INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 567 



The speaker who is to speak on the first topic is an ex-professor in 

 the University of Michigan of Home Economics, and now has the proud 

 distinction of being one of our Indiana farmers. I take great pleasure 

 in introducing to you Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith, of Cambridge City. 



Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith: There is one time when I feel proud, 

 very proud, and it comes once in ten years, and that is when the census 

 taker comes around and says, "What is your occupation?" And I say, 

 "Farmer." And he usually says, "You don't want me to put your name 

 in as a farmer, do you?" I certainly do, for I am a farmer, and I have 

 an opportunity to gratify my pride once in ten years. 



I am to talk this evening on "The Need of Special Training for Agri- 

 cultural Pursuits." I will refer only to those means that could be met 

 by the Agricultural College, as I understand what can be or ought to be 

 done by an Agricultural College. And by agricultural pursuits I am going 

 to include not only those things that have to do with plant and animal 

 life, but I will also include a very important part of agriculture, and that 

 is the home and the farm, and the need for special training for the one 

 who makes that home. 



I suppose, like myself, all here are decidedly enthusiastic about for- 

 estry. We see great possibilities in this system, and I am siu-e we have 

 larger and broader views, and certainly a greater fund of knowledge as 

 to that subject. Is there any need for special training in agricultural pur- 

 suits? Another way of putting the question is: Are we satisfied with 

 what the acre is doing for us? Are we satisfied the acre is bringing us 

 its very best returns? Do we think we are getting enough wheat, enough 

 corn; are we getting the quality that we want in apples and pears and 

 peaches and strawberries, and are there enough being raised of these 

 different fruits? Does everyone have as many apples as they want, as 

 many strawberries? Are there any needs along this line? Is the acre 

 doing for us all that it should? 



I was very much pleased this evening when I was asked to take a 

 drive around Keudallville. I saw the beautiful streets and homes, and 

 then I saw an onion field where they tell me they will raise nine himdred 

 bushels of onions to the acre. Isn't that a great thing? How many are 

 doing that for the acre? And have we any right to expect it from the 

 acre? Down in our county we had a yield of wheat of from five to 

 seven bushels average. The people are taking five or six acres to raise 

 what ought to be raised on one acre of ground. Who gets the thirty 

 bushels of wheat to the acre? I have a neighbor— a woman farmer— who 

 got thirty-two and one-half bushels to the acre, instead of five or six. 

 How did she get thirty-two and one-half bushels to the acre? Was it 

 luck, or did she make herself a student of seed vitality and the right 

 kind of seed for her soil? I say she got thirty-two and one-half bushels 

 to the acre because she studied the subject of seed vitality and the 



