270 



FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. 



remedies he suggested electric railways, rural free- 

 mail delivery, farmers' institutes, and granges. 



At the evening session the Hon. Franklin Dye, 

 secretary of the New Jersey State Board of Agri- 

 culture, read a paper on Agricultural Progress 

 and Profit, in which he said: 



" Greater intelligence applied to all agricultural 

 work is the need of to-day. The chemist has 



WILLIAM D. HOARD, 

 PRESIDENT OF THE FARMERS 1 CONGRESS SINCE 1898. 



revealed the laws, hitherto unknown, by which 

 the farmer, in co-operation with Nature, may 

 secure greatest results at least cost. By the use 

 of his intellect, by skill, by utilizing the infor- 

 mation placed at his disposal, by better methods, 

 one man moves forward to success on the farm, 

 while another, failing to apply business principles 

 and common-sense methods, loses in the game. 

 We are face to face with new conditions. The 

 world will not wait for the man who stands still 

 in his calling. The nonprogressive man must 

 drop out of the ranks." 



At the morning session on the 4th the Hon. 

 W. B. Powell, of Pennsylvania, delivered an ad- 

 dress on Inventions for Farmers, in which he 

 pointed out that 90 per cent, of the patents for 

 inventions granted in the United States are to 

 farmers or farmers' sons; that a very large per- 

 centage of the patents granted are for farm im- 

 plements and machines; that inventions put to 

 practical use within the past twenty-five years 

 only had revolutionized farming; and that the 

 farmer who did not avail himself of what inven- 

 tion had done to multiply the farmer's capacity 

 for production put himself at a great disadvan- 

 tage. Mr. Powell pointed out that many of the 

 most useful and profitable inventions had been 

 of seemingly unimportant and certainly simple 

 things, and he called attention to several needed 

 inventions to accomplish simple but highly use- 

 ful results. 



The following amendment to the constitution 

 was adopted: " The time and place of holding the 

 annual meeting shall be determined by the Ex- 

 ecutive Committee, acting with the president and 

 tary, which committee shall have full power 

 make all proper arrangements therefor." 



At the afternoon session W. S. Delano, of Ne- 

 ka, read a paper on Problems confronting 



Farm Life. Among these problems he mentioned 

 the ravages of insects, soil exhaustion, educa- 

 tion of rural children, taxation, and land titles. 

 He advocated stringent laws for the protection 

 of birds; less grain and more stock and dairy 

 farming; kindergarten work and practical ele- 

 mentary instruction in botany, chemistry, phys- 

 ics, and entomology in country schools; better 

 tax laws and the Torrens system of land trans- 

 fers; the parcels post; and thorough organization 

 of farmers. 



He was followed by E. F. Wetstein, of Ken- 

 tucky, in a paper on Intensive Gardening, who 

 said : " The sharpness of competition compels us 

 to raise many crops on the same ground and with- 

 in a few months, and to do this the soil must 

 be in an ideal condition. In the fall we apply 

 between 50 and 75 tons of well-rotted stable 

 manure to the acre. It is turned down to a depth 

 not exceeding 4 inches. The following spring 

 we plow to a depth of 10 or 12 inches. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers may be used to advantage as 

 a top dressing on crops while growing. Cow- 

 peas, rye, Indian corn, and clover, sowed every 

 two or three years to alternate with barnyard 

 manure, have proved highly advantageous. I 

 have realized a net profit of $150 to $200 per 

 acre in one season." 



At the evening session the Hon. J. H. Brigham, 

 Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, delivered an 

 address on Foreign Markets for Farm Products. 

 He said : " With the exception of Hungary and 

 Russia, we can produce horses cheaper than any 

 other country in the world, while at the same 

 time our horses are better suited to the require- 

 ments of Europe. The department has discov- 

 ered a remedy for hog cholera which has resulted 

 in a saving of 80 per cent, of the hogs affected. 

 We can produce mutton for Europe just as eco- 

 nomically as we can produce anything else. The 

 department desires to build up the markets for 

 American dairy products all over the world, be- 

 cause when our butter goes abroad we sell merely 

 skill combined with sunshine. We purpose at 

 the coming exposition in Paris to have our corn 

 prepared in many ways and presented to the 

 visitors, with literature printed in the several 

 European languages, giving information concern- 

 ing this great product of ours." 



He was followed by Prof. Willis L. Moore, chief 

 of the United States Weather Bureau, who spoke 

 on Benefits of the United States Weather Bureau 

 to the Farmer. He pointed out the fact that the 

 weather forecasts had saved the California raisin 

 producers and the stock raisers of the plains 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and 

 that much valuable property had been saved in 

 the lower Mississippi valley by flood warnings. 

 He called attention to the great benefit to farm- 

 ers, gardeners, and stock raisers everywhere of 

 the cold-wave warnings of his bureau. 



Thursday morning the Hon. C. C. James, Depu- 

 ty Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, Canada, 

 read a paper on Teaching the Elements of Agri- 

 culture in the Common Schools, which, .he said/ 

 might be made optional in city and town schools, 

 but should be obligatory in rural schools. He 

 said that in rural schools the pupils should learn 

 about the air and the soil, the growth of plants 

 and of animals, and their diseases ; and especially 

 that they should learn to see, to touch, to hear, 

 and even to smell and taste. " If their senses 

 are rightly trained, they will be able to acquire 

 facts for themselves. One of the greatest educa- 

 tional curses is to train a child to become an in- 

 tellectual miser a mere hoarder of facts." 



The Hon. L. S. Coffin, ex-Railway Commission- 



