The American Missionary Association, in addition to its general and industrial school training, has opened the doors of a higher education to all who seek to enter in. The fruition of this opportunity now appears at the very juncture when a call is coming from among the millions of the back country for free churches, pure churches, churches which emphasize virtue and intelligence. Our great schools are bringing to us young men and young women thoroughly fitted to go preaching and teaching among these millions. But how shall they go, except they be sent?
Talladega College, Ala
The Industrial Department.
Agriculture.
Edgar A Bishop, B.S., Superintendent.
The work in the Agricultural Department the past year has been the most satisfactory of any in its history. The young men of the Junior Preparatory and Normal classes with several special students have taken the classroom work, using Gulley's "First Lessons in Agriculture" as a textbook. Among the topics considered are the following:
Origin, formation, and composition of soil. Composition of the plant. How plants feed and grow. Fertilization of the seed, and improvement of variety. Plant food in the soil and how developed. Preparing land for the crop. Cultivation of crop. Principles of drainage and irrigation. Manures and commercial fertilizers. Rotation of crops. Special diversified farming. Farm economy. Food and manure value of crops. How to propagate plants–pruning, grafting, budding, etc. Stock breeding: feeding and care; how to select for special purposes, detect unsoundness, determine age, etc.
The classroom work has been reënforced by practical talks and illustrations at the barns and in the field.
Thirty-five boys have had employment in the department this year. Six of these have worked by the month to accumulate a credit with which to enter the day school next year, meanwhile attending our night school. The others work after school hours and on Saturdays, and are paid by the hour at varying rates.
The work on the farm has been largely the production of those crops needed for consumption in the institution, the support of animals for work, beef, milk, pork, etc.
The general improvement of the land and the increase in the value of the property have been kept constantly in view. Our fields are becoming more fertile, and better crops are being raised every year.[pg 126]
An orchard of several hundred trees, consisting of pears, plums, peaches, and cherries, has been set out. Other varieties have been added, also quinces, mulberries, figs, and grapes. This year one each of the Japanese walnut, giant chestnut, and paper shell pecan are being started; also half a dozen varieties of the raspberry, some currants, rhubarb and garden plants, with a view to propagate those that prove valuable. Twenty of the standard varieties of strawberries have been grown. Grasses and forage plants have also received their share of attention. One-half acre is being devoted to a trial of three Japanese millets in comparison with our German or golden millet. Several varieties of corn and sorghum have been grown and their characteristics carefully noted.
Inquiries are often received from persons in this and other States regarding certain crops and methods of stock feeding. A creditable beginning has been made in rearing live stock, and it is our purpose to extend this branch of the work. To introduce some of the improved breeds best adapted to this section early occupied our attention, and we have met with encouragement beyond our expectation. Hundreds of pigs of good breeding have been sold all through the State to form the nucleus of better herds. Our herd of cattle is headed by a thoroughbred Jersey and contains several registered and many high-grade animals. It is increasing in quality and value each year.
Besides the work already mentioned, an annual farmers' convention is held at the college, while meetings in some of the beats of the county have been held during the year. Much enthusiasm has been raised, and a determination evinced by many for better homes, better schools, stock, crops, etc. Widespread and systematic work along this line is planned for the ensuing year. In this way not only is the Agricultural Department striving to be a help to the people by practicing and advocating better methods of farming and living, but the College is becoming more widely and favorably known among all classes of people.
Cooking
Miss Ruth K. Kingsley, Teacher.
One of the most important arts, though often neglected, is that of cookery. The kitchen is so necessary a part of the boarding school and of the home that its equipment and regulations should be such as to make the work therein both easy and successful.
Through the kindness of friends we have been able to purchase an excellent range and many of the improved cooking utensils now in use. Our girls enjoy working with these modern appliances, and they are taught the necessity of having appropriate places for them in the[pg 127] drawers and cupboards with which the room is supplied. One of the first requirements is–a tidy kitchen.
We have given attention to the preparation of the dishes found on the bill of fare of the average family, and have made much of healthful and proper methods of cooking. We do not propose to make professional cooks, but we hope that our girls will acquire skill sufficient to do all that is necessary in plain and wholesome family living. The class has been stimulated in its endeavor by the fact that the product of their daily work has found its way to the dining-tables of the boarding hall.
The Laundry
The building in which the laundry work is done was erected by student-labor under the supervision of the Mechanical Superintendent. The washing and ironing are performed in the main by our night-school girls, who are looking forward to attendance upon the day school from current earnings. Here also the day-school occupants of the girls' dormitory do their own laundering, or assist after their daily recitations in the general work of the college.
Nursing
Miss A.B. Chalfant, Teacher.
The course of instruction is designed to extend through two years, the first being devoted to the sick room–care of the bed; moving and bathing the patient; different kinds of food for the invalid, with its preparation; making and application of poultices; rubbing, and the administration of simple remedies.
In the second year more attention is given to the symptoms and the diagnosis of disease, with something of its treatment; and the proper course in emergencies, as in cases of burns, wounds, loss of blood, sun-strokes, drowning, and poisoning.
The pupils have been chiefly from the Normal grade, though some who are outside of the college family have been glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to enter the class, and they have proved apt and faithful students. Early in the beginning of this school year the instructor offered to organize a class among the young men, and to meet them at an hour not to conflict with other studies. Six persons responded and a high degree of interest has been manifested.
The value of this department is increasingly manifest, not only in the varied service rendered by the nurse teacher, but in the assistance given by pupils of both dormitories at the bedside of the sick, by mothers in the neighborhood who have been in the classes, and by the prophecy of better things for many homes where the influence of this work is felt.[pg 128]