The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-07-17
AGRICULTURAL.
Apricul,ural Needs

1t would be passing strange if the methods,
tools and implements, in use by the farmers
OF the present day, were not Improvements
on those employed by their grandfathers;
while II Is scarcely possible that the expert
ence and investigation of the last halfcentury
has developed no advance in the needs of
agriculture, or no suggestions as to the proper
solution of many of the vexed problems OF the
day. While great progress is manifest in the
art of agriculture and its practical applica
tion, yet how little is due to the appropria-
tions oil State, or to the ponderous and ancient
machinery OF some of the dignified boards of
agriculture. Massachusetts, has spent 81, 000-
600 during the last fifteen years in the nomin-
al encouragement of agriculture. We have
had horse trots by the score in every part of
the State; premiums by the thousand have
been paid for improved poultry, crops of
onions and cabbages, loaves of bread and
patchwork quilts. Orators have shouted
themselves hoarse in procamipg their love
of rural scenes, the independence and worth
of the farmer and the triumphs of agriculture.
We have had annual meetings OF the Board
of Agriculture, wherein the same hackneyed
topics have been dressed in varying suits,
without marked change in results. We
have founded and endowed an agricultural
college, the sum and substance of whose
grand and noble work in the cause of agricul-
ture is the fact that several OF Its brightest
students have emigrated to Japan as the
most promising field for the exercise of their
talents.
Aside from the annual holiday gatherings
supported at State expense, and excepting
the enthusiasm which always follows in the
wake OF even the weakest attempt to interest
ana instruct at farmers gatherings, of what
practical benefit to the farmers of this Com
monWealth has been this enormous outlay OF
money!? Has SipOIa nriDpinIa hpnu
developed or advanced? From anything
that the State has accomplished, does the
farmer know any more about raising corn,
wheat, potatoes or fruit? Does he know the
best seeds to plant, the most profitable crops
to raise the best breeds of cattle to rear for
dairy pur poses or the butcher? Is he abso-
lutely any better acquainted with the reme-
dies for canSer worm, codling moth or other
insect enemies than his forefathers were gen.
eraiions ago? Have not all the improve
ments in machinery, fertilizers, potatoes,
grain, breeds of animals, been the result of
private enterprise, investigation and energy !?
Progressive agriculture needs "a change in
tactics. Instead of the drum and fife, the
brass band, the baseball club, the horse trot,
the monkey show of the average agricultural
fair, it needs the careful investigation of ex-
perts, the extended experiments OF trained
and skillful men, who have spent their lives
cry of principles. The farmer of the present
day wants, instead of cattle-fair oratory, that
the State should devote its appropriations to
lectures by speakers competent to teach the
best methods of farming, to specialists who
shall devote months and years to the solu-
ton OF questions that have defied the discon-
nected experiments of individual farmers.
The farmers and taxpayers would like to
see State appropriations expended in such a
manner as to settle few important ques-
tions each year, to add few mile-stones
OF progress to the grand march of modern
agriculture, to discharge few columbiads
each year that shall hit the mark, instead
of the continuous fusillade of pop-guns, that
create noise but make no other impression
upon the strong. holds of error, ignorance,
prejudice. Let farmers manage their own
fairs, but let the State get value received for
money spent, in the shape of lectures, rrac-
iical and scientific research and experiment,
with bulletins of progress and results de-
spatched to every farmhouse in the Com
inonwealth. -Anerican Cultiyator.