AGRICULTUEE IN NEGRO SCHOOLS. 721 



their doors and to o^uide aright those who have gone out from the 

 shadow of the college walls to labor among tlu'ir people. And they 

 are succeeding in their mission in just .such proportion as they have 

 inculcated lessons of temperance, morality, industry, and dignity of 

 service, whether it be labor of the hands or of the head. 



And yet there are some among the teachers in these schools who 

 seem to forget that a child ''must creep before it can walk," who 

 would teach the classics and the higher mathematics and theolog}- and 

 international law to the exclusion of a thorough grounding in Enolish, 

 arithmetic, and the industrial arts; who forget that it is the "'mission'' 

 (and it may be a most honorable mission, a most high calling) of the 

 great majority of all the people, both black and white, to labor, to be 

 producers. And these teachers are the ones who send out "kid- 

 gloved" graduates to lives of miserable failure, Avhcther it be as 

 instructors and leaders among their people, or as producers of the 

 necessities and comforts of life. 



In general, however, it may be said that considering their limited 

 resources most of the negro schools endowed b}' the Federal Govern- 

 ment are making an honest eft'ort to ofi'er their students good oppor- 

 tunities for traijiing along industrial lines. As regards agriculture, 

 this is shown )»v the fact that all but one of them are teaching ao-ricul- 

 ture and more than one-fourth of all the matriculates in these schools 

 are taking agricultural courses of some sort. This is a good showing, 

 when it is considered that so many of those enrolled are in primary 

 and granmiar grades — when 71 per cent of all the students are in pre- 

 paratory courses. It is a better showing by over 15 per cent than 

 similar institutions for whites in the same States are making with only 

 14 per cent of preparatory' students. This is not intended to be a 

 comparison of the quality of instruction, but of the number taking 

 agriculture as shown bv official i-eturns from each institution. 



It is likely that in the agi'icultural colleges for whites more peda- 

 gogical courses and higher grades of instruction in agriculture are 

 found, and it would be strange if this were not true. The negro, like 

 the white man, has had to evolve his own courses in agriculture, but 

 the latter has had the advantage of long experience in educational 

 work, while the former is but 40 years from slaver3\ He has had text- 

 books, but not the inspiration and guidance of experienced teachers. 

 II<' has had the example of his white neighbor, but not the benefit of 

 that white neighbor's agricultural college, except in the rare cases 

 when^ one of his own race has Ix-en trained in the colleges of the 

 North. So, while we nuist admit that the Southern agricultural col- 

 leges and schools for negroes have many shortcomings and many 

 needs, a careful study of the whole situation nuist convince us that the 

 outlook is, on the whole, very encouraging, that earnest and noble 

 S. Doc. 148, 58-2 16 



