If I had some magic gift to bestow it would be to make our country youth see one truth, namely, that science as applied to the farm, the garden and the forest has as splendid a dignity as astronomy; that it may work just as many marvels and claim just as high an order of talent."
Chapter VII. AGRICULTURAL TRAINING.
There remain to be considered some of the agencies at work to better the lot of the farmer. In this I shall not attempt to give a list of institutions and outline of courses but to indicate various lines of work which seem promising.
In discussing the training of the Negro farmer credit must first be given to the white planters under whom he has learned so much of what he knows. Under the changing conditions of agriculture this training, or the training received on the average farm is not sufficient and must be supplemented by special training if the desired results are to be obtained.
It probably lay in the situation that the Negro should get the idea that education meant freedom from labor. It is none the less unfortunate for him. To counteract this idea has been a difficult matter and the influence of the average school has not been of any special help. The country school taught by a teacher, usually incompetent from any standpoint, whose interest has been chiefly in the larger salary made possible by his "higher education" has not been an unmixed blessing. The children have learned to read and write and have preserved their notion that if only they could get enough education they might be absolved from manual labor. Even today Hampton and Tuskegee and similar schools have to contend with the opposition of parents who think their children should not be compelled to work, for they are sent to school to enable them to avoid labor. Quite likely it could not be expected that the country school should hold up a higher ideal, for here we have to do with the beginnings of a system of instruction which had to make use of such material as it could find for teachers. The same excuse does not suffice to explain the attitude taken by the bulk of schools maintained by the northern whites for the Negroes. Their inability to comprehend the needs of the case can only be ascribed to the conception of a Negro as a white man with a black skin and a total failure to recognize the essential conditions of race progress. When the Roman monks penetrated the German woods the chief benefits they carried were not embalmed in Latin grammars and the orations of Cicero, but were embodied in the knowledge of agriculture and the arts which, adopted by the people, made possible later the German civilization. The old rescue mission sought to yank the sinner out of the slough of despond, the social settlement seeks to help him who has fallen in the contest of life or him to whom the opportunity has not been offered, to climb, recognizing that morality and religion attend, not recede progress. The old charity gave alms and the country was overrun with hordes of beggars; the new seeks to help a man to help himself. A similar change must come in the efforts for the Negro. It has been sought to give him the fruits of civilization without its bases. It will immediately be argued that this is wrong, that the chief educational work has been but primary and that little so-called "higher education" has been given. This is true, even to the extent that it is possible to find a town of 5,000 inhabitants one-half Negroes, in which the city provides but one teacher for the black children and the balance are trained in a school supported by the gifts of northern people. But, and this is the important thing, the spirit of the education has been clear and definite and that the plan has not been carried out has not been due to lack of faith in it. General Armstrong, thanks to his observations in Hawaii, perceived that a different course was necessary. His mantle fell on H. F. Frissell and Booker T. Washington, so Hampton and Tuskegee have been the chief factors in producing the change which has been noted as coming. Now that industrial training is winning support it is amusing to note the anxiety of other schools to show that they have always believed in it. I can but feel that had the plans of General Armstrong been widely adopted, had the teachers been trained to take the people where they were and lead them to gradual improvement, that the situation today would be radically different. It is, however, not too late to do this yet and the widespread founding of schools modeled after Hampton and Tuskegee indicates a general recognition of the needs of the situation.
Yet, even these schools have not turned out as many farmers as is often supposed. On examination of the catalog of Tuskegee for 1901 I find only sixteen graduates who are farming and thirteen of these have other occupations (principally teaching). The combination, I think, desirable rather than otherwise. Three others are introducing cotton raising in Africa under the German Government. From the industrial department nine have received certificates in agriculture and six in dairying, but their present occupations are not given. Asking a prominent man at Tuskegee for the reason, he exclaimed, rather disgustedly, that they disliked work and preferred to teach. This merely indicates the handicap Tuskegee has to overcome, and perhaps the average agricultural college of the North cannot show a higher percentage of farmers. An official of the Department of Agriculture tells me that only 5 per cent of the graduates of the agricultural colleges become farmers. To show how much agricultural training is given at Tuskegee the following statement for the year 1902-3 is of interest: No pupil is counted twice. One hundred and eighty-one students are engaged in the actual operations of the farm, truck garden, orchard, etc. Seventy-nine are taking the dairying, etc., and 207 are taking agriculture as part of their academic work. Yet, more of the graduates become professional men (lawyers, preachers, etc.) than farmers, the proportion being about three to one. In citing Tuskegee I am, of course, not forgetting that other schools, such as Tougaloo and Talladega, have excellent farms and are seeking (though their chief emphasis is elsewhere) to give agricultural training.
Reverting to the different lines of work which seem hopeful, the subject may be subdivided into several sections. We have first to do with the efforts to make the young child appreciate Nature and become interested in her processes. Perhaps Hampton has developed this side most extensively, both in the little garden plots cultivated by the children and the nature study leaflets prepared for use in other schools. Personally I can but feel that there is a possibility of vastly extending such instruction by means of the country schools. If they may be consolidated, and this is being done in many sections, I think a way can be found to make the school house the social center of the district in such a way as will greatly help conditions.
Actual instruction in practical farming, dairying, horticulture, etc., is given in an increasing number of schools, but the opportunities are still very inadequate to the needs. If it be possible the way must be found to enable the Negro to use more and better machinery. The average planter does not care to introduce expensive machinery lest it be ruined by careless and ignorant tenants.