August 5, 1916 



HOETICULTUBB 



171 



Agricultural Education is supposed 

 to cover a multitude of sins. Some be- 

 lieve it to be some "hocus pocus" tliat 

 will relieve a farmer of the drudgery 

 of life, that by virtue of this new and 

 wonderful fetich, crops may be pro- 

 duced so abundantly and of such su- 

 perior quality that they will sell them- 

 selves at a figure much higher than 

 the. reports in the advertising papers 

 would even dare to suggest. This 

 imaginary wealth will supply labor to 

 the farmer so that all he has to do is 

 direct what is to be done, and by vir- 

 tue of this so-called agricultural edu- 

 cation, financial success is always at- 

 tained without undue labor or mental 

 and financial consternation. All weath- 

 er conditions are overcome by the 

 knowledge of Agricultural Meteorol- 

 ogy, the farmer can laugh at early 

 frosts and late springs, when it rains 

 and rains until the soil is unfit to 

 work, although the crops should have 

 been in three weeks since. This 

 strange "hocus pocus" — in the minds 

 of some will turn failure into success 

 on the farm. It will relieve all insect 

 pests, all fungus deseases of fruit, 

 stem, root, foliage, settle all questions 

 concerning soil nutrition and in most 

 cases is expected to render equal serv- 

 ice to the farmer engaged in any of 

 the branches of animal husbandry, as 

 well as those of agronomy and horti- 

 culture. We laugh at the fruitless 

 search of Ponce de Leon, although that 

 search brought to a curious world 

 much accurate knowledge of large por- 

 tions of a new continent, contributed 

 materially to the knowledge of geog- 

 raphy, giving helpful directions to 

 hundreds who afterwards decided to 

 settle on the country he discovered, 

 making this search a lasting service to 

 mankind. Still, he did not find the 

 spring of eternal youth, and to him his 

 time, money and energies were wasted. 

 He was looking for something with 

 purely selfish motives. Had it been 

 found, it surely would have been a 

 curse to posterity, and yet the virtues 

 ascribed to the waters of this imagin- 

 ary spring were not as wild and im- 

 possible a panacea as an Agricultural 

 Education is supposed by many to give 

 to the modern agriculturist. 



Unpractical Scientists 



We know that there are many pro- 

 fessors of agriculture and horticulture, 

 animal industry, floriculture, vegetable 

 gardening, agronomy, plant pathology 

 and other classified divisions of the 

 great business of producing, developing 

 and reproducing things that live, be it 

 either animal or vegetable. Many of 

 these gentlemen have spent a large 

 portion of their lives studying ques- 

 tions relating to this great business; 

 their discoveries and conclusions have 

 been very helpful, directly and indi- 

 rectly to the business of the farm. And 

 yet many or most of these professors 

 would fail from a business standpoint 

 on the best farm that could be pre- 

 sented to them. If you should present 

 to many of them the best greenhouse 



that any of your practical men could 

 select, all equipped for business and 

 with money enough to conduct it un- 

 til their stock was ready to market, 

 before the end of the second year, 

 financial embarrassment would begin. 

 All this goes to prove that the average 

 man is decidedly mortal and quite in- 

 capable of performing the labor of 

 more than one intelligent, industrious 

 man. It takes years of practical work 

 and intelligent observation for a man 

 to become proficient, automatic and 

 safe in the ordinary demands of farm 

 management. In so simple a thing as 

 to properly water a variety of plants 

 in a hothouse without their dampening 

 off requires a manager who when he 

 steps into the house will notice, with- 

 out consciousness on his part, the 

 temperature and humidity of the air, 

 the condition of the soil, the weather 

 outside, the pressure and consequent 

 rate of ventilation. He knows how 

 much coal he has on his furnace and 

 the amount necessary to furnish steam 

 to neutralize weather conditions. To 

 understand and to be governed uncon- 

 sciously by the tact that a sunny or 

 cloudy day influences mightily all of 

 the above conditions, requires a train- 

 ing extending over as much time as 

 any of the courses given in our col- 

 leges demand, in order to be mastered 

 by the student. 



Their Place 



These special scientific, capable 

 workers on questions which have a 

 practical application to the business 

 and life of the farmer or horticulturist 

 are often contributing a very im- 

 portant service to the practical man. 

 They teach much of value on a very 

 important yet special subject, and not- 

 withstanding they may be just profes- 

 sors with no more knowledge of prac- 

 tical productive agriculture than a 

 number of watch makers, yet they 

 are a very important factor in the 

 great subject or profession — Agricul- 

 tural Education. Agricultural schools 

 have proficient, practical men, who 

 have had years of successful exper- 

 ience along their particular lines of 

 work. These men oftentimes are as 

 deficient in the higher branches of sci- 

 ence as the scientist is in the practice 

 of agriculture, yet both are of great 

 value as teachers in a school. And as 

 a rule men can't qualify along both 

 advanced science and practical agri- 

 culture, because they have only one 

 life-time in which to make this prepar- 

 ation. The very exceptional man — 

 and there are a few who have had the 

 opportunity with ability enough to be 

 proficient in both lines — is such a rare 

 product that he is immediately taken 

 up by our larger institutions of learn- 

 ing and can be found only in too few 

 of these schools. 



The National Farm School 

 The National Farm School was es- 

 tablished in 1897 by the Rev. Dr. 

 Joseph Krauskopf for the purpose of 

 educating Jewish boys from the con- 



gested districts of our large city, to 

 become farmers. It was his hope that 

 they might lead many others away 

 from these congested districts to live 

 in the country where they could enjoy 

 healthful living conditions and become 

 producers. Later the school was opened 

 to non-Jewish boys and for many 

 years it has been a non-sectarian in- 

 stitution. Dr. Krauskopf has constant- 

 ly put his energies into the develop- 

 ment and support of the school which 

 started with less than a half-dozen 

 pupils and has developed into a large 

 school where the practice and science 

 of farming are taught to more than 

 one hundred pupils. This school has 

 endeavored to be primarily a school of 

 practical agriculture with high school 

 grade of instruction in the sciences as 

 applied to its principal activities. By 

 far the larger portion of our pupils 

 come from the city. The city boy often 

 looks with derision on the country 

 youth as he expresses his unfamiliarity 

 with the marvelous sights and activ- 

 ities when first observed during his 

 early visit to the town. "Rube" is the 

 term applied to this refreshing, un- 

 sophisticated mental attitude. And 

 yet, no country boy in the city could 

 be one-halt as incapable, more hope- 

 lessly awkward, or so utterly helpless 

 as is the city boy when he attempts 

 for the first time to perform the duties 

 of his country cousin: the two boys 

 just mentioned will both depend upon 

 their adaptibility to environment to 

 succeed. 



Learning the Rudiments 



At the National Farm School for the 

 first year, the boy learns the language 

 of farming and to do some of the more 

 simple farm operations, including the 

 using of all hand tools, driving, milk- 

 ing and gardening. The scholastic 

 work tor each year grades with that 

 of a high school in science as applied 

 to agricultural problems, with agricul- 

 tural and horticultural science added. 

 I have been surprised to realize how 

 little a boy will learn of agricultural 

 science during his first year. He does 

 as well as any boy who has never lived 

 on a farm or observed farm work. Our 

 boys have hoed during the first sum- 

 mer over large areas, but few of them 

 realize that the easiest and cheapest 

 time to kill weeds is before they can 

 see them. Most beginners will hoe only 

 when the weeds are large enough to be 

 seen and if an area has no visible 

 weeds they will skip that, so that a 

 tew days after such work has been 

 done, it will have to be repeated. We 

 expect a boy at the farm school to 

 learn during his first year about as 

 much agriculture as the farm boy 

 learns in the first dozen years of his 

 life. When a boy enters our school 

 some mischievous upperclassman will 

 give him an order and he will most 

 seriously take a can of gypsum or land 

 plaster, a scrubbing brush and pail of 

 water and brush the teeth of the 

 horses. Some other fellow will walk 

 a mile across the farm and back to 

 the shop to procure a loft-handed mon- 

 key wrench. The freshmen are in- 

 structed on all common farm practice; 

 theparts of a harness and their use are 

 explained; they take harness apart and 

 put them together again, they have to 

 be taught how to lead an animal, how 

 to take them from the stall and how 

 to properly tie horses, also the care of 

 wagons, carts and carriages; in fact. 



