6 Tuskegee

Chapter 6 Tuskegee The city of Tuskegee and the surrounding area turned out to be an amazing place. George found many new plants and flowers to study. The school itself, however, wasn't so amazing. When George arrived, he had no rooms in which to store his collections, and not even a laboratory in which to work. But George didn't worry about what he didn't have. "Use what you find around you," he told his first students. He took them to a junkyard. They dug up old pots and pans, saucers and spoons, boxes and string—whatever they could find—and made their own laboratory. It was all part of hands-on learning for George's students. He didn't want to just stand in front of a classroom and give lectures. He wanted his students to touch and feel nature— and to think.

On early morning walks, George collected samples of soil or flowers or insects that he shared in his classroom. Outside the classroom, he set up a practice farm on ten acres of land. It

was an experiment station. One acre was for testing the soil, another was for growing sweet potatoes, another for studying fertilizers, and so on. With the experiment station, George took his wish to be "the greatest good to the greatest number" seriously. He invited local farmers to come to the school once a month to learn about the soil.

During their monthly meetings, George analyzed the farmers' soil and gave them samples of his. Then he started encouraging them to come in between the monthly meetings, whenever they needed some help. Then he invited the wives to come along, too. He showed them ways to plan meals and prepare food, and he discussed the value of different foods. George didn't have the money for fancy equipment at Tuskegee, so his advice was helpful to the farmers who didn't have the money for fancy equipment, either. George wanted farmers to pay attention to nature and all it had to offer. He wrote different booklets that taught how to grow tomatoes or raise hogs or preserve meat. The more farmers could do on their own, the less they had to spend at the market—and the less they had to go without. "Anything that fills the dinner pail is valuable," he said. He wrote other booklets that helped farmers improve the appearance of their land and their

homes. He knew they couldn't afford to buy paint, but he also knew there were plenty of natural resources. Different types of natural clay, for instance, could be mixed to make different colors for paint. With a little glue mixed in, it would stick to cabin walls. George also taught farmers how to care for native plants, flowers, and grasses, and how to fix up their homes. Such a work schedule, though, was exhausting. George liked to get up by four o'clock in the morning and walk in the woods.

Then he taught four or five classes each day. He also ran the experiment station and worked in the homemade laboratory. He continued to paint and draw, too, and he often wrote letters to Moses and Susan Carver and to the other families he had lived with. He also organized a Bible study class once a week. His intense workload and many interests left George little time for fun. Sometimes, his friends set him up on dates, but he never married. In 1906, George designed the Jesup Agricultural Wagon. It was a movable classroom