45 



Rubber seems to be the word everywhere in the tropical world 

 just now, and Hawaii appears to have good promise of keeping 

 its hand in the industry — comparatively small as the beginning 

 here may be. Periodicals of tropical agriculture everywhere, as 

 well as ordinary news prints in tropical countries, are giving much 

 space to technical discussions of rubber growing. Last year, as 

 readers of the Forester are aware, a number of this magazine was 

 devoted mainly to a full report of the annual meeting of the 

 Hawaiian Rubber Growers' Association, and it will also be re- 

 membered that the Forester has noted in exchanges, also in a 

 book published in London, very considerable mention of the rub- 

 ber growing experimentation done in Hawaii. Late mails have 

 brought some articles on rubber, quotable in reasonable compass 

 as well as many too lengthy for these pages, and of the former, 

 as space w\\\ permit, our readers shall have the benefit. 



KEEPING THE BOYS AND GIRES ON THE FARM. 



To keep the farmers' boys and girls in the country is a pro- 

 blem affecting every agricultural district in the United States. 

 The universal opinion of the farmers throughout the country, as 

 voiced to the National Country Life Commission was that the 

 present .system of education in the district schools in a large 

 measure is responsible for the exodus of the youth of the country 

 to the city ; that the curriculum, owing to its failure to instruct 

 in the spirit of the farm is strongly influencing the children away 

 from rather than toward rural pursuits. 



Recognizing fully the importance of the problem of conserving 

 lor the country a larger proportion of its young people and of 

 directing them in childhood to appreciate the dignity and in- 

 dependence of farming as a profession, Secretary Fisher of the 

 Department of the Interior has authorized the Reclamation Ser- 

 vice to cooperate with the Department of Agriculture, the various 

 state and county authorities, in a practical plan which it is be- 

 lieved will materially promote a solution of this problem on the 

 irrigation projects of the government. 



On a number of these projects the old-fashioned, one-teacher 

 district schools have been eliminated and consolidated, or cen- 

 tralized graded schools have been established. Sufficient land has 

 been set aside or donated adjacent to these schools to permit the 

 platting of small tracts for planting. A course in elementary agri- 

 culture is to be taught and an actual demonstration of irrigation 

 and cultivation is to be given with prizes for the best results. 

 To further these plans the Reclamation Service will furni&li free 

 of charge the water for irrigation ; the Department of Agriculture 

 and the State Experiment Station wall supply seeds and expert 

 instructors. This western experiment will be viewed with absorb 

 ing interest by the farmers all over the land. 



