No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 311 



thought and knowledge of the wisest men who have written on the 

 subject. He should know something of the nature, construction 

 and chemistry of the 6oil so that when he reads on this subject he 

 can understand the terms used. How fortunate it would have been 

 for the present generation of farmers if they had been taught in 

 their youth, in the country school, the meaning of the terms "Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry" the same as they were taught the meaning of 

 the terms used in arithmetic. Besides the soil, the dairy farmer is 

 dealing constantly with animal life of his farm; he needs sound 

 knowledge of the physiology of that life to care for feed, and man- 

 age it so it shall be carried to its highest degree of efiiciency. Then 

 there are questions of fertilizers for soil, of wise feeding for this, 

 that or other purposes, and many other questions that pertain to 

 this life on the farm. Then he needs a knowledge of how to organ- 

 ize the farm itself, so that it shall be in harmony with the great 

 purpose of dairy farming. All this must start in the mind of the 

 farmer himself. If he has a stock of well-stored, well-organized 

 knowledge, if he knows what needs to be done and how to do it, 

 how to arrange forces for final accomplishment, then we have the 

 dairy farm full of the meaning for its final purpose. On such a 

 farm there is ample oi>portunity for any man to exercise the very 

 highest power, the finest training of mind and hand, the deepest 

 scientific knowledge, and the best of executive ability. What is 

 needed on the American farm to-day is a man who believes all this. 

 Farmers talk of lack of capital. What they need most is this larger, 

 truer comprehension of the meaning of the problems they are 

 dealing with. Once this is understood, then order, organization, 

 elficiency follow, and wealth ensues. No farmer can secure wealth 

 without a well-organized mind, and business without these qualities, 

 if a man had capital it would be wasted, as has been done in thou- 

 sands of instances. As this applies to the dairy, so it does through 

 all the various channels of agriculture. When the farmers of the 

 present age once become educated in modern principles of agri- 

 culture, together with a determination to succeed, they have a 

 bright future. 



One of the ^ost serious problems that confront us to-day is the 

 lack of competent farm hands, with all the up-to-date machinery on 

 the farm. The question is still a serious one; particularly is this 

 true when only a few miles from a large city. The problem of the 

 hired man faces us with a persistence which demands attention. 

 Little use to inquire what is the cause of this dearth of farm help. 

 High prices are offered, fair treatment is assured, still the farm 

 work drags for lack of the hired man; and there is a disposition to 

 shirk the work on the farm and cling to city life with its uncertain- 

 ties, and the struggle goes on. The farmer needs the help of the 

 man in the city; the man in the city needs the work to be had out- 

 side; still the two are far apart. The farmer wears himself out in 

 the endeavor to keep the farm up to his ideal, and perhaps at last 

 rents the place and moves away. The farm runs down, and finally 

 the shutters are put up, another light has gone out. The work of 

 educating the young men to come back to the farms is going on, 

 however, and it will not be long before we shall have growing up 

 about us an army of strong-limbed, intelligent young farmers. It 

 ig all right that these should go away for an education; they cannot 



