169 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 10. 
Hope Farm Notes 
During “Farmers’ Week” I visited the 
Canton, N. Y., Agricultural School. This 
is connected with St. Lawrence University, 
and is one of the experiments in teaching 
farming—or rather bringing “agriculture” 
closer to the farm than the agricultural 
colleges can do. St. Lawrence County 
stands for cold weather in Winter. 1 have 
been in the snow before, and so while we 
had little of it here, I put on a pair of big 
“arctics.” They caused some amusement on 
Broadway, but when I stepped off the train 
into the snow I was right in style and 
comfort. Just before starting' I bought 
some cheese at our local store, and took It 
along to see what share of the consumer’s 
dollar found its way up to the great river. 
The first thing that strikes a stranger at 
such a gathering is the character of the 
farmers who attend. I do not remember to 
have seen a stronger looking body of farm¬ 
ers than those who tramped through the 
snow out to the college buildings. All who 
go there know what beautiful children they 
raise in that north country—the only trou¬ 
ble being that there is not enough of them. 
For the most part the men had that same 
clear eye and fresh, clean complexion which 
nothing but strong, active work out in 
the irosty air will give. Down where I 
li'c only two classes of people seem able 
to afford fur coats—actors and millionaires! 
Fp in the St. Lawrence country 75 per 
cent of the farmers seemed to have these 
fur coats, and they certainly acted like 
men who are not very much afraid of mil¬ 
lionaires. These farmers have work every 
day in the year. The great barns you see 
on every hand are their factories, with the 
cows as working partners. At many fruit 
meetings I find men who wear themselves 
down to bone and weary nerve during 
the Summer, and have little to do in Win¬ 
ter except “chores.” These dairymen have 
a constant and steady job throngb the year, 
and that made a difference in the way this 
crowd operated through “Farmers’ Week.” 
her of local dents but the flint varieties 
were in great majority. 
I had my sample of cheese along and had 
it tasted and tested by a number of cheese 
experts. They agreed that it was of fair 
quality with perhaps one-third of the normal 
cream left in. They also seemed to agree 
that as prices ran last year the farmers 
received about eight cents for the milk 
required to make a pound of this cheese. I 
paid 20 cents at our local store, and in 
some other places the same grade of cheese 
retails at 22 cents. In speaking of this 
to the farmers I found that almost without 
exception they had thought out this propo¬ 
sition of the consumer’s dollar. I confess 
that 5 had no idea how thoroughly country 
people have followed this question. The 
Canton school is working out the cost of 
producing crops in a most effective way. 
They have a complete system of book¬ 
keeping by which they can tell the actual 
cost of producing a pound of milk or cheese 
or a bushel of potatoes under varying con¬ 
ditions. The value of this will come in the 
figures of a long series of years, for it is not 
fair to take any single year as conclusive. 
The college farm is run as a business enter¬ 
prise and this accurate bookkeeping will, 
in time, give those St. Lawrence county 
farmers the foundation for exact figuring on 
the cost of what they sell. This is the 
real basis of all hopeful effort to settle the 
consumer’s dollar question. The “interests” 
which handle and prepare the food we pro¬ 
duce know to a cent what it costs them 
to handle and ship. Thus they can regu¬ 
late selling prices and know just what they 
are doing. 
I think this agricultural school at Canton 
has made a fine start and is full of promise. 
I’rof. II. E. Cook, who heads the school, Is 
a practical farmer. lie was raised on a 
farm and knows what farmers need. lie is 
one of the few agricultural college presi¬ 
dents who could be trusted to milk a cow ! 
I doubt if there arc six others in the coun¬ 
try who could earn their board as hired 
men in a dairy barn. They may say that 
is no argument, since they are not expected 
to know or teach practical farming. I 
think it would do them all good to go out 
in disguise and work a month in overalls 
and boots on some farm where there is a 
struggle for home and a living. As a re¬ 
sult of such “extension work” 1 think their 
knowledge of actual farm conditions and 
their sympathy for the “average farmer” 
would be greatly extended. It must be evi¬ 
dent to anyone that many of our agricul¬ 
tural colleges are getting away, with more 
or less speed, from the practical things 
which are within reach of the average 
farmer. They can turn out managers for 
large estates, station or government work¬ 
ers or farmers with abundant capital, but 
are they training boys to go back to father’s 
I shall have more to say about the men 
than about the school because the latter 
will evidently be dominated by the former. 
Such a school must be local, and the par¬ 
ents of the students can easily come from 
time to time and see what is being done 
with their boys and girls. If those par¬ 
ents want their children to come back to 
the farm they will be able to influence the 
spirit of the school and keep it harnessed 
to practical things. This is where such a 
school has the advantage of an agricul¬ 
tural college. Much of the instruction 
given during “Farmers’ Week” was quite 
informal. It was much like a company of 
men getting together and talking things 
over. In the barn there was a crowd of 
men gathered abouff a cow. Each man 
had a printed score card with a scale of 
points. An expert went over the animal in 
detail, pointing out its good points and de¬ 
fects—the crowd following him. Often 
some shrewd and observant dairyman would 
disagree with the marking and explain why 
he thought the hips or barrel or skin or 
udder indicated a better score. Cow after 
cow was brought in for this examination— 
the object being to agree if they could upon 
some basis for deciding the merits of a 
cow by her shape and appearance. There 
was also' a small herd of cows suspected 
of having tuberculosis. Some of them were 
evidently sick while others seemed in good 
health. Each day cows were tested with 
tuberculin before the crowd, and one which 
had reacted was slaughtered and cut open 
to show the disease. A crowd gathered 
around the operator, watching every move 
from skinning to opening the lungs. It 
was a great object lesson, and at night 
there was a lecture on tuberculosis with 
pictures. Then there were lectures and 
demonstrations in dairying, poultry keeping, 
potato growing, and corn growing—all prac¬ 
tical and designed to draw out these farmers 
and get them to give their views. In fact I 
got the Idea that the basic principle of this 
school is that it is preeminently for the 
children of practical farmers and that the 
parents are invited to help organize it 
and work out its policy. 
One of the most surprising things to me 
was the display of local varieties of corn. 
I knew that dairying was the main business 
in this country, and silos are in evidence 
everywhere. It is the impression of many 
farmers who live south of New York that 
southern seed corn is used largely in the 
North. Yet here were dozens of varieties or 
strains of flint corn of excellent quality. 
They will give 12 to 15 tons of silage per 
acre or 60 or more bushels of shelled corn, 
and will in the majority of seasons mature 
the grains before frost. This school teaches 
farmers that they should put dry matter 
rather than water into the silo. These 
local flints give a good-sized ear and stalk. 
They may not fill the silo as fast as the 
big, watery, southern varieties but they 
give more food value. There were a num- ■ 
old farm, take his old barn, his herd of 
cattle or his rather inferior soil and, with 
reasonable means, build success upon such 
foundations? There is the great test of 
farm education. Unless someone can train 
boys and girls for such work our agricul¬ 
ture will become topheavy and fall down. 
I think the Canton school has started in 
to do this thing. 1 got the idea that they 
recognize the fact that what we call prac¬ 
tical farming is to be the foundation of all 
successful “agriculture.” Let the foundation 
alone, but build the structure of science 
upon it and make that science so sensible 
and plain that the two will unite like con¬ 
crete and sand. Naturally this can be best 
done in smaller and simpler schools than 
our present colleges with local attendance 
<—within say 100 miles where parents can 
easily come and see what is being done 
with their children. The theory of this 
seems fair and yet it is only a theory thus 
far. There are three of these farm schools 
in New York now, but 1 should oppose 
starting any more until these three really 
show themselves, and prove something. Who 
can expect any system of education to prove 
itself in 10 or 15 years? 1 sometimes think 
50 years would be all too short to demon¬ 
strate the best way to teach farming. In 
the meantime we should try to improve 
our common and high schools. I know that 
many boys and girls who go to agricultural 
schools are unfitted to take the course 
through a failure to comprehend mathe¬ 
matics. A farmer may ask what have 
mathematics to do with feeding a cow, 
making butter or handling the soil. Let 
him try to figure out a balanced ration, or 
test milk, or make up an economical fer¬ 
tilizer without knowing thoroughly the 
principle of figuring percentage, and he will 
quickly understand. This figuring is the 
very foundation of successful buying and 
feeding. A grown-up man came to see me 
once and asked me to figure out the propor¬ 
tion of fertilizers he would need to make a 
simple home mixture for grass. lie did not 
understand what “per cent” meant, and 
was ready to spend about $40 extra which 
he could save by a little correct figuring. 
Now. many young people who will enter 
these agricultural schools cannot figure per 
'>nt or similar things and they feel the 
lack of this knowledge all through their 
course. These colleges should not be ex¬ 
pected to teach such things—our common 
schools should do that, and therefore we 
must, in some way, get down past these 
farm schools and give our children a better 
drill to begin with. I think that north 
country is waking up to farm education. It 
looks like what we call a “goodlv land”— 
certainly overflowing with milk and maple 
syrup if not honey. Some one asks where 
I would prefer to live—on the St. Lawrence 
or in Florida. With good health and 
nerves, well covered with flesh. I should say 
St. Lawrence at once. An ideal way to live 
would be four Winter months in' Florida 
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