VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 24, 1909.
NO. 29
Education Helps the Farmer.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
I read with pleasure the letter of J.
F. Fensel, of Blackford county in the
Farmer of July 10th. It does us all
good to know how each of us thinks of
our State school
A middle aged farmer who has been
under my supervision for three years
can neither read nor write, hut can
sign his name; he is a good farmer,
shrewd in disposing of his crops, as well
as  in  growing them. He  has  man
aged to acquire a home of his own. His
efforts   are   watched   with   interest   by |
those in better circumstances as    they j
feel   they  can   learn   from   him.       But
how much more useful he would.be to
his employer and himself, if he possessed  a  good  agricultural   college   education?       How   much   more   pleasure   he I
would get out of continual contact with j
Nature if he could see her through the
door of science?      Would his family be
any   more     happy   or     make     broader
minded citizens under the influences of
such a father?
The agricultural college has come to
stay. They make their mistakes as the
rest of us do. But it is fine to feel
that wis have in our colleges and experiment stations a corps of fellows
whose earnest, careful work is as important to success as our work in the
field.
If a boy likes farming nothing can
open up the possibilities of farm life,
aesthetically or commercially, as a
course at some good agricultural school.
When a farmer boy goes to college he is
a big bundle of muscle. Farm work
he can do with energy and skill. Athletic training of these muscles under an
instructor gives the owner better use
of himself and tends to make him
graceful. He  outstrips  the  city  boy
because of his foundation and therefore
makes the best athlete in the university. The brain work in athletics is not
understood  by all. Some  games de
velop and guide action of brain as well
as body. A successful business man
told the writer that his foot ball training was much use to him in solving
business problems.
Some boys will be sports without college training. A mans' success in life
depends most upon his ability to judge
for himself when he has gone far
enough.
Mr. Fensel says if he wanted a boy
• slueated for a farmer he would send
him to some good practical farmer instead of Purdue. Perhaps Mr. Fensel
does not know that many of the professors of our agricultural colleges are
practical farmers with more or less
education, selected for their positions
because they have succeeded at practical farming and have the best interest
of the young farmer at heart. I should
like to read a letter written by Mr. Fensel after he has taken even the short
course at Purdue. "The proof of the
pudding is the eating thereof."
The "survival of the fittest" is the
law of the world. In the near future
It is the farmer who has fitted himself
by education, training, and intercourse
who  will  succeed. Here  and  there
will be a man whose native shrewdness
and good judgment and hard work will
enable him to keep abreast with his
educated neighbors; but how much
more pleasure they will have while the
Same is on. ,
I'lirilni. is here to stay.    Let Indi.ina
farmers keep pace with those who fol- ture the stalk field? says I, "A little soft
low law,arts, mechanics, as a livelihood I but you see I didn't sow any wheat in
The farmer needs to be educated in his I that field last fall, and the cattle can't
own line as well as the lawyer or en-   hurt it any, you know, because I am go-
INTELLIGENT  COLLIE,
OWNED  BY   HORACE THROCKMORTON,  JOHNSON COUNTY, INDIANA.
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tramping in soft weather, except however we sometimes have hog lots that
are tramped thru the winter, which
break up cloddy, but it is a necessity to
have a moderate sized hog lot at all
times, for hogs penned, do but little
good.
Clods are an aggravation; we have
had them and know what they are, and
we have a few neighbors who make a
business of producing clods, by letting
their stock run over their tillable
ground, at will during the entire winter.
This is bad practice; one should have
some respect for the soil, for it is the
soil that makes the crops, upon which
we live.
It cannot produce at its best when in
a lumpy condition, and when the busy
season sets in, it takes a great deal of
valuable time to reduce these lumps to
a tillable condition; besides we notice
that (ields continually tramped are getting poorer, instead of richer, and usually we find the owner going in the
same direction. Abraham Bros.
Morgan Co.
"Bruce" receives mail from the R
And carefully takes it to the house.
gineer. The time is almost past for ing to sow oats in there," explained
the name "hayseed." We can show ; John, as he followed along after the
the city man that we are his equal in   cattle.
education, culture and dress. We make it a practice, never to have
a hoof on our tillable ground thru the
The living of all people comes from
the soil; therefore let us who strive to
bring forth that living be ready to learn
how to increase it; how to do it cheerfully, and how best to hand it over to
our fellow-men.
Irvington. C. C. Osborn.
Tramping Ground.
Editors   Indiana   Farmer:
"Hello John,  where are you taking
your cattle?"
"Down to    the^ stalk    pasture," exclaimed JohM  Visn't it too soft to pas-
winter except when frozen solid, so to
see cattle and horses tramping thru
the fields mining down as deep as the
plow had run, immediately attracts our
attention.
Even our pastures are not allowed to
be tramped over during soft winter
weather, so long as we have feed for
our stock and shed room, which we always manage to have, if not overstocked.
We are not often bothered with clods;
if we are, it ia from other causes than
The Farmers liaise the Birds.
The game warden at Roswell, Cheves
county. New Mexico, is a lady, Mrs. B.
It. Buffham, and she announces a
vigorous campaign in favor of the
birds, and has some new ideas in reference to the farmer's rights to the game
he feeds.       She says:
"I am going to save the birds that
come to sing for us. I am going to
use persuasion, and if that will not
avail I will use severe penalties of the
law. I am not working on the order
of the Audubon Society, using cheap
wardens trying to enforce unpopular
laws, making enemies of every farmer
they meet and arresting poor men that
cannot pay fines. I see bird life destroyed in every State by such workings.
There is but one reasonable way to
get people to look at this matter as it
should be and that is to get farmers interested financially. The farmers can
raise the birds. Let huntsmen pay
them, not pay county, a reasonable fee
for hunting or shooting on their
grounds. It is wrong to turn the
Game Warden loose on the farmer and
flne him for killing birds on his own
land that he has fed for a year.
If every farmer would let his representative know that his re-election depended upon passing game laws in reference to the farmer rather than the
game clubs, better game laws would be
passed. The farmer is the man that
should have the consideration in this
matter, for it Is he that feeds the birds
from his crops.
The National Daylight Association of
Cincinnati is organized to secure the
adoption of a system whereby there
will be the saving of one hour of daylight each day for the five summer
months, May lst to October lst, each
year, to all the people of the United
States. This is their proposal:    That
from and after two oclock on the morning of the first day of May in each year,
until two o'clock on the morning of the
first day of October in each year, the
standard time shall be one hour in advance of the standard time now in use.
(By advancing the hands of the clock
one hour on May lst and moving them
back one hour on October lst.) The
farmers do not need to join the movement.
a