No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 231 



Seeing then that the couditions of the eastern and western farmer 

 are so dillerent, and at the same time that the man with the barn 

 on his farm has such a different problem from the truclcer, fruit 

 grower, and gaiaiin r, i thiuli it is very desirable to take up 

 the acre of the farmer with the barn on his farm and discuss the 

 acre and the market in relation to the farmer of Pennsylvania, as 

 that is our work as lecturers and agricultural institute teachers. 



I wish it to be particularly understood that I am not going to 

 include in this discussion any other kind of farming than that of 

 the acre which has a barn on the farm, not that 1 despise the other 

 diei)artments of the soil, but it seems to me that there is something 

 in general farming that has been most seriously overlooked and 

 is deserving of a great deal more attention, and that is that the 

 barn on the eastern farm must be converted into a factory. The 

 sooner that a farmer of the present day realizes that he is not 

 simply a crop grower, but that he is in the full sense 

 of the word a soil maker, will he see the necessity of 

 changing the old time honored barn into a factory. Farm- 

 ing is becoming more complex than what it used to be, the 

 times and society demand it, the farmer is just shaking off the 

 swaddling clothes of the splendid industry and must turn his barn 

 into a complete factory for manufacturing of hay, grain and legumes 

 iuto the best meat, the cleanest milk, the freshest eggs and the 

 very best of manure. This is the problem of the I'ennsylvania far- 

 mer today. Some say that the agricultural institute lecturers must 

 get new subjects. I promise you I will never change mine till I see 

 the man with a barn on his farm having that barn turned into a 

 farm faetorj^, with his silos set at one end, his mows filled to the 

 roof, his two lines of cattle housed conveniently and comfortably 

 in a well lighted and healthfully ventilated barn, converting the 

 contents of the mows and silos into dollars for the farmer's pocket 

 and good manure for the acre. The barn, I repeat, it is no longer a 

 mere store-house for crops. If it is continued in that capacity alone, 

 T will ensure you that the acre will get poorer than it is. It is 

 not the farm that makes the acre poor or rich, but it is the barn 

 that turns the acre into either poverty or fertility, just as the 

 farmer decides to run his factory either in the interest of his farm 

 and market or for the weeds and killdeers to occupy his acre. 

 There is a saying among merchants, if you buy right you can always 

 sell right. If the farmier grows the crop, he always has it to sell, 

 but if he has no crop it matters not what advantageous prices tho 

 crops are bringing, he has none to selt. It is easily seen that the 

 acre is the basic source of profit; and yet that the farmer has just 

 as much money for an acre of wheat when it produces 20 bushels 

 per acre at a |1.00, as when he gets 40 bushels per acre and wheat 

 is only 50 cents per bushel. But that kind of argument is very 

 much like the man who said when it was raining, he could not put 

 a roof on his house and when it was not raining he did not need 

 it. If a farmer is inclined to argu^ himself into such fallacy he has 

 the material at hand to go into farming almost any day. But the 

 whole matter simply resolves itsolf hnr-k to (ho acre; and the man 

 with a barn on his farm, turned into -a factory for making two 

 products, milk and manure, this is the line on which I farmed. 



