Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 63
24.03.2006
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"A prize of $2 will be given to the person who is the best judge of livestock.
"A prize of $1 will be given to the person who shows the best knowledge of the
use and application of manures and fertilizers. And so on through a further list
of one-dollar prizes for all the major activities of the Course."
It will be noted that there is nothing stilted or academic about this
announcement.
Immediately following this Farmers' Short Course comes the Annual Farmers'
Conference which holds its session in January of each year. To enforce the
lessons in canning, stock raising, gardening, and all the other branches of
farming, exhibits of the best products in each activity are displayed before the
audience of farmers and their families, who number in all about 2,000. These
exhibits are made and explained by the farmers themselves. The man, woman,
or child who has produced the exhibit comes to the platform and explains in his
or her own way just how it was done. In these explanations much human nature
is thrown in. An amazingly energetic and capable woman had explained at one
of these gatherings how she had paid off the mortgage on their farm by the
proceeds from her eggs, her kitchen garden, and her preserving in her spare
moments when she was not helping her husband in the cotton field, washing and
dressing her six children, or cooking, mending, washing, and scrubbing for the
household.
In conclusion she said:
"Now my ole man he's an' old-fashion farmer an' he don' kere fur dese modern
notions, an' so I don't git no
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help from him, an' that makes it hard for me 'cause it ain't nat'ral for der woman
to lead. If I could only git him to move I'd be happier jest ter foller him." While
these explanations are going on the farmers in the audience are naturally saying
to themselves over and over again, "I could do that!" or "Why couldn't I do that?
"
One of Mr. Washington's chief aims was to increase the wants of his people and
at the same time increase their ability to satisfy them. In other words, he