60 • STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The newspapers generally recognize a good thing when they see it, and they 

 know that when they taiie up the subject of farms, farmers and farming, they are 

 pursuing a fruitful topic. It would be hard to tell what some of them would do to 

 fill their columns if they were debarred from discussing the farmer and his ways 

 and means. There is no subject that I know of that is more valuable to help some 

 of them to tell what they don't know. It might strike back, but seldom does so, 

 and so they feel perfectly safe In saying what they please. Of course there are 

 many praiseworthy exceptions, and their number is yearly growing larger. 



The world-renowned Horace Greeley once wrote a book which he named 

 "What I Know About Farming." If he had written one more and labeled it 

 "What I Don't Know About Farming," it would have been necessary to publish 

 it in encyclopedia style, twenty volumes, half calf. There is no one man who can 

 tell everything necessary to be known about farming or any other subject, and it 

 is only by learning the pactice and failures, as well as the successes, of the many, 

 that we can arrive at any practical conclusion. 



One branch of the newspaper paragraph business is another of the main 

 traveled roads which center in the farm. We can read all sorts of views and many 

 queer practices which are ascribed to farmers, and no one can be more surprised 

 than the farmers themselves to know they entertain such views or conduct business 

 in such ways as are ascribed to them . While for a time this may furnish reporters 

 employment and their readers with considerable amusement, there is no harm done 

 to the farmer, as he is really benefited and can well afford to receive a little free 

 advertising, while he is abundantly able to stand all the abuse he may receive. 



Another way, long traveled by many farmers, is their neglect to provide the 

 family with good and useful reading matter. Ten, fifteen or twenty dollars invested 

 yearly in books, newspapers and magazines is a far more profitable method of 

 spending the " dollar of our daddies" than it would be to invest it in land, bank 

 stock or even government securities. The compound interest of happiness, gen- 

 eral intelligence and increased usefulness of every member of the family by reason 

 of this is beyond price. The fact is they cannot aflord not to. It is the very 

 poorest kind of economy to starve the brain and stint the growing curiosity of the 

 youthful mind. It is said that " a child will ask more questions than ten wise 

 men can answer," and many of the questions they ask are answered in the columns 

 of the weekly newspaper. If I had a growing family of children to educate, and 

 bad to choose between the ordinary district school, " as she is usually taught," 

 and a good supply of newspapers and magazines at home, the weekly visits of the 

 printed page would be my choice every time. Let us make our district schools 

 better, make them what they ought to be and help raise the standard of the country 

 newspaper, and we may safely trust the farmers' interests in the hands of our sons 

 and daughters. 



Another peculiar way of some farmers is to buy trees, plant an orchard, neg- 

 lect them entirely, and then wonder why "trees wont grow " for him. There are 

 numerous methods to keep from having a fine, thrifty lot of fruit-trees growing on 

 every farm. Some buy poor trees because they can be bought cheap ; others 

 expose the roots to the blazing sun before planting; still others stick the tender 

 roots into a hole, jam the earth around them, and then leave them to the tender 

 mercies of hogs, sheep, cattle, and the ever-present and all-devouring rabbit. 

 These amateur horticulturists expect to become millionaires out of the profits of 

 their first ventures in that business, and when failure looms up in the near future 

 they immediately begin to abuse every nurseryman within reach, and the man who 

 Tuns the home nursery catches it more than the others. Of course the neighbor 



