1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5o3 
Hope Farm Notes 
Twenty Years Ago.— When I was a 
student at the Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
lege there was held a reunion of the 
graduates. I remember sitting on a front 
seat and listening to an old fellow who 
sang a song to the tune of “Twenty Years 
Agol” He was singing about the old col¬ 
lege bell: 
“Twenty years ago, 
Twenty years ago, 
Its music’s just as sweet, old friend. 
As twenty years ago!” 
Then the man’s voice began to tremble 
and though he wore spectacles I knew 
that his eyes were swimming. There were 
some hard chunks of life behind me at 
that time, but the only asset I had was a 
bunch of hopeful things that I felt sure 
would grow out of a college education. I 
could not understand therefore what 
“twenty years” meant to this singer. Two 
weeks ago I went back to a reunion of the 
old college boys and then I found out what 
it meant. When the old fellows began 
to gather—walking like shadows out of 
the busy past, I knew just why that old 
singer could not hold his voice in the song. 
I have lived for some years among the 
trusts and mosquitoes In New Jersey, and 
am supposed to be pretty well pickled by 
the acid of life, but all of a sudden the 
whole thing was made clear to me. I saw 
how much of the freshness of life had 
been wilted and I had to go out of that 
room and walk around the grounds—or 
ruin my reputation as a dignified citizen. 
1 was not alone in this. I saw one “old 
boy” who would pass anywhere for a 
Supreme Court Judge rubbing his spec¬ 
tacles when they needed no polishing at 
all. Another who would not flinch at the 
mouth of a Gatling gun was blowing his 
nose when there was absolutely no need 
for it! There was no shame about this. 
We were all back in the past. That is, the 
spirit tried to get back there and made an 
awkward show of it because she couldn’t 
shake free from the flesh or the things 
we had built around her. Some of us had 
put the spirit of youth to sleep and of 
course she made an exhibition of herself 
when suddenly, rousted out. We were a 
little rusty in expressing our sentiment, 
but even though the wheels squeaked it_^ 
did us good. One trouble with many of" 
us is that we do not have half enough 
sentiment in our lives. Of course the hard 
dull grinding will make us tough and dis¬ 
contented. 
Old and New. —When 1 was at college 
there were about 200 students—now there 
are over 800. There were four college 
buildings and the barn—now there are so 
many that 1 lost the count, i went back 
to the old room where 1 dug away with 
no carpet on the floor, two old chairs and 
a straw-licked bed which 1 filled at the 
barn. It is now beautifully furnished. At 
the time i entered college tlie boy who 
smoked either a pipe or a cigar was looked 
upon as a black sheep. Now i should say 
that smoking is indulged in by the great 
majority, in my day most of the boys 
worked their way through college and 
taught school or worked on a farm in 
Winter. Such a thing as spending 
money” was unknown to my associates. 
Now I understand that many students a 
«j cj tVlAV S01lt. LO i <i.l6 
are 
sent there as they are sent to Yale or 
darvarci—because it is supposed to be tnc 
.lung to do—not especially to ht them tor 
.he business of farming. Such students 
lave "iiocket money” and spend it in 
pvays that would have shocked our old 
joys. There were usually one or tw^o girls 
n each class in our time—now there is 
t building for girls and perhaps 200 of 
hem at the college, in my time you 
jould see on any afternoon iOO or more 
joys at w’ork in the fields or on the ^wns 
ind gardens, i milked cows, dug ditches 
ind hoed corn because 1 had to in order 
LO get through college. Now you seldom 
if ever see a student at work. I hunted 
ior the hoes and tools we formerly used 
It hand labor but could hardly find them. 
I'he work now seems to be done by farni 
liands. My observation is that instead of 
working as we did the modern student of 
Agriculture goes walking about with the 
jirls! 
Necessary Changes. —In fact, the mod¬ 
ern college boy is very different from the 
one 1 knew 20 years ago. i was told that 
the present college baseball club wouldn’t 
give our old nine a run, and that they 
would walk all over us at football. I 
shall go down to my grave doubting that, 
i was also told that if a boy were to come 
to college now as we did without money 
or credit, wear old clothes and work in 
stable and ditch he would have no stand¬ 
ing with the girls and but little more with 
some of the faculty. I don’t believe a 
word of that, for if the man had ability 
it would be recognized in spite of any 
scars of labor. The glory of the old col¬ 
lege was its democracy and the effort it 
made to dignify and ennoble the common, 
homely things of life. Like other old fel¬ 
lows I must remember that what we call 
agricultural education has grown and de¬ 
veloped in 20 years. The homes from which 
these young men come are different from 
those of the old boys. The men who 
would naturally send a boy to college are 
richer than those of 20 years ago, and 
what is more the boys know it and de¬ 
mand things which we knew were im¬ 
possible. I like the old time best, but I 
Know that it can never come again, and 
f realize that had the college not grown 
with the times it would have few students 
to-day. I must admit in order to be fair 
that the old colleg*^ as we knew it would 
not fairly represent Michigan agriculture 
of to-da.v. But here comes in another 
thing. Does this great agricultural college 
really represent the common farmer—the 
man who most needs help? No—and the 
old school did not represent the “common 
farmers” of its day. From their very na¬ 
ture the agricultural colleges naturally 
cater to the desires of the richer and more 
intelligent farmers. This class develops 
much faster than those I call “common 
farmers,” and it is entirely natural that 
the college should tend to grow further 
away from the latter class. This makes 
it all the more necessary that there should 
be more connecting links between the col¬ 
lege and the farmers. The farmers’ insti¬ 
tutes in IMichigan have headquarters at 
the college and do good work in reaching 
the people. The average audience in Mich¬ 
igan is much greater than in New York 
Agricultural high schools and agricultural 
text books in the rural schools must come 
in time as a part of a complete system. 
Old Timers.— The students may have 
changed but the old boys w'ere still on 
deck. There were doctors and law.vers 
and teachers and ministers and rich men 
and men with honorable poverty. There 
were plenty of farmers who have stuck to 
the farm through all the years. It did 
me good to see that these farmers were 
respected and put forward. That was one 
thing that impressed me above all others. 
No matter what a man was doing or how 
he was making a living he had respect for 
the farm and love for the old college. 
Nobody got up and found fault because the 
w’ord “agricultural” was to be found on 
their college diplomas! Had anyone whis¬ 
pered such a thing we would have hooted 
him well. The old boys are proud of that 
word and realize that it is “up to them” 
to dignify it. It will be hard for a farmer 
in New York or New. Jersey to realize 
what it means for agriculture to have this 
great body of loyal men and women eter¬ 
nally true to the agricultural college and 
what it stands for. Why, if there were 
such a body of educated men in New York 
State as met at that reunion no human 
can estimate their power for good and 
honest public service. I see now as I never 
did before the need of a great agricultural 
college in New York, for it will help de¬ 
velop' the agriculture of the entire East. 
1 was interested in learning what the old 
boys have been doing. The estimate of 
their “success” as reported to me seemed 
based largely on the amount of property 
they had collected. That of course is one 
easy and popular way of estimating suc¬ 
cess, but I wish I could have known more 
about their growth of character. After all. 
while it is not easy to make a man think 
so, at the last, his dollars will kick the 
beam when placed against good character. 
I find that in Michigan as well as in New 
Jersey people are hard after the dollar— 
with varying success in the chase. 
Agricultural Science.— While as an 
old timer I am bound to think that the old 
student beat the new one, I must admit 
that the present facilities for teaching are 
far superior to the old ones. I wish I 
could have had such a course as the col¬ 
lege now offers. During the past 20 years 
not only has there been a wonderful in¬ 
crease in agricultural knowledge, but new 
ways of imparting that knowledge have 
been perfected. In the woman’s depart¬ 
ment I found them teaching sewing, and 
it seemed to me wonderful that such a 
common thing could be analyzed and put 
before a student step by step until it was 
mastered. Do I undertake to say that this 
sewing teacher could really make a better 
seamstress out of a girl than some gentle 
old grandmother who never knew that sew¬ 
ing is a science? After seeing the way 
those students are taught I must say that 
grandmother makes a better model than 
teacher. The same is true of the cooking 
school at the college. I would like nothing 
better for my daughter than to have her 
take that course. It seemed to me better 
for girls than anything at the college can be 
said to be for boys. It has been said that 
most women will mount a chair at sight- 
of a mouse. The day I went through this 
women’s building a chipmunk had made its 
way into the college parlor. Those “domes¬ 
tic science” girls did not run an inch from 
him. To illustrate how Michigan farming 
has developed in 20 years I may say that 
when I was a student I was once sent to 
put some chemical fertilizers on small plot 
experiments. I remember how we all laugh¬ 
ed at this “bag manuring”—even the pro¬ 
fessor made fun of it and told us the time 
would not come for half a century when 
Michigan farms would ever need anything 
but stable manure, clover, and possibly 
wood ashes. You would not find a profes¬ 
sor of to-day making any such statement, 
for the wonderful development of knowl¬ 
edge has made them realize that no man 
can foretell the practice that will prove 
most economical in the future. I found 
Prof. Smith of the experiment station con¬ 
ducting what seemed to me wonderful ex¬ 
periments with fertilizers on sugar beets 
and cow peas. While they are not yet ob¬ 
taining the results from either cow peas 
or chemicals that we do in New Jersey or 
in Delaware they are coming to it. and this 
marks what I think is likely to be a great 
change in Michigan farming. Prof. Smith 
tells me that sugar beets and beans are 
coming to be standard crops in Michigan. 
When I was a student there many farmers 
were doubtful about eating beans, while 
beet sugar was a curiosity of the chemical 
laboratory. At a point nearly 100 miles 
north of Lansing I was surprised to learn 
that hundreds of bushels of cow peas were 
being grown for green manuring. On light 
soils where clover would not “catch” the 
cow pea was taking care of the land. In 
many parts of the State farmers practice 
a rotation in which wheat follows oats. On 
the college farm there is a good field of 
oats which will be seeded to wheat and 
grass in the Pall. I want them to try cow 
peas between those oats and the wheat on 
{lai't of that field. I would plow at once 
after harvest and drill New Era cow peas 
in drills 30 Inches apart through the center 
of the field. Keep them well cultivated and 
plow under in time for wheat seeding. If 
that strip does not show in the wheat next 
year I am all w'rong, and if a dollar's 
M'orth of acid phosphate on the cow peas 
will not give $3 increase in the wheat and 
grass I can only say that the modern col¬ 
lege atmosphere is such that the cow pea 
drops farm work like the modern agincul- 
tural student This use of the cow pea 
with the coarser and cheaper chemicals 
is, in my judgment, one of the things that 
farmers of the Middle West must come to— 
especially on the lighter soils. The space 
between oats and wheat is just the place 
for cow peas. h. w. c. 
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