Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 



131 



fact that here were people eager to better understand and more fidly 

 appreciate the problems, possibilities and pleasures of life on the farm. 

 "First, attention was called to the needs and objects of such a 

 meeting. It was pointed out that farming is a business demanding 

 brains as well as brawn ; that farming today is a far more intricate 

 proposition than in the time of our forefathers, when men could skim 

 the cream off of one quarter-section, then move to another 160 acres; 

 that changed location, not crop rotation, gave to the pioneer a land pro- 

 ductive of plenty; that farming demands fitness, and that while almost 

 any man 'may 'mine land,' no fool can farm it. One speaker declared 

 that it is folly for the farmer to think about cultivating more land, when 



The afternoon was spent in examining tlie crops as, and where, tliey grew. Here 

 the soy beans stood shoulder high, set from 100 to 2 00 pods, and had nodules on the 

 roots as large as small peas. The soy bean has a feeding value equal to oil meal — 

 home-gi'own protein. 



it is imi-)ossi])le for him to get sufficient help as it is. 'What, then,' came 

 the question, 'must be the solution of this perplexing problem? What, 

 if not to increase the yield, thereby decreasing the cost? It will not 

 come through added acres, but by added bushels, ' continued the speaker. 

 'The demand is not so much for larger farming as for better farming,' 

 "One important object of the farm management movement was said 

 to be to help the farmer know the cost and to reduce the cost. This 

 thought ran through practically every talk. Among the speakers were : 

 F. B. Mumford, Dean of the Missouri Agricultural College ; T. C. Wilson, 

 Secretary of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture; W. L. Nelson, 

 Assistant Secretary of the same Board ; J. A. Drake of the United States 



