GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 39 



Durand wheat, but in 1901, in the northwestern region of this 

 country there were produced nearly fifty thousand bushels 

 of that prime wheat. Last year, in 1905, there was grown over 

 twenty million bushels, and all the farmers who have tried it 

 have found this wheat to be a better yielder and to be thor- 

 oughly adapted to their conditions, and it is established now in 

 this country beyond doubt. 



We have also imported from Sweden a very fine oat which 

 is a heavy yielder, and fills out well. It has been found that 

 this oat was a substantial addition to our native stocks. We 

 grow today nearly four million bushels annually of those oats. 



We also sent a man to Japan to study rice, and have im- 

 ported some very fine varieties of rice. We imported one of 

 the Japanese varieties which bids fair to supersede the variety 

 usually grown in Texas and Louisiana. It has been found to 

 be well adapted to that region of our country, to be a good 

 yielder, and grows well in the southwest. 



One of the interesting lines of work which the Department 

 has taken up, one which I personally enjoy, although I do but 

 little of it, is what we term " farm management work." I 

 know every farmer thinks he knows how to manage his own 

 farm, and we all know that the farmers of the country are 

 succeeding in managing their farms very well, so that they are 

 being made more and more profitable, but, at the same time, 

 we know that John Jones over here in one county is a fine 

 farmer, and we know that Joe Smith over here in another 

 county has a good farm but does not seem to be so good a 

 manager, and we think that if we can get John Jones and 

 Joe Smith together and let them talk over with each other 

 their various methods of management, good will result. That 

 is what the Department is trying to do. We are sending men 

 to successful farmers here and there, studying their methods, 

 and then publishing papers detailing exactly how they have 

 gotten certain results. All that has proven helpful. By reason 

 of these methods we believe that most farmers can improve 

 on the methods they are pursuing today, or, at least, get good 

 suggestions from it. We all know that if a man enters into 

 a business with which he is not perfectly familiar he wants to 

 go to a man who is successful in that industry and learn from 

 him just how he succeeds, how he carries it out, and the more 

 a farmer can learn the more he will enjoy his work, and, of 

 course, the more successful he will be. If we can bring to- 



