Garden
tr
VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 10, 1907.
NO. 32
Agricultural Education.
[Address ik'livered before Marlon County Agricultural and Horticultural Society at Indianapolis,
August 3d, by W. C. Palmer, Professor of Agriculture and Agricultural Ohemistry, Winona
Agricultural  Institute,   Winona   Lake,   Indiana.]
Agricultre not only means bread aml
butter to the farmer, but it also means
bread, butter, meat, eggs, clothing ami
shelter to the man in the city, and in
two ways. First, there would be no
cities if it were not for the farm; and second, agriculture embraces the growing of
crops for food, clothing and shelter,    the
IVstilancc may stalk abroad over the land
and .smite down its thousands, but if the
land contains fertility immigration will
flow in anil soon the ouly traces of the pestilence will be the new dug graves in the
Cemetery. It's worse than famine. Tho
the heavens should hold back their rains
for a season, and famine consume the
people, on the return of normal rainfall,
if the soil retains its fertility, the song
of the harvesters would ckfown tbe echoes
of the waif of the famine stricken. It
it worse than war.    Tho desolating armies
the rivers to the ocean, and seeping Into
the bowels of the earth beyond the reach
of vegetation. 1 can see future generations in need of bread tliat we wasted.
Sonic say the land ia our own to do with
as we want to. In a measure this is true;
but it is not ours to destroy, it is ours to
keep in trust, to gain a livelihood from,
lent to pass it on as good as we found it.
The question may lie asked, can wo
keep up the fertility of our land'.' In
experiments we have found that where rotation of crops and stock raising is prac-
leins are' not those of the farm and which
will enter into their daily lives. Then
they study geography, and learn all about
the world, but are left ignorant of tho
farm on which they live and which will
likely be their home. They learn about
the sun and the moon, but are not taught
even Ihe names of the weeds of the farm
or the things that are in the soil which
yields tbem their food and clothing. And
so it goes. We hear not one ward about
the farm, unless it be that "John is too
bright to become a farmer."       The farm
Scene
.mo of tlio I?. B. Wallace  Farms,  Pern,  Indiana.        Plowing a 300 acre com Beld.
rearing of animals for food, clothing anil
pleasure, the making of animal products
for food nnd clothing. If the Question
comes up why it is hard to get good beef
and milk, and why it is expensive we hare
to look to the fanner for an explanation.
We will find that there arc too few lh.it
understand the growing of crops and the
feeding of animals, and that many farms
are producing less from year to year. Let
us see how that is going tei affect us as a
nation. The average income of our
farms in less than twelve dollars per a etc.
not enough to really pay expenses. Let
us take as an illustration land worth one
hundred dollars per acre. The cost of
raising the crop is about one dollar, and
acre, taxes will be about one dollar, and
interest on the one hunded dollars, say
five dollars, or a total expense of fifteen
dollars, offset by an income of twelve dollars. At this rate it is easy to see that a
young man could never buy a farm and
pay for it out of the proceeds of the soil.
But if the farm is handled in accord with
the principles of good farming it should
bring in at least twenty-five dollars per
aere and easily thirty-five to forty dollars.
Supposing we say thirty-five dollars; then
the farmer has twenty dollars per acre to
the good each year and could pay for his
farm in five or six yenrs. This is speaking of general farming. Gardening or
orcharding will of course bring in much
larger returns per acre.
Depletion of soil fertility is the greatest
physical calamity that can eome upon any
country.        It  is  worse  than   pestilence.
should lay waste the farms and ruiu the
cities, yet if the soil retains its fertility
the land will soon be repeopled, its fields
cultivated and new cities spring from the
ruins.
But rob the lanel of its fertility and
you turn it into a wilderness that even the
wild beast will forsake. And thus it
mnst remain until through long successive years the vengeance of heaven is satisfied for the wrong done the land in lobbing it of its fertility. The story henceforth mnst be of nlmndoned homes of loneliness and of silence like unto that of the
grave. A   terrible  picture  to  contem
plate, yet many are engaged in doing this
very thing. In the east we already have
evidence of this in the abandoned homes
found in many sections. J. J. Hill says
that in •"''* years we have wasted enough
soil fertility to have lasted us tive hundred  years.
We require the person who would bo-
eeiine a doctor ti) study the body, in health
and disease, to study medicines and their
effects, and then before he is allowed to
practice he must have his license. Why
all this requirement? Simply this; to
have a strong and prosperous nation its
people must have strong, sound bodies.
'J he fertility ot the soil is as necessary to
a na I ion's greatness as able bodied men,
nay, it is more important. Not even
the' wild beasts can live in a country
whose soil is exhausted of its fertility.
In my mind's eye I can see wastes, terrible wastes, on the American farm. 1
can see fertility passing into the air, down
tised the fertility has been increased,
while where crops have not been rotated
the loss of fertility has beeu five times as
great as that removed in the crop. Or,
let us take a look at foreign countries. In
England the cry of decreased yields went
np about fifty years ago and today they
have doubled their yields of wheat per
acre. Their average is now thirty-two
bnshels, while ours is twelve, and we
have by far the better soil and climate.
Or,     lake   France. Thirty   years   ago
their average wheal crop was twenty-two
bushels per acre while today it is thirty-
three bushels, and that on soil not nearly
equal to ours in fertility and that litis
been in cultivation for several hundred
years. In Germany, the average wlie.it
yield has increased from twenty-live to
thirty bushels in the last twenty -five
years, the oat crop from thirty-two to
sixty bushels, and the hay from one to
two tons per acre. In this country there
has been a decrease in crop yields and
there is no sign yet of any change taking
place for the better.
Now I want you to come with me to
the little red school house where we are
educating our future farmers, where we
lay the foundations for our future agricultural development. The classes are
reciting; they are reading n book about
imaginary things. All about them is
nature. and the farm with the many
things the boytf and girls know aliout, and
With which they will have to deal all their
lives, but these things are not noticed.
Next Ihey study arithmetic, but the prob
and its life is something beneath the notice of the teacher and something to be
avoided by the pupil if he or she possibly
can. The Statesman, the lawyer, the
doctor, the captain of industry are held up
as the positions that the boy should strive
for. What a pity that while we need
fann managers educated iu the science
and praclice of the farm, the very children of the farm, who love the farm, its
animals, its life, are educated away from
the farm, educated to be disconted
with the farm, educated for the city, where
for eaeh one that we hear of many fall into vice, immorality and poverty. On the
one hand is the problem of the over-crowded city, on the other hand we are educating our children to be discontented on
ihe farm, to leave it for the city. On the
one hand we see the soil fertility, our nation's greatest heritage, wasted; on the
other hand we are not educating our children to make a better use of tbis priceless
heritage. This is one of the paradoxes
of today.
Not long ago I saw a quotation in the
Boston Journal of Education, from the
most prominent educator irr the east, as
follows: "The main object in every school
should be not to provide the children with
the means of earning a livelihood but to
show thom how to live a happy and a
worthy life, inspired by ideas which exalt
anil dignify both labor and leisure." That
idea of education has doomed countless
numbers of free-born American citzens to
be day laborers. The first requisite for
Concluded on page 9.