Bringing the Farmer to School

Improvement Era Vol. XVIII. MARCH, 1915. No. 5.

Bringing the Farmer to School

A New Way of Getting the Gospel of Better Agriculture Before the Man on the Soil

BY LON J. HADDOCK, B. S.

"Mirandy, hev y'u seen my fountain pen anywheres?" "No, Josh, I don't know where it is, unless, mebbe, I hev put it in my note book along with my recipes."

"Well, I've got tu hev it tu git them irrigation formulies fig- gered out before the mornin' session." A farm boy and girl going through the usual performance of hunting up their school paraphernalia, you say. But you are wrong. This is but one incident typical of a hundred like inci- dents occurring in the farm homes of Utah at the present time. And it is not the farm boy and girl who are putting on the main performance, but it is the grizzled and bronzed old farmer himself, and his good housewife who are thus discussing the necessary preparation for the morrow's lessons, for in Utah Pap and Mam are actually going to school ! Yes, strange though it may appear, the Utah farmer and his wife are really registered at the Agricul- tural College. Nor is registering alone che summum bonum of the proceedings. They are registered for a purpose. Previous arrangements have been made for taking care of the children and the farm during their absence. Now they are busily occupied, from early morning till late evening, in attending the various lectures given by the college and government experts, supple- mented by the practical talks of the very best farmers and house- wives of the state. They are making notes, asking questions, solving problems, figuring out formulas, and a hundred and one other mental gymnastics, all strangely new to the average slow-

380 IMPROVEMENT ERA going, stay-at-home man on the soil. Hence the anxiety to dis- cover the hiding place of the much-needed fountain pen, that he may be prepared on the morrow to keep abreast of the new ideas and suggestions which his previous experience tells him will be so freely disseminated. To teach the farmer how to make farming a business Such :

is the standard set by Dr. John A. Widtsoe, President of the Utah

Agricultural College, who, in addition to presiding over one of the most wide-awake colleges in the west, is a recognized authority on the twin arts of agriculture; viz., Dry-farming and Irrigation, having been, up till recently, president of the International Dry-

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF FARMERS AND HOUSEWIVES IN FRONT OF THE UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE farming Congress. He is the author of the well known book, Dry-Farming, and a new 500-page work, just issued by The Macmillan Co., New York and London, on Principles of Irrigation Practice, as well as divers and sundry other works bearing on these and other important agricultural subjects. To accomplish the purpose announced at the beginning of this paragraph, Dr. Widtsoe and his associates, some years ago, conceived the idea of putting on an annual Farmers' Round-Up and Housekeepers' Convention. He had the matter figured out something on this wise: The Agricultural College was estab- lished by the people of the state. Not by a few of the people, but by all the people. To the maintenance of its institutions of higher learning the taxpayers of Utah were devoting 86 per cent of the entire revenue of the state. But the records at the Agricultural College showed that less than one-fifth of one per cent of the entire

BRINGING THE FARMER TO SCHOOL 381

population of the state was registered at the institution, and this fraction of one-fifth of one per cent was made up almost exclu- sively of young people. True, they were mostly the sons and daughters of the families living in the rural sections of the state, the families which the Agricultural College was designed primarily to assist. But, after all, the few students registered were scarcely as a "drop in the bucket" compared with the vast army of people out on the farms, and in the shops, factories, and mills, scattered from Portage to Kanab, and from Vernal to Deep Creek, over the state. But the standing expense of the college went on just the same.

FARMERS AND HOUSEWIVES IN JOINT SESSION IN COLLEGE CHAPEL

Whether the register showed one hundred, one thousand, or only one dozen students in attendance, the faculty upkeep continued. Men might come and men might go, but salaries went on forever. Such being the case, what was the advisable thing to do? Obvi- ously to extend the usefulness of the college to such a point that the faculty members might be kept industriously employed, and that the people of Utah, the supporters of the college, the men and women whose taxes provided the bone and sinew for the institu- tion, might get the maximum of efficient service with the very minimum of effort. Having arrived at this determination, the outlining of a policy became a simple matter. A campaign of extension work was

382 IMPROVEMENT ERA immediately begun. A program to continue all winter was planned out a year in advance. Promptly with the opening of the regular school term, in the fall, the propaganda was begun. A series of itinerant farmers' and housekeepers' "schools" had been carefully scheduled in advance, and now a corps of trained experts, women and men, went out from the home institution in Logan, to carry the gospel of better agriculture, and home culture, into the vari- ous sections of the state. Most of the "schools" were held for five days in each community. Three sessions were held, the men and women meeting separately during the day, and jointly in the evening. For a time the innovation gave promise of being short- lived. The practical man on the farm was not in the habit of receiving "something for nuthin'," as he put it. His the part, rather, to do the hard, dirty work that provided the revenue for the other fellow. Then, too/ he had his doubts, and very grave doubts they were, as to the particular amount of real, practical assistance he could expect to get from these "book-larned" city chaps. The good housewife shared his doubts with him, in an ad- mirable degree. She had reared a large family of boys and girls, and they would measure well up to the standard of any of the boys and girls in the vicinity, if she did say it herself, and what, there- fore, could she hope to learn from these smart women folks, with their manish ways and their city frills, who were coming out there to teach her housekeeping.

SECTION OF FREE DAY NURSERY Supervised by a trained nurse, to enable busy mothers to attend the various sessions of the Conference.

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' 'f^myNu*^a^ *'-'# / • — —^= : : K^l FARM WOMEN AT HOUSEKEEPERS' CONFERENCE Learning the latest development in scientific home management.

But gradually the work made itself felt. When neighbor Barlow's choice herd of swine came down with the cholera, during the time that the "school" was being held in that vicinity, and one of the "teachers" immediately set to work injecting some new- fangled "see-rum" into them with the result that not a hog died in the entire herd, Farmer Doubtful began to take the matter of the school in a more serious vein. And when Mrs. Higgins, who formerly lived a life of isolation in her own home, because of the multiplicity of her household duties in caring for a growing fam- ily, began 'to appear at all of the various gatherings of the com- munity folk when she appeared to be taking on a new lease of ;

life as evidenced by her blithe and cheerful manner ; and when a little discreet inquiry disclosed that the change had been made possible because of the installation of a few labor-saving devices in the home,— coming as the result of a suggestion by one of the con- lady teachers at the "school," Mrs. Farmer Doubtful just cluded that she would visit the school herself, next time. And this in order that she might know first-handed, just what it was they were trying to do there, anyhow. One visit was generally enough shortly the to bring her up to the "mourners' bench," and "almanac" and the "mail order" catalogue ceased to be the chief literary adornments of the home, and "mother" was numbered among the most ardent advocates of the Housekeepers' School. But the work did not stop there. There were, throughout the state, hundreds of men and women who, because of their limited circumstances, were unable to quit their daily employment to take even of these temporary schools. Obviously, they had advantage, just as righteous a claim upon the services of the college as those who were more comfortably situated. To meet their needs, there-

fore, a splendid course of correspondence study was outlined. such men and This was of such scope as to meet the demands of

384 IMPROVEMENT ERA women as had been denied the privilege of finishing" the grammar grades and, too, it was sufficiently advanced to care for those ;

seeking higher degrees. As a result of this new departure, hun- dreds of ambitious men and women from all parts of the state

A CLASS IN STOCK-JUDGING AT THE ROUND-UP

immediately became identified with the college, and gradually the courses were increased and enlarged, until now practically any course taught at the institution itself can be carried on by cor- respondence, save in cases wherein laboratory work is imperative. But still the work admitted of further improvement and en- largement. Five-day schools were all right, in their way, but the trouble was they didn't "weigh" enough. Five, ten, or fifteen sessions held during but one week in the entire year soon became but a tantalizing morsel, calculated to tease the appetite of these farm men and women whose hunger for knowledge was now fairly consuming. How could the work be extended? More schools required more money, and money was fast becoming a rare com- modity, according to the report of the college treasurer. Then came a happy idea ! One of those inspirational things born out of a pressing demand. Inasmuch as the college could do very little more in the way of going to the farmer, why not have the farmer and his good wife come to the college? Well, why not? During certain seasons of the year, there was very little to be done on trie farm. Along in January and February there was

BRINGING THli FARMER TO SGKOOL 385

little to demand the attention of the farmer about the home place. Why not provide for an annual "Round-Up," and invite the farmers of the state, together with their wives, to come for a short, mid-winter session at their state college? No sooner decided on than done The dates were set for late in January of the follow- !

ing year, and when the time came a smattering of farmers, about fifteen all told, showed up for the Round-Up and for the House- ;

keepers' Conference there were registered just seven And !

still the little maid replied, "O no, sir, we are seven."

Amazement, chagrin, dismay, disgust, the entire category of emotions ran riot in the souls of the expectant faculty members The head of the Home Economics school was for giving up the entire "farce," as she termed it. The director of the Extension Division expressed keen disappointment but was far from giving up the experiment. But the President of the college, Dr. Widtsoe, was not of the quitting kind "Patience," he suggested, "patience and perseverance. The movement is new, and they must be given time to think it over and become acquainted with it. Remember the institutes and the schools! Rome wasn't built in a day."

MINIATURE IRRIGATED FARM hydroelectric plant, and the latest approved methods of cropping B complete Showing ^ ° F and water measuring.

So at it they went. Not with a great deal of spirit to be sure but at it, just the same. But what the faculty lacked in and few housekeepers in attendance made up in farmers spirit the into enthusiasm These latter entered so hungrily and devotedly

386 IMPROVEMENT ERA their work that soon the hearts of the teachers began to warm up to their labors, and before long the Round-Up was winging along as happily as if the entire state were in attendance. The following year the attendance doubled, and each suc- ceeding year, of the seven that have ensued since the movement was begun, has witnessed the same proportionate increase viz., ;

nearly one hundred per cent. The tidings carried back home by the pioneers in the movement fired the ambitions of those who were backward in the various country settlements, and the next year these, too, became students at the college. Meantime, the college officials had been busy. They had not only provided for lectures by the trained experts on the local faculty, but experts of larger experience. Heads of departments in the Federal service were engaged to address the farmers and their "housekeepers," supplemented by good, sound talks, deliv- ered by some of the best practical farmers and engineers of the state. Soon another departure became necessary, Logan, where the Utah Agricultural College is located, is situated in the northeast corner of the state. Railroad fare is relatively high, and the ex- pense incident to attendance at the Round-Up, on the part of the people living in the central and southern parts of the state, pre- cluded many of the poorer farmers from taking advantage of the institution. The next move, therefore, was to arrange for a sec- ond annual Round-Up and Housekeepers' Conference, to be held at Richfield, in the south central part of the state. The first of these "branch" Round-Ups was held in February, of 1913, and the response was spontaneous and immediate. Nearly three hundred farmers and over two hundred housewives were registered, mak- ing this the largest gathering of the kind ever held in the United States. This year, three Round-Ups and Housekeepers' Conferences have been arranged for. The one at Logan has just concluded its sessions, with an average daily attendance of over four hundred fifty men and three hundred fifty women. Every arrangement had been made by the college officials for the comfort and convenience of the visitors, including boarding places, recreation, and entertain- ment. One of the unique features of the Housekeepers' Confer- ence being a day nursery for the children of the women who were unable otherwise to be present. This was in charge of a trained nurse from one of the local hospitals, and was most generously supplied with runabouts, walking-chairs, dolls, etc., including a sand pile ingeniously arranged in one corner of the room. From six to a score of children romped happily through the hours while their overworked mothers sat hungrily partaking of the intellectual feast provided for them. Child-culture made up the bulk of the woman's program, while the masculine contingent was entertained

BRINGING THE FARMER TO SCHOOL 387

with topics on irrigation, cropping, care of livestock, fruit-packing and marketing, etc., etc., including a short course in practical horse-shoeing, the first course of its kind ever instituted in a reg- ular college curriculum. In addition to this, working models of various kinds were arranged at strategic points about the college, including a model mountain and valley showing an electric power house, a complete irrigation project, in miniature, with approved weirs, headgates, etc., for distributing the water, and a model farm demonstrating the most advantageous methods of diversified farm- ing. In addition to the two Round-Ups, already mentioned, the college is this year inaugurating a third gathering at Cedar City,

in the central part of the state, where a branch of the college is located. Each of these gatherings gives promise of eclipsing the attendance at the previous gatherings, and it is safe to assume that more than nine hundred farmers and between seven and eight hun- dred housewives will be in attendance at the various conferences. The results of all this have shown clearly and indisputably that the effort has paid. The marked improvement in the agricul- tural operations throughout the state the better methods of plant- ;

ing, harvesting, and marketing; the new breeds of high-class animals being introduced, the number of silos now being erected the more economical distribution of water; the improvements in and about the home, and the thousand and one improvements noted in various directions, demonstrate, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the experiment begun in "fear and trembling" has justified the faith and the courage of Dr. John A. Widtsoe, and his associates. In Utah, at least, the entire commonwealth is being abundantly rewarded for its effort in bringing the farmer to school.

The Point of View

I measured myself by the child I was, When my long, full years began, And I said, with an air of pompous pride, "How great, how great I am !"

Then I looked away to the stars at night, And I seemed but a child grown tall And I said in a whisper, all contrite, "How small, how very small!" Louis W. Larsen.