THE NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 45 



and growth ; that it has always been fed and watered with strict punctuality, 

 at proper intervals; that in all the details of care and feeding it has 

 received such attention as its owner kneiu would secure the largest returns 

 in profitable development ? I tell you the farmers are few in number who 

 can say this of any animal in their possession. Then think of the losses 

 resulting from the simple neglect to take proper care to save seed 

 corn, a loss some years amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

 Of the foul weed seed sown witli onr cereal crops and grasses, farmers sub- 

 scribe to the principle that like produces like, they expatiate on the value of 

 clean pure seed and then plant corn that has a half dozen varieties on one 

 ear and sow cockle and chess and then wonder and grumble because their 

 crops are small in yield and inferior in quality. 



How many farmers can tell whether the receipts from milk, butter, cheese 

 and stock sold exceeds the value of the grain and hay fed to the herd. 

 What of the returns from the sheep and swine as compared with the cost of 

 keeping ? What is the profit of growing wheat per acre with the market 

 ranging from y5c to iJOc per bushel ? Does it pay to have large orchards on 

 small farms or would the land pay better in grass or cereal crops? How 

 many dairymen can speak positively of the milk yield of their cows and as a 

 result how many poor cows are kept at a loss because there is no milk record? 

 Here is a grapiiic description of the average dairy of twenty-five cows: 

 Two extra, five very good, five good, five poor milkers, one kicker, two 

 jumpers, and one that milks so hard that it costs all that it is worth to get 

 it; of the remaining four, one has lost a teat and three are too old. My 

 observation leads me to believe this description is not overdrawn. 



These simi)le, homely illustrations of neglect are apparent in the manage- 

 ment of too many farms and might be detailed at much gi-eatcr length. 

 They are serious enough to demand careful investigation. W hy do some of 

 our educated farmers continue year after year in the same old ruts without 

 apparently making any efl'ort toward better things in farm practice? Is it 

 not in too many instances because they have not been trained in the details 

 of good methods ? If we should look over our farm acquaintances in any 

 locality I think we should invariably find that our most successful farmers 

 are not those who work the most hours and the hardest at manual labor; 

 they work however with all their energies ; but they have learned that the work 

 of the hand needs to be directed, supplemented by the work of the brain. 

 They have learned that it is the part of wisdom and to their mental and pecuni- 

 ary profit to devote a reasonable amount of their time to thinking out and plan- 

 ning their farm operations — to the keeping of such records of their receipts 

 and expenditures as will enable them to determine with tolerable accuracy 

 whether their crops and animals are profitable or not. They have leariit-d 

 to value agricultural literature in book and periodical form. They take 

 agricultural newsjiapers and read them. They are not men of one idea. 

 Tliey ride no hobbies. They are clear sighted and quick-witted to see and 

 apply good suggestions, from whatever sourcj they may come. Is there not 

 a great lack of method in plan and labor in Agriculture ? While it is true 

 that there is no other calling in which it is so dilficult to arrange details and 

 methodize work, on account of variations of the weather and seasons, this 

 fact does not absolve the farmer from making most strenuous efforts to plan 

 and arrange his labor, system of crops, care of stock and all the details of 

 his work in the most careful manner. The difficulties in the w^ay only make 

 it more imperative that there should be no lack of plans of well studied. 



