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VOL. LXV INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY 26, 1910. NO. 9 HIGH COST OF LIVING AND AGRI- CULTURAL EDUCATION. Edlton Indiana Farmer: At no time in the history of our nuintry has there been such an ai wakening of agricultural thought as ihe present high price of food is creating. For two months past every newspaper and magazine has devoted much space to the discussion of the topic of „nr daily bread. Every householder lias been made to feel that the increased cost of living is a reality. The merchant has repeated daily, times without number, his explanation of the cause of the high price of every arti- , le of food the family consumes. The preacher refers to the fact as he pleads for increased liberality on the part of his people to aid the needy. The statesman everywhere speaks and writes upon this living topic, until it now has passed its way into our national legislature. The eyes of the American people are l.eing opened to see the facts as they really exist, and are ready to acknowl- . ,]ge that the problem of our food supply is one that merits the thoughtful consideration of every educator and economist. Nothwithstanding he fact that a warning has been sounded for ai generation that the time was rapidly approaching when the priee of foodstuffs must greatly advance, because of our rapidly increasing population, yet the trend of our population has been away from the farm, and the idea of alucating young men in the science of agriculture has not appealed to the educators of our country. The day of higher cost of the necessities of life is upon us. No argument to prove this statement is needed. The word of the grocer and butcher, and baker is sufficient, and now for the first time the eyes of every inhabitant of this great Republic are turned to the farm. The owner and cultivator of a piece of ground for the flrst time in the history of our country is in the limelight for sure and how well he shows up. He is discovered as the man who is filling the most important place among men. No farmer, no country. Xo farmer, then follows no preacher, teacher, lawyer, doctor, merchant, or mechanic or anybody else. This important truth is really being taught the sons and daughters of America for the first time. Such terms of reproach as "hayseed" and "clodhopper" are no longer to be applied to the man who tills "the soil. The farmer has now come into his own. We have awakened to find that he has the stupendous task of producing the world's food. We should have realized the fact, but strange to say we have not done so, and as a result the farmer has not always received fair treatment. The farm has been robbed of hundreds of thousands of young men whose brain and brawn were needed to help develop the first industry of the country. .The necessity of educating the boys for the farm as he is educated for other vocations never dawned upon the average citizen. We are now beginning to pay for our folly. It is true we have had those who have fought valiantly for the cause of agricultural education, and we have gotten so far along as to have at least one agricultural school in every state, with probably an average attendance of from three to five boys from a county. Think of lt, a great agricultural county like Kosciusko, with her 4,000 farms with but one name recorded in our State Agricultural College, shown in the catalogue of 1908-9. Evidently the parents and school teachers of this county are not enthusiastic in the cause of agricultural education. It is clear that a small per cent of people have come to realize that one of the profoundest of sciences is that of agriculture, and that ignorance on the part of those engaged in farming of the science of the same ahas cost the country billions of dollars and has resulted in the discouragement and unhappiness of millions of of 1910 will break all records of low yield. Put this article where you can read it occasionally and proflt in the reading by doing your best to make the prophesy a false one. Our reasons: lst. Seed corn will be bad in spite of all your judging. 2d. The spring will be unusually late for planting and very wet. 3d. A long serious drouth from middle of July till late fall. Now we have told our reasons. Work to avoid disaster from their occurrence should they do so. The things to be considered to do this are: Time for planting; manner of planting and cul- Levee Road, Winslow, Ind. -Courtesy Winslow Dispatch. families who have left the farm to try other vocations. But the change for the better is here. Every year sees thousands of converts from the mistaken notion that anybody can farm, and the daily discussion of the absorbing subject of the hour is having the effect of arousing the entire nation to realize the necessity Of greatly multiplying the number of agricultural schools and of turning the attention of our young men to the study and practice of this most useful, noble and profitable calling. It's the hope of our country. Every citizen should encourage the good cause and see to it that a proper share of school funds are appropriated to the work of agricultural education. J. C. Breckenridge, Pres. Winona College of Agriculture. Winona Lake, Ind. Written for the Indiana Farmer: THE CORN CROP OF 1910. By J. H. Haynes. Judging from the number of pictures of pretty boys and girls—of schools and families sitting around tables covered with corn we would supposed that all we have to do this year to have a buncombe corn crop is to judge seed corn. Good seed corn is all right and good judgment is commendable, but we want to go on record right now as saying that the corn crop of 1910 will depend on very far more important things than judging seed. The crop of 1907 was poor, 26.2 bushels per acre. The crop of 1908 was 26.8. That of 1909, 26.6 bushels per acre and we predict that the crop ture. Time for planting is when soil is dry and warm enough to cause quick germination of the seed. Too early plantings result in more poor stands than arc caused in any other way. Manner of planting, is to avoid deep planting or in wet lands. Good seed is no better than poor seed if your planter puts the grain four or five inches deep. We had a tenant last year plant a field with good seed. It did not come up. Curiosity to know whether the sprout was headed toward China or skyward revealed the fact that it was headed no way—simply rotten, too deep. Keep your drill to plant fairly deep, no more. Culture. 2 5 per cent of all germinated corn is destroyed by careless culture every year. That South Carolina boy who grew 226 bushels per acre was not careless (read his report) and it paid him not to be. Another prediction. The corn crop of 1910 will be the most important grain crop in the world, be it large or small. We were alone a few years ago in talking this way but now have a host of good fellows saying the same thing, railroad kings, college professors, etc. Along with corn carry everything else in the farm line. The world is calling for it. PURDUE SHORT COURSE. The eighth Annual Farmers' Short Course held at Purdue University January 10 to 15, was attended by more than eleven hundred and fifty Indiana farmers with their wives, sons and daughterg, being larger than that of any previous year. The interest and en thusiasm throughout the Course was very marked. The work consisted of special and distinct courses of instruction in Soils, and Crops, Live Stock, Household Economics, Horticulture and Dairying. Lectures with practical demonstrations were given in all branches f the work. Ninety-four boys were given instruction in corn and livestock, while the girls were under a competent instructor in Domestic Science. . ♦ . EARLY POTATO CULTURE. Editors Indiana Farmer: A goodly number of farmers thruout Southern Illinois have conceived the idea that by planting potatoes in the fall and covering them with straw a large per cent of the labor of cultivating them can be saved, and just as good a yield obtained from the same amount of ground as tho they were planted in the spring and cultivated in the usual way. Now this has not been so in my experience; I have experimented in various ways in the cultivation of potatoes and from the following way of planting and cultivating I have always received the largest yield and best potatoes. Selecting the ground for planting I always select a piece of newly cleared ground, if it is available, for the potato patch; however, if this is not to be had and old land that has been cultivated for several years is to be used, I flrst look well to the fertility of the soil, as it requires very fertile soil for potatoes. It is a good idea to scatter well fined barn manure over thesur- ."ace before starting the plow and then bi°ak the ground as deep as possible, say 10 inches deep and pulverize it by harrcwing and reharrowing it until ... is fine .T.nd then roll the ground with a good he\vy lsnd roller. I always lay my ground off with a one-horse turning plow running twice in each furrow and put the rows 3% to 4 feet apart and then drop in my cuttings from 18 to 24 inches apart. After this is done, I usually place some kind of manure in the row, either well rotted barn manure, or from the poultry house, or an old rotted straw stack makes very good fertilizer. Then I cover the potatoes with the plow, throwing two furrows on the row and then levelling down with the harrow. As soon as the vines begin to come thru the ground I begin to cultivate by running over the rows with a common tooth harrow and when the vines can be seen plainly in the row I take the one horse turning plow and run the bar of the plow as closely as I can to the vines, then I turn back with the double shovel and throw the dirt back to the potato, giving the plant a fertile loose bed in which to grow for the next plowing. I sometimes use the cultivator, but usually use nothing but the double shovel until the last plowing when I use the turning plow again, throwing the dirt to the potato. Potatoes require fast cultivation. As they should never be worked, or the ground stirred after young potatoes comes on the vines, I usually plow my potatoes four times and afterwards keep down the weed growth with the hoe. Some farmers make a great mistake in selecting their seed potatoes; I never use anything but the largest and best potatoes available and in cutting them I have at least two good eyes tq the cutting. L.. g. .Johnspr). Illinois.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1910, v. 65, no. 09 (Feb. 26) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6509 |
Date of Original | 1910 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-04-07 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | VOL. LXV INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY 26, 1910. NO. 9 HIGH COST OF LIVING AND AGRI- CULTURAL EDUCATION. Edlton Indiana Farmer: At no time in the history of our nuintry has there been such an ai wakening of agricultural thought as ihe present high price of food is creating. For two months past every newspaper and magazine has devoted much space to the discussion of the topic of „nr daily bread. Every householder lias been made to feel that the increased cost of living is a reality. The merchant has repeated daily, times without number, his explanation of the cause of the high price of every arti- , le of food the family consumes. The preacher refers to the fact as he pleads for increased liberality on the part of his people to aid the needy. The statesman everywhere speaks and writes upon this living topic, until it now has passed its way into our national legislature. The eyes of the American people are l.eing opened to see the facts as they really exist, and are ready to acknowl- . ,]ge that the problem of our food supply is one that merits the thoughtful consideration of every educator and economist. Nothwithstanding he fact that a warning has been sounded for ai generation that the time was rapidly approaching when the priee of foodstuffs must greatly advance, because of our rapidly increasing population, yet the trend of our population has been away from the farm, and the idea of alucating young men in the science of agriculture has not appealed to the educators of our country. The day of higher cost of the necessities of life is upon us. No argument to prove this statement is needed. The word of the grocer and butcher, and baker is sufficient, and now for the first time the eyes of every inhabitant of this great Republic are turned to the farm. The owner and cultivator of a piece of ground for the flrst time in the history of our country is in the limelight for sure and how well he shows up. He is discovered as the man who is filling the most important place among men. No farmer, no country. Xo farmer, then follows no preacher, teacher, lawyer, doctor, merchant, or mechanic or anybody else. This important truth is really being taught the sons and daughters of America for the first time. Such terms of reproach as "hayseed" and "clodhopper" are no longer to be applied to the man who tills "the soil. The farmer has now come into his own. We have awakened to find that he has the stupendous task of producing the world's food. We should have realized the fact, but strange to say we have not done so, and as a result the farmer has not always received fair treatment. The farm has been robbed of hundreds of thousands of young men whose brain and brawn were needed to help develop the first industry of the country. .The necessity of educating the boys for the farm as he is educated for other vocations never dawned upon the average citizen. We are now beginning to pay for our folly. It is true we have had those who have fought valiantly for the cause of agricultural education, and we have gotten so far along as to have at least one agricultural school in every state, with probably an average attendance of from three to five boys from a county. Think of lt, a great agricultural county like Kosciusko, with her 4,000 farms with but one name recorded in our State Agricultural College, shown in the catalogue of 1908-9. Evidently the parents and school teachers of this county are not enthusiastic in the cause of agricultural education. It is clear that a small per cent of people have come to realize that one of the profoundest of sciences is that of agriculture, and that ignorance on the part of those engaged in farming of the science of the same ahas cost the country billions of dollars and has resulted in the discouragement and unhappiness of millions of of 1910 will break all records of low yield. Put this article where you can read it occasionally and proflt in the reading by doing your best to make the prophesy a false one. Our reasons: lst. Seed corn will be bad in spite of all your judging. 2d. The spring will be unusually late for planting and very wet. 3d. A long serious drouth from middle of July till late fall. Now we have told our reasons. Work to avoid disaster from their occurrence should they do so. The things to be considered to do this are: Time for planting; manner of planting and cul- Levee Road, Winslow, Ind. -Courtesy Winslow Dispatch. families who have left the farm to try other vocations. But the change for the better is here. Every year sees thousands of converts from the mistaken notion that anybody can farm, and the daily discussion of the absorbing subject of the hour is having the effect of arousing the entire nation to realize the necessity Of greatly multiplying the number of agricultural schools and of turning the attention of our young men to the study and practice of this most useful, noble and profitable calling. It's the hope of our country. Every citizen should encourage the good cause and see to it that a proper share of school funds are appropriated to the work of agricultural education. J. C. Breckenridge, Pres. Winona College of Agriculture. Winona Lake, Ind. Written for the Indiana Farmer: THE CORN CROP OF 1910. By J. H. Haynes. Judging from the number of pictures of pretty boys and girls—of schools and families sitting around tables covered with corn we would supposed that all we have to do this year to have a buncombe corn crop is to judge seed corn. Good seed corn is all right and good judgment is commendable, but we want to go on record right now as saying that the corn crop of 1910 will depend on very far more important things than judging seed. The crop of 1907 was poor, 26.2 bushels per acre. The crop of 1908 was 26.8. That of 1909, 26.6 bushels per acre and we predict that the crop ture. Time for planting is when soil is dry and warm enough to cause quick germination of the seed. Too early plantings result in more poor stands than arc caused in any other way. Manner of planting, is to avoid deep planting or in wet lands. Good seed is no better than poor seed if your planter puts the grain four or five inches deep. We had a tenant last year plant a field with good seed. It did not come up. Curiosity to know whether the sprout was headed toward China or skyward revealed the fact that it was headed no way—simply rotten, too deep. Keep your drill to plant fairly deep, no more. Culture. 2 5 per cent of all germinated corn is destroyed by careless culture every year. That South Carolina boy who grew 226 bushels per acre was not careless (read his report) and it paid him not to be. Another prediction. The corn crop of 1910 will be the most important grain crop in the world, be it large or small. We were alone a few years ago in talking this way but now have a host of good fellows saying the same thing, railroad kings, college professors, etc. Along with corn carry everything else in the farm line. The world is calling for it. PURDUE SHORT COURSE. The eighth Annual Farmers' Short Course held at Purdue University January 10 to 15, was attended by more than eleven hundred and fifty Indiana farmers with their wives, sons and daughterg, being larger than that of any previous year. The interest and en thusiasm throughout the Course was very marked. The work consisted of special and distinct courses of instruction in Soils, and Crops, Live Stock, Household Economics, Horticulture and Dairying. Lectures with practical demonstrations were given in all branches f the work. Ninety-four boys were given instruction in corn and livestock, while the girls were under a competent instructor in Domestic Science. . ♦ . EARLY POTATO CULTURE. Editors Indiana Farmer: A goodly number of farmers thruout Southern Illinois have conceived the idea that by planting potatoes in the fall and covering them with straw a large per cent of the labor of cultivating them can be saved, and just as good a yield obtained from the same amount of ground as tho they were planted in the spring and cultivated in the usual way. Now this has not been so in my experience; I have experimented in various ways in the cultivation of potatoes and from the following way of planting and cultivating I have always received the largest yield and best potatoes. Selecting the ground for planting I always select a piece of newly cleared ground, if it is available, for the potato patch; however, if this is not to be had and old land that has been cultivated for several years is to be used, I flrst look well to the fertility of the soil, as it requires very fertile soil for potatoes. It is a good idea to scatter well fined barn manure over thesur- ."ace before starting the plow and then bi°ak the ground as deep as possible, say 10 inches deep and pulverize it by harrcwing and reharrowing it until ... is fine .T.nd then roll the ground with a good he\vy lsnd roller. I always lay my ground off with a one-horse turning plow running twice in each furrow and put the rows 3% to 4 feet apart and then drop in my cuttings from 18 to 24 inches apart. After this is done, I usually place some kind of manure in the row, either well rotted barn manure, or from the poultry house, or an old rotted straw stack makes very good fertilizer. Then I cover the potatoes with the plow, throwing two furrows on the row and then levelling down with the harrow. As soon as the vines begin to come thru the ground I begin to cultivate by running over the rows with a common tooth harrow and when the vines can be seen plainly in the row I take the one horse turning plow and run the bar of the plow as closely as I can to the vines, then I turn back with the double shovel and throw the dirt back to the potato, giving the plant a fertile loose bed in which to grow for the next plowing. I sometimes use the cultivator, but usually use nothing but the double shovel until the last plowing when I use the turning plow again, throwing the dirt to the potato. Potatoes require fast cultivation. As they should never be worked, or the ground stirred after young potatoes comes on the vines, I usually plow my potatoes four times and afterwards keep down the weed growth with the hoe. Some farmers make a great mistake in selecting their seed potatoes; I never use anything but the largest and best potatoes available and in cutting them I have at least two good eyes tq the cutting. L.. g. .Johnspr). Illinois. |
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