392 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



satisfactory results to the dairy farmer. 

 Purdue University Agricultural Lxpei- 

 iment Station. 



C. S. PLUMB, Director. 



AMERICAN FARMER OF THE NINE- 

 TEENTH CENTURY. 



It used to be the rule that when a man 

 wasn't fit for anything else he was consid- 

 ered good enough to be a farmer; that if 

 he hadn't brains enough to master military 

 tactics, or the intricacies of the law or 

 medicine, or of theology, and was utterly 

 lacking in creative ability, then his proper 

 sphere of usefulness was the farm. And 

 in those days even the " gentleman " far- 

 mer was a person of inferior standing, and 

 he was made to feel his insignificance 

 whenever he came in contact with the 

 superior persons who ruled the State 

 and made or expounded its laws. Society 

 spoke of him as a "gawk." and his sons 

 and daughters were " country bumpkins." 

 But all this has changed and is destined to 

 still further change. Science, which has 

 done so much for the world at large, has 

 taken the farmer in hand and is investing 

 the man and hip works with the dignity 

 and standing that are theirs of right. 

 The masses are being made to realize what 

 they have known dimly all along but never 

 fully appreciated that it is the farmer 

 who feeds them, and that he is more nec- 

 essary to them than they are to him; that 

 without him works great and small would 

 come to a stop, and the peoples of all the 

 earth be reduced to a state of savagery 

 and cannibalism. 



Science is bringing not only the public 

 to a realization of the importance of the 

 farmer, but the farmer himself to an ap- 

 preciation of the importance of his work 

 and of the necessity of fitting himself for 

 it by studying nature and inducing her by 

 scientific means rather than by haphazard 

 to yield her store. Formerly the farmer 

 could tell you "when " without knowing 

 ' ; why." Experiment showed him that 

 rotation in crops made his land produce 

 better and last longer, but he couldn't tell 



nature's reason for it, nor explain the 

 thous ind other seeming mysteries of the 

 soil. Science has done and is doing that 

 for him. It is experimenting for him day 

 in and day out the year round, and teach- 

 ing him the why and the wherefore. Uncle 

 Sam is backing science in this matter, and 

 the farmer is getting the benefit without 

 cost. The farmer learns from the bulle- 

 tins that are sent out by the Department 

 of Agriculture, and all over the land the 

 farmer's sons and daughters are taking 

 courses in agriculture and horticulture, 

 farm gardening and dairying, and stock 

 breeding ?nd stock raising, in colleges 

 supported jointly by the state and federal 

 governments. 



Their instruction is practical, too, for 

 the colleges have farms under cultivation 

 and herds and droves of cattle and swine, 

 and dairies and truck farms and orchards. 

 The instructors are men who are entitled 

 to write "Bachelors of Science" after their 

 names. Tliey know all about the soils 

 and the seasons, and what crops are adapt- 

 able and what are not; and their science 

 goes so far as to include conditions in 

 foreign countries, and to be able to judge 

 from them whether corn, or wheat or barley, 

 or whatever product of the farm will be 

 most in demand for export, and so com- 

 mand the readiest market and the best 

 price. They have reduced farming to a 

 science, and are teaching it as a science. 

 The course in agriculture includes history 

 and government, French and German, Eng- 

 lish and the higher mathematics and mu- 

 sic, so that our farmers of the next gener- 

 ation will not only know how to get the 

 best and the most out of the ground, but 

 will be able to hold their own for general 

 information and polite accomplishments 

 with the elect of any land. 



Colleges of agriculture are maintained 

 in universities, with the aid of national, 

 fun is, in Arizona, Kansas, California, 

 Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisi- 

 ana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Ne- 

 braska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Tennes- 

 see, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin. 



