultural schools has
inaugurated the best system of agricultural
and industrial education in America,” is the
statement which was made recently by Com
missioner of Education Hayes, in Washington,
D. C., and by Professor Claxton, of the South
ern Education board, recently addressing a
large audience in New York.
Almost the same statement embodied the
sentiment expressed by the members of the
conference for education in the South, holding
recently in Memphis, when Professor Joseph
Stewart, of the University of Georgia, made
there report of the work of the agricultural
college and the district schools.
This particular branch of education ans
wers the call being made for that branch of
education that the more directly fits the youth
of the community to develop the resources
around him and consequently makes him the
more useful as an individual and as a citizen.
In view of the fact that the eyes of the
people of the state are anxiously turned now
to the legislature, called upon to act in the
matter of such legislation as will insure the
maintenance and proper development of that
system for which the agricultural college and
the district schools stand, it can not be amiss
to review briefly the yet short life of the
this progressive branch of Georgia’s educa
tion system.
What the Trustees Did.
The trustees of the district schools accom
plished the remarkable feat of locating elev
en schools, raising $470,000 in cash; securing
by gift 3,044 acres of land valued at $137,000;
securing light, water and ’phone gifts for ten
years in nine schools valued at $200,000; erect
ing in four schools three handsome brick
buildings and in the others one brick build
ing, though two have been agreed upon; open
ing of these schools for pupils this spring with
a total enrollment of 560 —'all of this, too,
within eighteen months after the bill was
passed creating the schools.
The state’s expense has been about $6,000
to each school.
The result has been the admiration of the
educational world, and surpasses all records
in school building.
In September all of the schools will be ready
and it is anticipated that 1,200 will be en
rolled. Some of the schools report every
room engaged for the term.
The schools in operation have in cultiva
tion from iEirtv to eighty acres of land in
cotton, corn, small grain, garden products, or-
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, July ,2. 1908.
chards, and peas. They will raise sufficient
produce to run the farm another year and
easily supply the table.
The Boarding Department.
The boarding departments have been self
sustaining from the monthly charge of $lO a
month. This amount has been reduced each
month by work of the students, varying from
total expenses to $3. Some months the aver
age cost per pupil per day has been 21 cents.
All of the work of every kind except that
of the head cook has been done by the stu
dents. This includes house-cleaning, launder
ing, table serving, dish washing, milkiug, plow
ing, fence and barn building, and yet the
work is so systematized that no student has
over three hours of required labor a day, and
thus has ample time for full academic work
of at least three hours. The schools are in
no sense local, but in every case the different
counties of the district have had fair repre
sentation.
With the large number of pupils, the va
riety of instruction to be given and the high
order of training demanded of the teachers,
the schools will need SIO,OOO a year for main
tenance. They were planned with this esti
mate in view and the people thoroughly un
derstood the wording of the law which re
quired them to put up the plant and (Sec.
2), “That all fees received from the inspection
of fertilizers, oils, etc., in this state, after the
present year, over the expenses of such in
spection, etc., shall be used as a fund for the
purpose of establishing and maintaining such
schools, and the said governor is authorized
to pay to the trustees of said schools their
respective portion of said funds.”
The state, therefore, did specifically pro
vide in the bill for the maintenance of the
schools.
Opinions of Noted Educators.
John G. Bauman, secretary of the Carnegie
foundation, visited one of the schools recent
ly, and stated that he considered them the
most hopeful experiment in education in the
nation. Dr. Frissel, of the Southern educa
tion board, who also visited one of the schools,
stated that they would solve the problem of
rural industrial education.
Professor J. S. Stewart, of the University
of Georgia, in charge of the department of sec
ondary education, and who is one of the lead
ing factors in the success of the district
schools, relates many incidents relative to
their practical value.
“The students in all of the schools are hap
py in their work, and proud of their school.
They seem to appreciate that what they are
learning is going to make them useful, and
faithfulness to duty marks the record of all,”
said Professor Stewart, after a recent tour
of the school
“Not long since a boy drove me out to the
school near Carrollton, and told me that he
was working at the livery stable at $8 per
month to save up enough money to attend the
district school next September. He said his
brother was there then, and that he wanted
to go, too, because it was a school where they
were ‘doing things.’ ”
Helpful to Girls.
“We must not forget that these schools not
only train boys for agriculture, but are no less
helpful to the state in training girls for suc
cessful home making,” continued Professor
Stewart. “This includes household architec
ture, home sanitation, dressmaking, cooking,
care of sick and other topics with a view to
raising the general standards of health and
morals among the people. Many of these girls
will go into the rural schools as teachers, aim
thus aid changing these schools to more practi
cal lines.”
The proposed increase in fertilizer tags does
not increase the cost to farmers in Georgia, as
the fertilizer people prorate the tax for all the
state, and charge the same per ton, plus
freight. For instance, the present rate is:
South Carolina, 25; Alabama, 25; North
Carolina, 25; Florida, 35; Virginia, 35; Geor
gia, 10. The total 155, divided by 6, makes
25 cents the average cost of the tax. Our
farmers are now paying the tax, but not get
ting the benefit.—Atlanta Constitution.
Deer Park, Ala., June 18, 1908.
Editor Jeffersonian:
Will you grant space in your valuable pa
per to insert the following call 1 ?
To the Populists of the First Congressional
district of Alabama, Greeting:
I hereby call a mass convention of all Pop
ulists, and all others who are opposed to the
two old parties, and who believe we are in
need of reform, to meet me in the city of
Jackson, at the parlors of the Jackson Hotel,
on Saturday, July 18, 1908, for the purpose of
nominating a candidate for congress, if it
seems best, and to transact other business that
may come before the convention. Now, start
the ball to rolling. I know you have the time
to spare as well as I have. Hoping to see a
good turnout at Jackson on the 18th of July,
I remain in the good work to the finish,
G. B. WILSON.
Chairman First Congressional District of
Alabama. *
Price Five Cents.