The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1878-10-12
AGRICULTURAL JOURNALS.
A Paper Read at the American In
stitute Farmers Club by
Conrad Wilson.

ehV"Bh " Pioh' W io"NhSs pet Who
select the best part of their material
from books and papers devoted to
their interest, and in which they find
recorded the facts and the experience
of successful men
That the real progress of agricult-
ure is in this way greatly promoted
by the influence of the press is mo
longer an open question, for although
Il is undoubtedly true that the pro-
ducts of husbandry are directly and
mainly the outcome of manual labor,
yet the quality and amount of those
products are largely determined by
superiority Of mental force, and by
thckind of intelligence that comes
from books and Journals. 9'isii snA
Let not the tillers of the soil, there
fore, blindly imagine that physical
development alone is sufficient to Sc
cure maximum crops, and margin
for profit. Let them bear in mind
that still higher power has its seat
in the brain, from which the physical
development derives all its value;
that the silent energy of thought is
quietly doing its work over the con-
tinent from week to week, and from
year to year, and that this free, earn
est and unselfish thought, while con-
tinually achieving grand results, is
also continually putting them on re-
cord for the benefit of all.
Thus it is that while we discover
on one hand grand army of thought
full workers, everywhere intent ON
developing now and original facts,
andnew fruits of experience, we may
also find, in the background of the
picture, another army of workers,
who are also thinkers of the highest
type-a coterie of vigorous and
enterprising journals, always ready
to seize and appropriate, to expound
and improve these new and valuable
results of practical farming, and then
to scatter them broadcast through
The land, to shed light in dark places
and pour new fertility into sterile
soils. ratfl.-Y
How is IL possible then not TO see
that the pen as well as the pillow, the
as well as the planter, the
editor at his desk not less than the
of thousand acres, are
all instrumental in propelling this
great interest of the country, and
have Jointly contributed to make
our agriculture all that it now is.
In confirmation of this view, there
are many shrewd and practical men
who have discovered in their own
and who do not hesitate
to emphazise the fact, that the best
investment they have yet made in
their business is the money paid for
agricultural papers, and who also
make it a point to read them CAREFUL
", and to write for them often.
These are the men to win the surest
prizes of husbandry, whose success
proves that farming can be made to
pay, not only in the broadcast and high
,st sense of the word, but also in its
money aspect, and whose example
lindles the faith. and animates the
zeal of other farmers even in remote
md unfavored sections.
So clearly and palpably have the
ournals of this class demonstrated
heir value, that it is often possible
N passing through rural district to
discover by unmistakable signs, the
arms at which such papers are TAX
m, and where they have found a
Welcome home and it is easy to sec
hat in the presence of these sheets
If useful knowledge, the whole as
pect of the farm is changed, and all
he results improved. Manure and
fertilizers are more efficient as well
rs more abundant; the latest and
best methods are adopted; new |
impulse is given to vegetation; the
very roots of the crop strike deeper,
and spread wider than before, and |
even the meadows assume brighter |
shade of green, and the cereal grains |
a deeper tinge of gold. And, final
ly, as a browning evidence of what
is here claimed for the influence of
the press, along with this new vigor
of vegetation and more abundant
yield, we find also reduction Of
cost that is even more important
than all the rest.
II would be easy to refer by name,
if it were not invidious, TO ascore of
such papers, in either of which sin
gle number could be pointed out,
which for intrinsic value is worth,
to a shrewd farmer, the subscription
Of a lifetime. Even single passages
could be referred TO in various jour
mails, in which the facts compressed
in few lines are worth more TO an
intelligent, practical man, than ton
of guano, or an acre of land for the
acre OF land is confined to one un-
changing spot, and the ton of guano
admits of only one application. But