48 



ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



sened with the improved machinery of today. Formerly, when a man 

 started out to harrow it took three men-and three or four horses to do the 

 work, that now one man with the new improved gang plows can do in 

 less time, and with all the other improved machinery, there is less need 

 of so much help on the farm, especially where the farmer has two or three 

 boys. And the land is so settled n ow that it is well nighfimpossible to buy 

 farms for our boys — it is too expensive. Is it not more intensive farm- 

 ing instead of extensive farming?If greater study was put to the soil condi- 

 tions, to the climatic conditions existing in the varius counties, instead 

 of having fences with ten to fifteen acres of waste ground on each side of 

 it, we could have small fields divi ded up and have a closer system of farm- 

 ing and tillage, would it not give employment to more boys on the farm 

 today? 



About two weeks ago this quetion came up of keeping the boys on the 

 farm, and a number of the farmers present got up and said it was not keep- 

 ing them there so much, as it was furnishing them land to work, if they 

 stayed there. They were driven away because of no work for them. 



In this matter of intensive farming, it dissolves itself into one of two 

 things, more especially on the question of truck work near cities. Next 

 comes the dairy work, whereby closer soiling and building up of the lands 

 are thougnt of. 



A small farm will support a family in abundance nowadays, when it 

 formerly required three or four times as large an acreage under the old 

 systems. It seems to me the dair y work is specially adapted to this inten- 

 sive work, when conducted along the modern methods of soiling and forr- 

 age crops. Do away with large fields of pasturage as formerly used. 



Now let me talk "shop" a little. Does not our present system in the 

 public schools, where we urge our childrn to finish the country school, 

 complete the examinations, pass the final country examination and from 

 them to the high school, and then from there to the universities or some 

 clleges — all the work being away from the farm — does that not draw our 

 boys and girls from the farm into the various so-called professions of 

 life? The majority of our teachers in the country schools — I say "our" — 



