THB K.X_JE 4 _A.I> NBW-YORKER 
April 13, 
4©8 
Hope Farm Notes 
Education. —The oldest boy wants to 
be a farmer and fruit grower, and it 
became a question in my mind whether 
it would pay to send him to an agricul¬ 
tural college. This is a hard puzzle for 
many a farmer. It is, of course, easy 
for any good farmer to see that the 
very foundation of his business is based 
upon exact scientific principles. He 
can easily see how a thorough knowl¬ 
edge of those things would have helped 
him. It seems evident that the boy can 
get at least an idea of these fundamental 
principles at an agricultural college. Yet 
any farmer must know that scientific 
principles will not cultivate corn or saw 
wood. There must be the ability and 
willingness to do hard work if farming 
is to pay. The question in a farmer’s 
mind is whether the college in packing 
these scientific principles in the boy’s 
mind will not take out the inclination to 
work in order to make room. If we 
get right into the heart of things, that 
is what stumps the farmer when col¬ 
lege and his boy are linked together in 
prospect. Will these scientific principles 
eat up the boy, or will the boy digest 
them and bring them home? . 
History. —I graduated from an agri¬ 
cultural college more than 25 years ago. 
At that time this college ranked highest 
in its class, yet the poverty of its 
course as we look back at it now was 
pathetic. There was hardly a silo in 
the State. The cream separator had not 
been introduced in this country; there 
was no study of dairying whatever. 
There was a big farm on which they 
grew big crops. The students were 
obliged to work three hours each day in 
the field or barn. I milked cows and 
dug ditches. The study of agriculture 
did not follow along with our practice of 
farming, for these colleges had not been 
able to break away from the old “classi¬ 
cal” idea of training brains by studying 
mathematics, history and literature. We 
heard little or nothing about bacteria 
or how clover is able to get nitrogen 
from the air. For example, we were 
taught how to handle manure or make 
a compost heap and how certain condi¬ 
tions of manure would follow. But we 
could not tell why or what went on in¬ 
side the manure pile as our students are 
now taught. Compared with our pres¬ 
ent knowledge that course was much 
like a superior high school of this day, 
yet it turned out some fine farmers, and 
a large proportion of the students went 
back to farm work. I did not because 
I had no farm to go to, and even then, 
though less than now, a young man 
needed capital to farm. Of course some 
men went to the woods, cut out a hole 
in the forest, lived on what they could 
and dogged it out with limited capital, 
but the college graduate could not find 
a girl whom he considered a suitable 
mate to go into such a struggle and 
endure. Such a graduate, in those days, 
was forced to do such work as he could 
find until he could raise the needed cap¬ 
ital. If you leave out farming the 
course trained a boy for nothing in par¬ 
ticular except teaching. 
To-day. —I thought over all those 
things in connection with the boy. Poor 
and crude as we may call it now, that 
college course was salvation to me, a 
regular ladder up from the slavery of 
inferior conditions. I do not believe in 
the theory of sending a boy to college 
as a matter of form, because other boys 
go, but if he is willing to work to help 
go through and pay for it when he gets 
out I would spend my last dollar to 
finance him. I have yet to see a sweat- 
marked dollar that went very far on the 
road to ruin—except some that were 
dug out by ignorant lumbermen or fool 
• • * " .— • - J %<*. • ■■■ - ■ 
cowboys. So we started the boy at an 
agricultural college where he entered a 
two-year course in farming. I make 
the clean distinction between agriculture 
and farming. With this boy I am after 
the latter. After six months he came 
home for a short vacation, and I had a 
chance to talk with him about his work. 
Farm Education. —It seems evident 
that the college course has helped this 
boy. He has learned considerable of 
how to do things, and as much of the 
why as I expected. He could criticize 
our hen ration and tell why it seemed 
wrong. He went into an old peach or¬ 
chard and showed us how they dishorn 
peach trees at college. But better than 
that, he seems to have picked up a defi¬ 
nite idea of doing a certain thing. A 
man from the Pacific coast came to 
demonstrate apple packing as they do 
it out there. My boy wants to become 
an expert apple packer. He plans to 
take part of his vacation in working on 
several good fruit farms learning how 
they pick and pack. Then later he 
wants to go West and see just how these 
apples are handled, so that he can come 
back an expert. This boy has no 
thought of being a lawyer, a scientist or 
a “professional man,” but his ambition 
will be to know all that an average man 
can find out about producing and pack¬ 
ing fine apples. Now I think we could 
get on very well in the next 20 years 
with very few new lawyers pouring out 
of college, and the world will go on 
about the same if the professional men 
are shut off. T think the college which 
turns out good apple packers and fruit 
growers—who have as much pride in 
their work as any professional can 
have—is a mighty useful institution. My 
boy tells me of a debate they had in the 
class room on the. proposition that if 
a farmer could have but one harrow the 
Acme would be more useful than a disk 
or Cutaway. I once heard this question 
debated at an agricultural college com¬ 
mencement, “Resolved that the literary 
influence of Milton was greater than 
that of Shakespeare.” Give me the de¬ 
bate on harrows! 
( The Child.— And, after all, the great 
life problem with most of us centers 
around a child. That is easy to see, for 
in what way can anyone reach the mate¬ 
rial things of the future except through 
the child? We may work and toil and 
accumulate property, but its future must 
depend upon the way the children are 
taught and inspired. I meet some peo¬ 
ple who growl at the “younger genera¬ 
tion” and find fault with life in general. 
Many of us are afflicted in one way or 
another and know, if we are honest, that 
we must say with Isaiah: 
"I shall go softly all my years.” 
It is hard for some people to give 
up the idea of making a noise in the 
world, yet they ought to know that they 
m P s .t 'go softly.” Many of them are 
willing to go along with Isaiah and fin¬ 
ish his sentence —“in the bitterness of 
my soul ”—but that is where I get right 
out of step with the prophet, for if one 
must go softly he should get rid of all 
the bitterness he can shed off. I see 
no better way to sweeten such a journey 
than to become interested in children 
and try to give them the childhood and 
the chance which may have been denied 
you. That is one chief thing that the 
old farm is for. 
The Hens— Those 39 “farm hens” 
laid 369 eggs in March. Of course I 
know this is but little over 35 per cent 
of a full “lay,” while others are claim¬ 
ing 75 per cent or more. All I aim to 
do is to give the facts. These eggs were 
worth at our local prices on the average 
for the month $11.51. Eggs were high 
in the early part of the month but are 
now cheaper. During March we put 76 
pounds of dry mash in the hoppers and 
scattered 93 quarts of mixed grain on 
the floor. The mash averages V/ 2 cents 
a pound and whole grain about 2}4 
cents a quart or $3.46 in all. In addi¬ 
tion they had beef scraps and some 
kitchen wastes. T cannot quite figure 
the value of the meat scraps until next 
month. With this value in, the eggs 
cost over one cent each. I would like 
if possible to include a breeding experi¬ 
ment with these hens. This would mean 
using a high class young cockerel with 
them, hatching a fair number of eggs 
and selecting say 20 pullets from this 
hatching for another test next vear. | 
Then mate them with a good bird and 
go on to see just how such breeding 
and selecting will improve the laying 
qualities. . h. w. c. 
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