ONE IDEA IN MEDICINE AND FARMING 
irow THE FAHMER IS BROADENING OUT. 
The Necessity of Organization. 
strange, is It not, how generally the one-idea sys¬ 
tems of treating disease take root and spread, just 
like as many pestiferous weeds that force their way 
to the exclusion of the useful crop. The curative ef¬ 
fects of water in its various modes of application are 
observed, and straightway hydropathy is born. The 
change for the better that follows the giving of a 
dose of purgative medicine in an attack of 
diarrhoea, with some other similar illus¬ 
trations of the like cures like principle—or 
what appear to be such on a superficial 
view—constitute the germ that developed 
under the cultivation of Hahnemann into 
the system of homeopathy. The unques¬ 
tionable infiuence that the mind exerts up¬ 
on the condition of the body in quite op¬ 
posite w'ays by either deranging its regu¬ 
lar healthy action or otherwise by correct¬ 
ing its derangements and restoring its 
functions so disordered to their normal 
course, may be characterized as the foun¬ 
dation stone of several modes of treating 
disease, as, for instance, mind-healing, cur¬ 
ing by hypnotic suggestion, Christian 
science, etc. All of these possess a measure 
of truth, or the color of it, like oleo¬ 
margarine, and that it is that makes 
them dangerous to the unthinking, unob- 
serving public. Need we wonder that the 
men who are so lacking in critical judg¬ 
ment as to accept oleomargarine in the 
place of butter, will prefer the services of 
the unskilled pretender to those of the 
thoroughly trained physician? 
It has been the case heretofore that the 
farmers, more than any other class, have 
been regarded as the special game for the 
hosts of piratical plundering impostors. 
Pick up any second or third-rate agricul¬ 
tural journal and run through the adver¬ 
tisements. There are medical impostors, 
of course, but they are by no means the 
sole representatives of the species. You 
will find them in all circles, mercantile, 
financial, political and even in professedly 
religious circles. They all make promises, 
promises they cannot perform, have no in¬ 
tention of even trying to perform. But the 
light of a better day is dawning, so it seems 
to me at least. Of all men the farmer is 
brought the most closely into association 
with nature. Nature neither lies nor de¬ 
ceives; we may mistake her meaning, but 
that is not her fault. The management of 
the w'ork of the farm is all the while de¬ 
manding greater intelligence and a wider 
range of knowledge for its correct conduct 
and satisfactory result. Farming will not 
so readily as most other fields of labor ad¬ 
mit of being cut up into narrow and nar¬ 
rowing specialties. The farmer must grow 
into a broader man, consequently the thorough train¬ 
ing for the work of the fai*m promises to become in 
itself a liberal education. The city man, as a rule, 
draws his inspiration from the columns of his daily 
newspaper. Let the farmer once be seized with an 
appetite to investigate the various natural processes 
that either help or hinder him in his work, and the 
effect upon the man himself must be such as to ele¬ 
vate him high above the ordinary dweller within city 
limits and city limitations. 
But I may be asked: “How comes it then that the 
farmer in the past has failed so sadly to assert him¬ 
self in the presence of his better-dressed city friend?” 
It is simply the effect of his comparative isolation. 
The city man is brought into contact, friendly or oth¬ 
erwise, with a larger number and greater variety of 
his fellow-men than is the farmer. He is in much 
better training to take his own part, consequently. 
If I may, without giving offense, which I surely do 
not intend, I would offer this illustration. Take a 
country-bred and reared dog into the city, a better 
dog—say a collie of pure blood—more useful and 
valuable than nine out of ten of those he would meet, 
and yet he will exhibit so much shamefacedness as 
to make him appear of no account. The telephone, 
better roads, centralized schools, and other agencies 
of like tendencies are going to change all that. An 
idea occurs to me just here that might prove feasible, 
and may yet be carried into practical effect. Suppose 
the central-school idea were so perfected as to be 
freed from the objections that have been brought 
against it. In that case why might it not be possible 
to have built in each township one large building con¬ 
veniently situated that might serve the several pur¬ 
poses of a central graded school, council chamber, lec¬ 
ture hall, reading room, public library, and place of 
meeting open to all and, with the exception of the 
school room, at all times? While every other class is 
massing its forces to enable it to seize and hold, no 
matter at whose expense, every possible advantage 
within its reach, whether it be by means that are fair 
or foul, it is simply suicidal for farmers to neglect to 
organize for protection and advancement of their 
class interests. As it is now they are served like lit¬ 
tle children who can be satisfied with any 
petty dole to keep them quiet. w. o. e. 
Canada. 
REVIEW OF INSTITUTE SEASON. 
Suggestions for the Future. 
Part I. 
Farmers’ institutes in the several States 
are now closed, and those who have 
been privileged to study carefully and 
closely should be able to draw conclusions. 
The writer has completed 10 years of in¬ 
stitute work, most of the time having been 
spent in New York State. Enough time has 
been given in five other States to study 
their conditions and note their peculiari¬ 
ties, why they succeed and where they fail, 
to feel sure that no single State has come 
to possess all of the good things. 
Close observers have never failed to give 
New York credit for its strong force of 
trained workers, who are directly connect¬ 
ed with farm management. New York has 
not been dependent upon other States, nor 
has she been wholly dependent upon college 
and experiment station workers. The work 
has never been in the hands of the college 
or experiment station. From its birth the 
selection of speakers has been in charge of 
men from the farm, J. S. Woodward, Geo. 
T. Powell, Geo. A. Smith and F. E. Dawley, 
and so unconsciously they began searching 
for a class of men engaged in practical farm 
and dairy work. Was this course a wise 
one, or would more effective work have 
been done had the trained men at once 
taken the initiative? This question may be 
debatable, but in my judgment, the wise 
course was followed. In the early days 
farmers were less inclined to listen to the 
teachings of our scientific leaders than tliey 
are to-day. It was a question of securing 
confidence fully as much as the elaboration 
of science. Our scientific workers were all 
these years earnestly laboring to place 
agricultural thought upon a firm basis, and 
to build a foundation upon which the farm¬ 
er teacher could safely stand. These men 
are slowly but surely working out a science 
of agriculture which shall stand alone, and 
not be, as in the past, an appendage to 
some already established “ology.” 
Farmers who would 10 years ago listen 
indifferently if at all to a purely scientific discussion 
of underlying principles, will to-day listen with the 
closest attention, analyzing each sentence carefully 
as the speaker elaborates. They not only listen but 
ask for these men at the institutes. This change has 
somewhat modified, as I feel it and observe it, the 
character of the farmer worker’s presentation. The 
audience demand of him to know why certain causes 
produced certain results. Take for example commer¬ 
cial fertilizers; 10 years ago but few men were recog¬ 
nizing that these mixtures were nothing more or less 
CANAHIAN METHOD OF BOILING LIME SALT AND SULPHUR. Fig. 119. 
CANADIAN ORCHARD SPRAYED WITH WASH. Fig. 130. 
