262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



me the part of common sense that in a ver} r large degree, 

 especially during the next fifty or one hundred years, we 

 ought largely to centre our education in that direction. 

 Education, in my mind, whether of black people or white 

 people, increases and cultivates wants. A boy coming from 

 the plantation district of the south to Tuskegee, from one 

 of the cotton plantations, perhaps, before he comes to us 

 has never worn a collar or necktie, and has not had any 

 cuffs, to say nothing of cuff buttons. If he wanted a walk- 

 ing stick, he went to a hickory tree and cut himself a stick, 

 and was satisfied with that. That boy comes to school a 

 few years, rubs up against a different civilization. Very 

 soon, naturally and rightly, he wants a collar, he wants a 

 necktie, he wants cuffs, he wants a walking stick that is 

 painted, — perhaps one that will cost seventy-five cents or a 

 dollar, that is bought from a store, instead of being gotten 

 from an old hickory tree. He returns to his home, and he 

 wants, rightly, to put carpets on the floor and pictures upon 

 the Avails. That man's education has increased, multiplied 

 many times his wants. 



Now, my friends, I claim that a system of education, — 

 especially when applied to a people whose condition is that 

 of the mass of" my people in the black belt of the south, — 

 any education that in a very large degree increases their 

 wants without at the same time increasing their ability to 

 supply those increased wants along lines at which they can 

 find immediate employment, is rather a mistake. Wherever 

 this is done you will find in many cases people yielding to 

 temptations, and not answering the purpose for which their 

 education was intended. We find that through the teaching 

 of these industries at these various agricultural and indus- 

 trial institutions at the south we have gained immensely in 

 the spirit of self-reliance and spirit of self-confidence which 

 has given to them certain mental and moral backbone ; and 

 these are lessons which are most needed wherever these 

 educated men and women go to settle among our people in 

 the rural districts of the south. When the Bible says, 

 " Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," I am 

 almost tempted, my friends, to believe that the Bible means 



