522 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
from the crop had the seed been good. To 
avoid this liability seedsmen now often print 
upon their seed packages that they do not 
warrant the seed. It is questionable as to 
just what responsibility this action will re¬ 
lieve them from, though there can be no 
doubt that it would in a measure remove 
their liability if they did not know that the 
seed was bad, and used due diligence to ascer¬ 
tain that it was good before making the sale. 
—0-$^— - 
A Hamper Jumper. 
Near the coast it is sometimes the case that 
there will not be sufficient snow during the 
entire winter, to allow of sleighing, and one 
does not care to invest much in sleighs. Once 
in a while there is a “good old-fashioned” 
winter, and as the people, especially the boys, 
are not to be deprived of their sport, the 
number and variety of extemporized vehicles 
is amusing. These hurriedly-made sleighs or 
sliding vehicles, of whatever material they 
are constructed, go by the general term of 
Jumpers. Sometimes these are very primi¬ 
tive, a sapling split in halves forms the run¬ 
ning-gear, the larger ends of the halved sap¬ 
ling, placed rounded side down, furnish the 
runners, the small ends the shafts : the pieces 
being notched at the right place to make 
these turn up to reach the horse. A box of 
some kind is nailed to the runners, and 
straw put in the box completes the outfit. A 
carpenter’s saw-bench has been used for the 
body ; this is a piece of scantling with four 
legs, which are inserted in holes made in 
the runners, and the rider very properly 
mounts the “ horse ” astride, first putting on a 
blanket. Sometimes a jumper is constructed 
very substantially ; of this kind is one made 
by a neighbor who lived a few miles away. 
Having a sled, he ingeniously converted a 
crockery crate into what a sailor would pro¬ 
perly call a top-hamper. The first step was 
to provide for getting in and out by cutting 
the sides down about two-thirds of the way, 
leaving an opening 18 inches wide ; this left 
the end piece as a dasher. Straw was then 
twisted to form a rope, and this was woven 
in and out of the frame of the hamper to quite 
fill all the open spaces, and by winding the 
rope around the edges a pleasing finish was 
given to the whole, which looked as if it 
might last for several winters. Shoe boxes 
were used for seats, as the sides are springy, 
and they afford room in which to stow away 
small articles. The crate was of large-size,. 
and would hold four persons with comfort. 
Young people always seem to enjoy a ride in 
some such affair as this, vastly more than 
they would in one of the stylish sleighs. 
The Farmer’s Relation to Science. 
BY TV. H. JORDAN, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, STATE 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA. 
It is often that the agricultural chemist or 
teacher of agricultural science is asked by a 
farmer to state just what he should do with 
his land or animals, in order that profitable 
results may follow. These requests are often 
not so much a call for information as they 
are an expressed desire to obtain a rule, 
recipe or formula, that shall be an infallible 
guide to all future operations. A trustee 
of an agricultural college once said to the 
professor of.agriculture : “ "What we wish you 
to do is to tell us just what we must put on 
our farms in order that we may get big- 
crops,” meaning that there must be some way, 
known or unknown, by which all soils could 
be made productive to the desired extent. 
Many farmers seem to be living in the ex¬ 
pectation that a series of facts are to be dis¬ 
covered, and a code of rules formulated, that 
will constitute their guide book, which will 
relieve them of the inconvenience of facing 
difficult and disagreeable problems. To be 
sure, some pretend to distrust science, and 
say that the farmer must depend on himself 
alone ; but such distrust arises in many cases 
from the fact that science has not helped 
them out of all the hard places, so that they 
still have difficulties. 
This stationary condition of expectancy, 
this waiting for the scientist to dig out the 
summum bonum of agricultural knowledge, 
which can be used as the house-wife uses a 
recipe for bread making, has been of harm 
to the progress of agriculture. It does not 
now seem probable that agricultural practice 
will admit of very mauy universally best 
methods. At least such is not the case now, 
and farmers need to be more fully impressed 
with the fact. The main operations of the 
farm can only by chance allow the profitable 
use of the same details of practice in A’s case 
that would be wise in B’s, neither is it the 
business of science to provide a creed of farm 
practice that shall contain anything beyond 
great underlying principles. The determina¬ 
tion of almost all the rules of practice best 
adapted to a farmer’s particular circum¬ 
stances, rests with the farmer himself. We 
would, if possible, place the matter in such a 
light as to more sharply define the relation 
which the farmer's own observations and 
knowledge on the one hand, and the gen¬ 
eralizations of science on the other, bear to 
the sphere of individual effort. 
Science teaches principles only. The rule 
for action is the outcome of the application 
of principles to the conditions of practice. 
Chemistry teaches that lime transforms and 
decomposes, and what its action is under 
particular circumstances, but it is left with 
each individual to decide when and where to 
apply lime in his farm practice. Chemistry 
teaches that superphosphates furnish plant 
food, but this is only showing that they can 
be used when needed. Not every farm may 
respond profitably to their use. Chemical 
analysis decides as to the relative composi¬ 
tion and value of cotton seed meal, but each 
dairyman is left to economically combine it 
with his other cattle foods, although he may 
have certain established principles to aid him 
in producing such combinations. 
In every agricultural problem there is the 
science side and the farmer side, the latter 
being often the more difficult. The farmer 
stands between principles on the one hand, 
and the conditions of his farming on the 
other, and out of the proper application of 
principles to conditions comes correct prac¬ 
tice. Other things being equal, then, the 
farmer who has the best knowledge of prin¬ 
ciples has the best practice—in other words, 
the educated farmer may be the best farmer. 
It would be convenient if agricultural prac¬ 
tice could be so simplified as to render un¬ 
necessary any special study or preparation on 
the part of the tillers of the soil. We should 
then be sure of maximum good results, even 
from the ignorant ones. Farmers are apt to 
boast of the good sense and sterling qualities 
of their class, and they seem to think that 
because of these things they deserve success. 
But no matter how much we may admire the 
citizen and the man, if he does not possess a 
certain kind of knowledge especially adapted 
to his wants, he will surely pay the penalty 
for such deficiency. Men belabor science for 
its mistakes, and its inability to do certain 
things, but they must remember that neither 
now nor at any other time can science stand 
in the place which the farmer fails to occupy; 
nor can it secure the best results only through 
the medium of a mind fitted to comprehend 
its teachings. This, then, is equivalent to 
saying that farming is not an occupation 
especially fitted for the unlettered, and those 
of low capacity, and, moreover, that there are 
to-day tillers of the soil who are but bung¬ 
lers, and for whom science has few benefits. 
Fertilizer formulas, or any formulas designed 
for the use of those who cannot find out their 
own needs, are but sorry makeshifts, and are 
only the outcome of necessity, a necessity 
based on ignorance. The farmer must discover 
and decide some things for himself, or in case 
of a failure to do this, pay a costly penalty. 
A Cheerful Note from Texas. 
Mr. Paul F. Schem writes from Anderson, 
Tex., as follows:—“That deep plowing is 
necessary to make good crops, no one who 
has tried it will deny, and yet there are scores 
throughout the South who not only break 
shallow, but very often do not break at all. 
I came to this State early this spring, and 
found that the land had not been broken over 
A HOME-MADE JUMPER WITH CROCKERY CRATE BOX. 
