185 



upon the fannor for is. not loss thought, but nioiv. It sooms to me that unless 

 we teach him to think for himself, to work out his own problems, with our help 

 where we can help him ; that unless we set him to thinking for himself and 

 working out his own problems and applying the principles, we are not doing him 

 the real service that we ought to. I throw that out as a suggestion. 



W. II. JoRi).\N. I would like to emphasize, if I am able to do so, what Pro- 

 fessor Armsby has just said. I have said many times in my life that there is 

 danger of trying to do too nuich for the farmer, and giving him a slant of mind 

 that leads him to think that ho is dei)endent upon some other agency than him- 

 self for his success. 



To revert a little to what advice we may give: Not long since a group of g(>n- 

 tlemen interested in a large agricultural oi)eration. uiimely. gentlemen wlio 

 were producing crops which they themselves were canning in factories owned 

 by themselves, called on me and my associates for advice. In the first place, 

 they wished to purchase the materi:ils and make their own fertilizers. There 

 were some very detinite things that could be said to them about that. :ind I s.it 

 down with them and spent an lumr talking about that side of their work. They 

 jiroposed to niise large areas of beans, and the question of disease was a possi- 

 bility ; and I sent them to the plant pathologist of the experim<Mit station. 

 They were having certain troubles in their canning operations, and I sent them 

 to the bacteriologist. There were certain other problems in their w«trU. :iiid I 

 sent them to the experts of the station having knowledge of them. 1 believe 

 that in doing that we have done pretty nearly all that it is possible to do for 

 that body of men. It still remained for them to take the facts given by (mr 

 experts and coordinate them into their system of business, and I doubt whether 

 with any man you can go much further than that. His temperament, his 

 peculiar environment, which y<m nuist study in great detail before you can 

 advise him definitely, are factors which nuist enter into your calculations; and 

 even if you had a farm economist — and I wish there was one attached to each 

 station for work along that line — he would have his limitations in regard to 

 what a man can do in his business. 



W. J. Spillman. I appreciate very fully the force of the suggestions that 

 Professor Armsby and Doctor Jordan have just made. We can divide farmers 

 into three classes, one consisting of those who have the idea that the experiment 

 station is a theoretical sort of thing that has nothing for him. and that class 

 is pretty numerous in all parts of the country. Another is a large class, con- 

 sisting of. those who never heard of the experiment station, and this class is 

 more numerous than we think. Then there is another class of farmers who 

 have a very exaggerated idea of the importance of the station for them, or 

 rather an exaggerated idea of what the station can do for them. I agree with 

 the suggestion that it is not well to encourage too great expectations. At the 

 same time, l)y a conservative man. who is a fanii economist, who has made a 

 special study of types of farming and systems of farm management, it is easy 

 to be of enormous service to the farmer. Now. it is my judgment that we can 

 do more to increase our agricultural products and the results of the work of 

 the farmer by giving attention to the cropping system, the system of manage- 

 ment, the business methods of the farm, and improving them, than we can in 

 any other immediate way. 



At the risk of trespassing on your patience, I want to give you just one more 

 illustration. Down in Georgia there is a dairy farm of 135 acres of land, with 

 90 cows and the necessary young stock— high-grade cows, some of them making 

 500 pounds of butter a year. This farm is owned and managed by the cashier 

 of a bank, a man who could give me the cost, down to a cent, of eveiything; 

 who kept as accurate a set of books on his farm as he did for the bank. The 



