o youth at least, that knowledge will benefit
little except as it is harnessed, except as its power is pointed in a
direction that will bear upon the present needs and condition of the
race. There is in the heads of the Negro youth of the South enough
general and floating knowledge of chemistry, of botany, of zoology, of
geology, of mechanics, of electricity, of mathematics, to reconstruct
and develop a large part of the agricultural, mechanical, and domestic
life of the race. But how much of it is brought to a focus along lines
of practical work? In cities of the South like Atlanta, how many
coloured mechanical engineers are there? or how many machinists? how
many civil engineers? how many architects? how many house decorators?
In the whole State of Georgia, where eighty per cent. of the coloured
people depend upon agriculture, how many men are there who are well
grounded in the principles and practices of scientific farming? or
dairy work? or fruit culture? or floriculture?

For example, not very long ago I had a conversation with a young
coloured man who is a graduate of one of the prominent universities of
this country. The father of this man is comparatively ignorant, but by
hard work and the exercise of common sense he has become the owner of
two thousand acres of land. He owns more than a score of horses, cows,
and mules and swine in large numbers, and is considered a prosperous
farmer. In college the son of this farmer has studied chemistry,
botany, zoology, surveying, and political economy. In my conversation
I asked this young man how many acres his father cultivated in cotton
and how many in corn. With a far-off gaze up into the heavens he
answered that he did not know. When I asked him the classification of
the soils on his father's farm, he did not know. He did not know how
many horses or cows his father owned nor of what breeds they were, and
seemed surprised that he should be asked such questions. It never
seemed to have entered his mind that on his father's farm was the
place to make his chemistry, his mathematics, and his literature
penetrate and reflect itself in every acre of land, every bushel of
corn, every cow, and every pig.

Let me give other examples of this mistaken sort of education. When a
mere boy, I saw a young coloured man, who had spent several years in
school, sitting in a common cabin in the South, studying a French
grammar. I noted the poverty, the untidiness, the want of system and