Omaha daily bee., 1885-05-18
CoLMAN's COLLEGE.FARM CON
GRESS.

We have never taken any stock In col.
lege farming. We don't believe men can
learn farming from newspapers spy more
than they can learn to be practical edit
ors by attending a college lecture course
on journalism. For the same reason VIC
have never regarded the national bureau
Of agriculture as an institution that can
very much benefit the American farmer.
At best the commissloner of agriculture
has been an ornamental fgure-head In
charge Of the botanical garden from which
the wives and female friends of congress-
men are supplied with costly bcquets.
incidentally the agricultural bureau fur
nlshes "garden-sass" for the rural constlt-
uency Of the senator's and repre- sentatives
who, find this q very cheap method of
ele~ctioneering. From LIE Due, who
raised tea at ten dollars a pound, down
to Lorlpg, who took pride In delivering
lectures on blooded stock at state fairs at
Uncle Sans expense, these model farm
ers have been arrant bumbugs. The new
commissioner, Mr.. Colman, knows almost
, as much about farming as Horace Greedy
did. He has been a publiiher of a So
called agricultural paper which prints
wood-cut illustrations of prize steers,
premium pumpkins and blooded pigs.
? His farming has been done principally In
The attic of a st. Louis print.shop, where
he raised his crops on the elevator.
t Mr.. Colman, we are gravely Informed,
|, has called a convention of college farmers
to meet In the rosy month CT June at the
= national posy garden, for the purpose of
discussing ways and means for making
his department Of greater practical
benefit to the country. The idea of call
i ing together a lot of wild-eyed Moon
10 chime book-farmers to device ways and
III means for making the bureau of agricul-
ture Of great practical benefit to the
country Is decidedly refreshing and
VI original. If Mr.. Coleman had called fol
- an assembly of commercial college students
y to devise ways aud meanl
40 of preventing Prof. Riley's threatened
invasion of seventeen-year locusts HI
would have done just as sensible a thing
10 There Ia a refreshing simplicity in MIR
10 Colman's composition, which entities hin
Oh to the admiration of the American people
d and that is his virtual admission that the
W department of agriculture, as he calls 1t
Is sadly In need Of some reform tina
would make 1t of practical benefit to thu
'p country. In this at least we folly agre,
- with him. We are amused, however, a
y the bland and child-like credulity Ct some
', of the Missouri admirers Mr.
10 Colman. The Globe Democros, hict
probably knows good dea
, less about farming than Commissioner
81 Colmap, If such a thing could be, say
~ that 'the object desired is good, and i
Commissioner Colman attalns it he will
have done the best work of his life, ant
-, one that will perhaps bring forth frui
after he has been forgotten" Yes, In
deed, this Is the chance of a lifetime
LIE Dues ~tea.planting experiment is not
circumstance to the fruits that the col
lege farmers will bring forth If they ar
only allowed to have their way st Uncl
:. Sans expense. 1t will for the first tim
In the history of the world afford proc
~. that figs may grow from thistles.
According to the Glo6e-D Democrat tn
"farmers of this country have always ha
a strong prejudice against agriculture
colleges. On the granger, an allusion t
one of these institutions has usually tn
tbs same general effect as praise of a dyns
nal inter would have on an E%ngllshmar
af. The granger regards the agricultural CO
legs as an expensive plaything, invente
In order that a few gentlemsnly profes
sors may ride about on good horses an
y pretend to teach an art that he and h
lad father and his grandfathers back
Adams boyhood learned without the a
o,o s~istance of a college. But the fact that
trade or business may be learned, an
hr after q fashion, practiced without al
dod systematic training, does not prove tn
1f Its business might not be much belt
Co.. done If Its principles are thoroughly u
an derstood, clearly laid down and careful
In ollowed out"
~ Mr.. MoCullagh, the edit
M of the Globe Democrat, has been r
Gently engaged as a lecturer on journr
ism in Harvard college at a salary
So, 900 a year. That may account for
conversion to theoretical agriculture a
college farming. We know, howev,
,;oh that il Mr.. McCullsgh had a fal
q n to cultivate he would I
hire young dude FRI
an agricultural college, but would adv
ma; tiae in the want column Of his paper
hut q horny-fistei farmer. The most absu
a. twaddle, however, about Colman's sohe
Is embodied by the Globe Democrat
bjar the following paragraph:
~. There was a time when the doctors, a
:, body, secuted the idea of a medical collie
AZ " vet the medical college came.