SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 



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To prevent smut in oats and wheat it is necessary to soak the seed 

 in a mixture of one pound of formaldehyde to fifty gallons of water. 

 Soak the seed for twenty minutes and then spread it out so that it may 

 dry without heating. It is claimed that this will prevent smut entirely 

 and many farmers know that a loss of twenty per cent is sometimes 

 suffered through the growth of this smut. 



Now, you may know that I did not know how to make these mix- 

 tures without finding them on the pages of some book on agriculture. 

 This is the case and I am not ashamed to tell it, for I have never stud- 

 ied the subject of agriculture. But I have read a few good books along 

 this line out of which we have learned a great deal and this brings us 

 to the point in question, how we shall teach agriculture in the public 

 schools, if we shall teach it at all. 



If you have no instruction in school, get a good book on the subject. 

 No matter hew successful a farmer you are, it may and will be useful 

 to you. You know that a good cook uses a cookbook. She may not 

 find occasion to use it very often but she finds it useful once in a while 

 at least. I would suggest that a farmer use his book on agriculture 

 the same as a cook does the cook book. This suggestion of course, 

 would be out of place for those boys who have had instructions in the 

 line for they certainly would get such a book, although it might not 

 be so necessary for them as for the other man. But the boy that has had 

 the instruction would feel interested enough to have such a book. 



From such a book you may learn the value of certain birds, how to 

 prevent smut, how to kill certain injurious worms, how to test your 

 milk, build a silo, treat your butter, take care of your horses, cows and 

 sheep; how and what to feed your hogs, what the value is of a cream 

 separator, and a manure spreader as well as a homely toad in your 

 garden. This book will tell you that each thread of silk that receives 

 a grain of pollen produces a kernel of corn for the ear. The boy who 

 knows this will be careful not to pull this hair (as he calls it) out. 

 When we lived on the farm we were bothered with the currant worm. 

 Every book on agriculture will tell you that to destroy the currant 

 worm, all you need to do, is to sprinkle the leaves with water that 

 has in it powder of white hellebore; one tablespoonful to three gallons of 

 water. Read a good magazine as well as a good book along the line ot 

 agriculture, they are inexpensive. 



Just a few minutes ago I had intended to come down to the point 

 by telling you what my idea was as to how and to what extent agriculture 

 should be taught in the public schools, but the importance of the subject 

 seems to reign supreme in my mind. 



Whj- do boys leave the farm and go to the cities? I believe it is 

 because the cities advertise and the farms do not. Cities will advertise 

 their parks, their theaters and everything they have both good and bad, 

 but we do not often read of the good things that the farm produces. 



Does advertising pay? I will tell you what I think. Last summer I 

 was in North Dakota and Montanna at places where land last year was 

 selling from five to six dollars less per acre than it is now selling for. 

 and this simply because it had been advertised. You have all heard about 



