Miscellaneous. 



250 



[March, 1812. 



Careful crop rotation is essential be- 

 cause it has been found that the remains 

 of one crop have a poisonous effect upon 

 the next crop if it is of the same plant, 

 but such remains do not interfere with 

 the normal production of a different 

 plant. Then a kind of crop may and 

 should be selected to follow which will 

 renew that element in the soil which 

 the first crop exhausted. 



Then there is the organization of the 

 farm on plain business principles by 

 which the buildings and the machinery 

 are so arranged as to make the movement 

 of crops and food and animals as easy 

 and economical as possible. A study as 

 to the character of the soil and the crops 

 best adapted to the soil, the crops to 

 be used in rotation for the purpose of 

 strengthening the soil— all these are 

 questions that address themselves to a 

 scientific and professional agriculturist, 

 and which all farmers are bound to 

 know if the product per acre is to be 

 properly increased. We have every 

 reason to hope, from the forces now 

 making toward the education and in- 

 formation of the farmer, as to the latest 

 results in scientific agriculture, that 

 the country will have the advantage 

 of improvement in our farming along 

 the proper lines. Further, agricultural 

 development is to be found in the breed- 

 ing of proper plants for the making of 

 the best of crops, while the growth of 

 live stock is made much more profitable 

 both to the owner and to the public by 

 improving the breed and the infusion of 

 the blood of the best stock. 



The improvement in agricultural edu- 

 cation goes on apace. All the States are 

 engaged in spending money to educate 

 the coming farmer, and this system is 

 being extended, so that now we have 

 the consolidated rural school, the farm- 

 ers ' high school, g and the agricultural 

 college, and one who intends to become 

 a farmer is introduced to his profession 

 soon after he learns to read and write, 

 and he continues his study of it until he 

 graduates from his college, and applies 

 for a place upon the farm. 



The land-grant colleges established by 

 the Federal Government have vindicated 

 the policy in making the grant. Now 

 the department employs 11,000 persons, 

 many of whom are engaged in conduct- 

 ing experiment stations and spreading 

 information all over the country. The 

 co-operation between the State agri- 

 cultural school system and the Federal 

 Government's public city bureau and 

 experimental work is as close and fine as 

 we could, ask, It is difficult to justify 

 the expenditure of money for agri- 

 cultural purposes in the Agricultural. 



Department with a view to its public- 

 ation for use of the farmers, or to make 

 grants to schools for farmers, on any 

 constitutional theory that will not 

 justify the Government in spending 

 money for any kind of education the 

 country over, but the welfare of the 

 people is so dependent on improved 

 agricultural conditions that it seems 

 wise to use the welfare clause of the 

 Constitution to authorize the expendi- 

 ture of money for improvement in agri- 

 cultural education, and leave to the 

 States and to private enterprise general 

 and other vocational education. The 

 attitude of the Government in all this 

 matter must be merely advisory. It 

 owns no land of sufficient importance to 

 justify its maintenance of so large a de- 

 partment or of its sending into all States 

 agents to carry the news of recent dis- 

 coveries in the science of agriculture. 

 The $50,000,000 which has been spent for 

 research work in the department, how- 

 ever, has come back many fold to the 

 people of the United States, and all 

 parties unite in the necessity for main- 

 taining those appropriations and increas- 

 ing them as the demand shall increase. 



It is now proposed to organize a force 

 of 3,000 men, one to every county in 

 the United States, who shall conduct 

 experiments within the county for the 

 edification and education of the present 

 farmers and of the embryo farmers who 

 are being educated. It is proposed that 

 these men shall be paid partly by the 

 county, partly by the State, and partly 

 by the Federal Government, and it is 

 hoped that the actual demonstration on 

 farms in the county — not at agricultural 

 stations or schools somewhere in the 

 State, but in the county itself — will 

 bring home to farmers what it is possible 

 to do with the very soil that they them- 

 selves are cultivating. I understand 

 this to be the object of an association 

 organized for the improvement of agri- 

 culture in the country, and I do not 

 think we could have a more practical 

 method than this, It is ordinarily not 

 wise to unite administration between 

 the county and State and Federal 

 Governments, but this subject is one so 

 all-compelling, it is one in which all 

 people are so interested that co-operation 

 seems easy and the expenditure of money 

 to good purpose so free from difficulty, 

 that we may properly welcome the plan 

 and try it. 



On the whole, therefore, I think our 

 agricultural future is hopeful. I do 

 not share the pessimistic views of many 

 gentlemen whose statistics differ some- 

 what trom mine, and who look forward 

 to a strong probability of failure of self- 



