FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION, 5 



sections of the Eastern Continent to the high standard it has attained. In these schools, boys 

 from twelve to fourteen years of age are instructed in the practical business of farming, and 

 also in mechanics, as far as the use and repairing of all kinds of agricultural implements are 

 concerned, theories being taught only in connection with their practice, which is the only 

 true method of instruction. Science has opened the door to successful progress in agriculture 

 in the past, a progress that will approach nearer and nearer to perfection in the art as time 

 advances. Sir Humphrey Davy may be said to have inaugurated, in a great measure, this 

 improvement in the early part of the present century, although it was not until 1840 that 

 Liebig announced propositions that opened a new field of thought and investigation, and 

 awakened the attention of intelligent farmers to the importance of applying the results of 

 . chemical investigations, which in a great measure essentially modified the agricultural practice 

 of all the civilized portions of the world. He opened the way to the whole system of 

 concentrated fertilizers in the following simple words : 



&quot; To manure an acre of land with forty pounds of bone-dust is sufficient to supply three 

 crops of wheat, clover, potatoes, turnips, etc., with phosphates ; but the form in which 

 they are restored to the soil does not appear to be a matter of indifference; for the more finely 

 the bones are reduced to powder, and the more intimately they are mixed with the soil, the 

 more easily they are assimilated.&quot; 



Since that period the progress in improvement, although gradual, has been marked, and 

 the use of commercial fertilizers has become in many sections a necessity ; not only this, but 

 they are now regarded by our best farmers everywhere as an important and indispensable 

 adjunct to farm-yard manures. What science which is justly regarded in all civilized 

 counti ies as the handmaid of successful agriculture will accomplish in the future, remains to 

 be seen ; but if, in the words of King Brobdignag to Lemuel Gulliver, she will cause &quot;two 

 blades of grass to grow where only one grew before,&quot; great good will be accomplished. 



We are essentially a nation of farmers ; more than one-half of our population relying 

 upon agriculture for support, and no country is more dependent for prosperity on its resources 

 in this respect than our own ; yet, while much has already been done, and great advancement 

 made in this branch of industry during the past half century, there remains much to be 

 accomplished before we, as a nation, shall approximate to that high standard and degree of 

 success that it is our privilege to attain. 



We believe no one would think of disputing the fact that a given area of land, with a 

 similar soil, season, and equally favoring conditions otherwise, would, with an equal 

 amount of time and labor, produce more wheat, corn, grass, cotton, rice, tobacco, or any other 

 product now, than it would twenty-five or fifty years ago. And this is due to the advanced 

 methods of farming, including the use of improved agricultural implements, etc., which 

 practice causes the soil to produce more with the same or less expense of time and labor, and 

 hence, farming is more profitable now than at that period, not only in the amount produced 

 from the soil, which will bring more in return, but in the expense of production in time and 

 labor. It is also true that more can be accomplished with the same amount of labor and 

 expenditure in any of the other departments of business, than could have been performed 

 twenty-five or fifty years ago, owing to new and scientific discoveries, increased skill and 

 mechanical art ; therefore, the farmer of to-day need not make his business the drudgery 

 that it was formerly ; or, if he works as hard, he can have better returns for his labor in the 

 form of more of the necessaries and luxuries of life. Consequently, farmers, as a class, are not 

 necessitated to labor as hard, or practice as much self-denial in the rigid economies of life, in 

 order to attain success, as in the olden time, and this is all due to advanced science and its 

 application to agriculture. 



When we compare the implements for tilling and cultivating the soil that were used by 

 our forefathers, with those of the present time, we are able to realize more fully the benefits 

 bestowed upon agriculture by men of science, inventors, and manufacturers. The improve- 



