450 



HORT1CULTU Rt 



October 3, 1908 



CONSERVATORY AT GARFIELD PARK, CHICAGO. 



„* n„,.fioi,3 v>n,-\- io itip latest acauisition in the Chicago park system. It was erected 

 Th ' t n '7 rZ^'a mmion d££ • andls now S* competed. It coverl 75,000 sq. ft., its length 302 

 ,idth 25n ft, Ld height 64 if lis central area 112x150 ft. is used as an aquatic house. The Poiey Mfg. 

 Co. supplied all the wood used in its construction. ^ 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



(A Paper Read Before the Suffolk County 



Agricultural Society, by Walter L. 



Jagger.) 



The education of the present day ap- 

 pears to be away from the farm, for 

 the major part of the young men who 

 graduate from college appear to think 

 that the farm is only a place of last 

 resort, where they may regain the 

 health— and sometimes the wealth— 

 which they oftentimes sacrificed in the 

 profesions or the mercantile pursuits 

 in the cities; failing to realize that, 

 If the same amount of learning and 

 energv was given to agricultural pur- 

 suits "they might be most successful, 

 whereas they are at present only mak- 

 ing a bare subsistence, and sometimes 

 losing their health. Fifty years ago it 

 was thought that the boy who was not 

 qualified for profesional or mercantile 

 pursuits might be a farmer. We are 

 ready to admit that there are many 

 verv" successful farmers who have not 

 a college education; but this does not 

 prove that they might not have been 

 a great deal more successful if they 

 had had a higher education. 

 The Best Disseminators of Education. 

 The daily press and the agricultural 

 journals of the present day are highly 

 educational, and no man can read a 

 good daily or good agricultural paper 

 without gaining useful knowledge. 

 There is also a school of experience 

 which is no mean factor in gaining an 

 agricultural education. By observa- 

 tion and experiment we may often gam 

 useful knowledge. Farmers' Institutes 

 and Horticultural Societies are great 

 disseminators of agricultural wisdom. 

 The paramount need of a farmer is 

 a good education in its broadest sense. 

 He needs to know the relation of farm- 

 ing to other things. True, education 

 will teach him to respect his calling. 

 Farming is an honorable and respect- 

 able calling; and yet how often do we 

 hear it belittled by such expressions 

 as "only a farmer," "a hayseed," "a 

 clod-hopper," etc. Did you ever stop 

 to think that the farmer is the only 

 real producer of wealth in this world . 

 Where does the Wall street banker- 

 get his money? Does he make it? No. 

 He shears the lambs from off the farm. 

 And who feeds our Uncle Samuel's 



large family of S3 millions of children? 

 The farmer, assuredly. 



Something More than Arithmetic. 

 The idea, once prevalent, that arith- 

 was the most important study 

 for a boy is now out of date. As much 

 as any one does the farmer's boy need 

 to know grammar and the us* of 

 language. He must know how to read, 

 how to think, and how to express him- 

 self. The farmer needs a thorough 

 education that he may be thorough in 

 all things, his business included. 

 Much of a farmer's education can be 

 obtained at home. The farmer who 

 conscientiously and thoroughly follows 

 the news of the week in a good daily 

 paper will soon become well posted 

 ■>pon the affairs of the world, After 

 the news of the week let him study the 

 markets, and then the various lines of 

 agricultural work as found in good 

 books and papers, and it will not be 

 long before he will feel stronger and 

 more capable. His neighbor will no- 

 tice the difference and will respect him 

 accordingly, and his farm will become 

 more productive and more valuable. 

 Education, then, must be thorough; 

 and it must be broad enough, that its 

 possessor may profit by comparison, as 

 judgment based upon one line alone is 

 apt to be erroneous. 

 "Book Farming" No Longer a Re- 

 proach. 

 There are occasionally to be found 

 instances where farmers who seek to 

 improve and enlarge their knowledge 

 of agricultural science are accused of 

 "book farming" by their neighbors, 

 but so many instances of increased 

 profits from a better knowledge of 

 farming, as a business, are coming to 

 the front in nea.rly every neighborhood 

 that this ridiculous sort of sentiment 

 is fast dying out. A farmer cannot 

 afford to ignore all these sources of 

 gaining a knowledge of his business, 

 and the best ways of growing and dis- 

 posing of farm products to the best 

 and most profitable advantage, any 

 more than a professional or business 

 man of the city can afford not to keep 

 posted and abreast of the times. 



I,ife is too short for any one of us to 

 learn all there is to be known of our 

 profession or business by our own ex- 

 perience and work, especially when it 



is possible to get all the experi- 

 ence and knowledge of our best 

 farmers and writers at so small a cost 

 as the price of a few good farm papers 

 and text books. Farmers have about 

 as much to learn in their profession as 

 any other class, and we have always 

 thought it time well spent to read or 

 listen to the plans and methods fol- 

 lowed by those who have had a more 

 successful experience than our own. It 

 ;? cheaper than to do the experiment- 

 ing ourselves. It doesn't follow that 

 we should do no experimenting our- 

 selves. Times, conditions and crops, 

 as well as market demands, are con- 

 stantly changing and our knowledge 

 in general can be greatly increased by 

 some judicious research and an ex- 

 change of ideas or results. Not all 

 that we read or hear is at all applicable 

 to every man's needs or the special 

 kind of farming he may be engaged in, 

 but he must be able to pick out the 

 points that are applicable to his own 

 particular conditions. 



Winter Opportunities. 



During the summer the tiller of the 

 soil has little spare time for reading, 

 but that is the time to apply new ideas 

 gained by the previous winter's read- 

 ing. Winter nights are long and with 

 plenty of books and papers, bulletins, 

 farmers' institutes, horticultural socie- 

 ties, etc., within reach of most of us, it 

 certainly looks as if we ought to gain 

 some knowledge which may be of great 

 use to us, while we rest up and do 

 some planning for the busy season; 

 and go into our work with a better 

 knowledge of what we are going to 

 do, and how we are going to do it, 

 than ever before. We certainly believe 

 that in farm reading and study, the 

 adage that "in the multitude of counsel 

 there is wisdom" is altogether true. 

 During winter plan your work, and 

 during spring and summer work your 

 plans. 



The successful farmer is the one 

 who attends strictly to business. 

 Never put off 'til afternoon what you 

 can just as well do in the morning. 

 Day-after-tomorrow is a very uncer- 

 tain time for doing business. 



"Everything comes to those who wait, 

 And the lazy man waits to greet It; 

 But success comes on with a rapid gait 

 To the fellow who goes to meet It." 



