The Bulletin. 49 



world every minute of the day, hut it is made to glow with unwnntpd hrilliancy in 

 the drawing room, the shop or the huinhlost home, tliat tlierc may be light. 



By means of the telephone the mother in distant Snn Frnncisro may listen to 

 the prattling of her babes here in Kaleigh. In the science of medicine and 

 surgery men have accomplished even greater marvels in progress, until now the 

 most dangerous diseases are combatted by human intelligence with more ease 

 than was a common ease of chills thirty years ago. And how has all this been 

 accom])lishpd? By closing the eyes to the evidences of learning and scofling at 

 the teachings of experience as worthless lies, and sneering at what was not 

 understood as of no value? By no means. On the other hand, the richest 

 rewards have been ofTcrod to encourage investigation and the devehipment of 

 useful methods and better appliances. Twenty years ago the local sawmill man 

 was a chronic bankrupt. Tiud)er was plentiful and cheap, wages low, the working 

 hours long, the people needed houses then as mucli as now, perhaps, but he could 

 not succeed. Ik»tter business methods were adopted, improved maciiinery, the 

 invention of skill and learning was installed, operatives with expert knowledge 

 of the business emploj'ed, and presto, the lumber manufacturer becomes a business 

 man of the first rank. 



In all the walks of life where marked success has been achieved, men have been 

 eager to seize upon the suggestions of science, the inventions of genius, or the 

 teachings of experience to aid them in their labors, but the farmer has been dis- 

 posed to disregard "book learning" as of no avail in his calling, unless per- 

 chance he should rely upon the signs of the zodiac, the jihases of the moon, or 

 the directions of the" wind as potent factors controlling his operations. I'.ooks 

 are the conservatories of knowledge, the granaries in wliich are gathered the 

 accumulating harvests of learning for all the ages. And any calling, any busi- 

 ness, that scofTs at the teachings of science, the discoveries of the student, or the 

 lessons of ex])erience, must inevitably fail, for it eliminates knowledge, the one 

 essential factor of success. 



Knowledge is indeed power, and there is no business in which knowledge, both 

 theoretical°and practical, is more useful than in agriculture. A farmer to be 

 successful must not only be a keen observer of Nature's operations and the laws 

 of supply and demand, he must not only know how to perform certain farm 

 operations well, but he must have an intimate knowledge of tlie reasons for 

 those operations. For instance, in some sections the farmer plows his land in 

 ridges before planting seed in early spring and levels those ridges by cultivation 

 as the warmth of the sununer sun supplies more heat to the ground and evapora- 

 tion makes increased demands upon the soil moisture, while his neighbor exactly 

 reverses this order, planting seed in the level cold ground, but for his convenience 

 in cultivation makes the ridge, as the heat, the crop and the diminished rains 

 render the conservation of soil moisture the most important consideration in 

 every step in tillage. What is popularly termed "hilling" crops in the Smith 

 might better be termed "killing" crops, a practice continued solely for the "kiver- 

 ing up of grass" that should never have been allowed to show itself above ground. 

 This operation alone is responsible for more loss to the Southern farTuer every 

 year than all the floods and storms and droughts. All because he will not hear 

 the teachings of science, nor heed the constant testimonies of experience. For 

 years men had observed that yellow fever disappeared with the first frost, but 

 they did not think that it was'the killing of the mosquito that put a stop to the 

 spread of the disease. Farmers know that about corn lulling time their crops 

 begin to fail, but they do not attribute that to the plowing up of the root system 

 at°the very time when the crop needs all its reso\irces most. For this reason, 

 farmers at first maintained that cast iron plows poisoned the soil, and many of 

 them stipulated when leasing land that they sluuild not be used. They were right 

 in their deductions, but wrong in placing the blame. I know that the cultivation 

 of the farm is not conducive to study and research, but there is no reason why we 

 farmers should not read up on our business during the long winter evenings, and 

 there is no better place to think than when guiding the plow in spring. Thinking 

 as we plow that furrows pregnant with thought may produce an abundant harvest. 

 When the cultivation of cotton was reduced to the present slipshod method, the 



