VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 3, 1909.
NO. 26
The Institute Idea.
By  Walter  S.   Smith.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
A long experience as teacher constrained me to be much in teachers' institutes. I attended them as a teacher
with much benefit to my work. Then,
as a matter of promotion, I advanced
to the role of instructor; and for more
than ten years I was in evidence as an
expert institute worker; or as they said
it in Kentucky an "Institute Conductor."
So I had the best of opportunities
for seeing institute work and its effects. Naturally, I find much pleasure in the farmers' institute; for as
they now go, it seems to me even more
valuable  than   the   teachers'   institute.
The institute idea is that expressed
by the proverb: "Iron sharpeneth
iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." [Prov. XXVII:
17]. This seems to mean that men
become brighter by being rubbed together collectively.
There  Is   no  doubt  about   it. Mr.
Kellogg, the famous axe-maker, was
once asked for the secret of his great
success. He replied:       "By  keeping
my eyes open I see the good points in
the work of other men. Indeed, I
have never had an employee from
whom I could not learn a lesson of
some sort."
Women learn to cook and sweep and
make nice things for the house by conferring with one another. And it is
rarely that one farmer visits another
without carrying away an idea or two;
and he leaves as many as he carries
away. The same is true of any other
line.
The institute brings together many
of a craft, and ideas are exchanged
wholesale. Since  farming  is  a  very
comprehensive business it abounds in
ideas, and no farmer is so successful,
or so much a master of the craft but
that he may find value in the suggestions  of others.
The experts who are present are
more valuable in proportion as the
number increases of the institutes they
have  attended. They  hear  a  great
many short speeches, essays, answers
to queries and extended lectures. If
fluent in speech they may occupy their
entire time presenting good things they
have heard in similar meetings.
Then there is that fund drawn from
agricultural  papers. Indeed  a good
farm paper is a sort of perpetual institute. A farmer is to be pitied who
reads no paper, makes no visits and
attends no institutes. His limits are
near.
l nave one suggestion that might be
of service. The conductor of the institute may do extremely well by calling out the ideas of the men and women in attendance. Sometimes it is
better to have present only one expert instructor, so that there may
be much time for exchange. If the
local speaker is not too fond of being
heard, and so inclined to monopolize
the time, his speech may be very valuable.
Assignments made before hand may
bring out some rich material in the
way of essays. And by way of diversion ,a quartet, a reading or a recitation will about always afford pleasure,
and maybe,  profit.
When   I   was  county  superintendent
of Marion county we had an institute
in session, and one of the rural teachers came to me craving a little time to
display a method he had evolved for
the recitation of the spelling lesson.
Not supposing he could do much I
yielded him the time a little reluctantly.
What then was my astonishment to
see the one very best exercise of the
kind I had ever witnessed. Passing
nine or ten of his pupils to the blackboard, he had them stand facing him.
The "lesson" consisted of 17 words
which they had been required to study.
Lessons Yet Unlearned.
By  J. H.  Haines.
Editors   Indiana   Farmer:
"Educate the farmer," is the slogan
of the farm press today.
What way? Certainly not how to
grow the grains, the grasses, legumes,
clovers and all other farm products, for
there have been volumes written on
these subjects; certainly not in stock
raising, for experts in all these lines
have fully commented on all the various phases of successful work in stock
Grove of Walnut Trees, Planted Thirty Years Ago, Morgan County.
When he pronounced the first word,
number one in the row turned and
wrote it on the board. Number two
did the same with the second word, and
so down the line, till each had heard
and written his word. Then, to number one he gave the eleventh word, and
number six received the seventeenth.
Number seven received the first and
number one would naturally get the
third. So he chased rapidly around
the class till each member had received
as many as half the list, and no one
could escape the test.
This method I followed afterward as
long as I remained in the profession.
I relate it now to indicate what the
farmers' institute may do in the way
of exchange. Many a small  farmer
can tell the larger ones how he does
some important thing, and the large
farmer may do it that way always afterward.
Laastly, the institute idea may be
available on a smaller, or larger scale
than in our current township sort.
A State institute, lasting a week or
ten days would be a splendid affair;
and a county institute lasting at least
five days would be a very useful convention. It would be a sort of school
and it might generate enthusiasm
enough to last a year.
vestment, whether in producing his
farm crops it costs him more than his
receipts, all he does know is that he is
short, and why is only guess work.
Now suppose that he, like the manufacturer knew just how much his products cost him per pound, bushel or ton.
How much it costs to plow, harrow,
plant, cultivate, harvest, thresh and put
on the market the products of an acre,
would he not be able to determine what
grains paid and what did not? Would
he not be able to plan his expenditures
in accordance with his prospective receipts, and thereby escape burdensome debts?
In these calculations he muat take
into account every item of cost of hired
help, in wages and board, of the keeping of the team, interest, insurance, repairs, lowering in value of machinery,
of buildings, maintaining fertility of the
soil and a proper valuation of his own
time. All of these enter into the act
ual cost of the production of his various crops. Hence we believe the
most urgent need of the farmer is an
education in simple book keeping, for
this is the key to a full understanding
of all farm details.
It gives him a knowledge of what
grains pa>, and what do not; of what
stock is profitable to keep and the cost
attached. • In fact it enables him to
determine to a certainty the actual
value of every thing he produces, and
this knowledge enables him to enter
the markets and sell intelligently. Let
us have a series of lessons on cost of
production.
l*arroll Co.
A Promising Walnut Grove.
By H. S. C.
Marion County Agricultural and Horticultural Society will meet at Brookside Park, Saturday at 2 o'clock. The
Rev. J. C. Day will speak on "My Boyhood on the Farm, and What Came of
it."    Take 10th St. cars for the park.
production.
What then is left to do in tKe way
of educating him?
We believe there are some very essential things that have scarcely been
touched, and chief among these are
business methods of planning and managing the farm work.
Every manufacturer knows the exact
cost of the article he produces. He
knows the cost of the material that
goes into it; the cost of the labor
necessary to produce it, the cost of all
incidental expenses attached, and as a
result he can sell intelligently his productions.
How is it with the farmer?
We believe that 75 per cent have no
definite idea what it costs them to produce a bushel of any of the grains, a ton
of hay or a cut of pork, or beef. They
have no voice in fixing prices of any of
these items, and as a result they are
ignorant as to whether they make or
lose.
In the spring they sow this field in
oats and that one they plant in corn.
In the fall they sow their wheat, and at
i the close of the year they find that
when their taxes are paid, interest on
the mortgage settled, childrens shoes
procured and the book trust satisfied,
they have but little left.
The farmer blames the weather,
complains of the market; he is sure the
tariff protects him and he satisfies his
mind that it ls just his bad luck. He
does not know whether his ill luck
came from the stock he kept, whether
his sheep were a paying or a losing in-
Edltors Indiana  Farmer:
On the Dow farm, located four miles
southeast of Mooresville, on the road
leading from Mooresville to Monrovia,
in Morgan county, is doubtless the finest black walnut plantation to be found
in Indiana. This grove sprang from
walnuts planted about thirty years ago,
by Joseph Weesner. The plat in which
these trees are growing comprises
about four acres of clay loam soil. The
trees are planted in rows about twenty
feet apart with a spacing of ten or fifteen feet between trees ln the row. In
size, the trees range from six to nine
inches in diameter with an average
hight of twenty-five feet.
This walnut grove is interesting in
that, within the next ten or fifteen
years, the owner can realize financially
on the trees, then too there ls the
example of practical forestry to be considered, which at this time is in keeping
with the forestry sentiment.
 4     SSS     4	
Ten governors of western states have
responded to Governor Norris' invitation to attend the Fourth Dry Farming
Congress at Billings, October 26-28,
1909. Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming,
Nebraska, Washington, Utah, South
Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho and North
Dakota, will be represented at the Congress either by the state's chief executive or his personal representative.
Mr. John E. Smith, of this city,
brought to our office last Tuesday, gome
heads of wheat that are badly infested
with the wheat plant louse. These lice
have damaged his crop considerably,
and he intends cutting as early as possible to save it from them.