The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-10-23
3Aisccll anenlls.
Reported for TIE AEgiS and LteHigence,.
THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE.
Address of Prof. =. Ii. Hedges, at the Har.
ford County Fair.

|
| ford County Fair.
| Prof S. B. Heiges, of the Cumberland Val
ley State Normal School, Pa, delivered q
short but admirable address to large and
| appreciative audience, at the Fair Grounds
on Friday of last week. His subject was the
Science of Agriculture.
He prefaced his address by congratulaling
| the managers of the Agricultural Society
upon having awakened more than in any
county in Maryland, the interest of the
young people, as shown by the fine exhibit
of their handiwork. The public schools of
the county also merted similar compliment
for their credlable display of school work.
His subject, Scientific Agriculture, was dis.
cussed in plain, practical manner, free from
technical terms or scientific laws.
Prof. Hedges explained the proper applica-
ton of artificial fertilizers, pointing out the
condition and qualities of soil wherein they
would prove devoid of profit. 1t is maxim,
he said, every farmer should treasure up and
apply, that caustic or unsaked lime and SUI
perphosphate of lime should never come into
immediate contact with each other in the
soil. The value Of super.phosphate of lime
depends upon the amount of soluble phos-
phate it contains, and caustic lime converts
it into an insoluble or solid rock. The soil
may be in such condition that an application
| ofphosphate of lime would not be profitable.
1t is of value upon nearly all slate and red
slae lands, but upon some of these lands
there is peculiar form of iron-thc sesqui-
oxide-which converts the super-phosphate
into phosphate of iron, as insouble and in
destructible as cast iron.
lie would not, be said, give the snap of his
finger for an analysis of soil. No chemist
can tell from analysis what to apply to soil
to make it productive. There may be fifteen
or twenty different kinds of soil in one field
of fifteen acres. Bunker Hill Monument, if
analysed, would be found to be composed of
all the elements of plant food but if ground
up and applied to the soil it would be value
less. 1fyou want to know what kind of fer.
tiizers to use, ask the question of the soil and
let the soil answer it. Stake off from four to
six square rods, apply your fertilizer at the
rate OF 300 or 400 lbs. to the acre, or at the
usual rate, and compare the results with
those on the surrounding soil.
He complained that no time is devoted in
our schools to teaching boys the science of
agriculture, while hours are frittered away in
teaching them parts of geography and arith-
metic for which they never will have any
use How many children know the names of
even ten of the weeds they see along the road
| side as they walk home from school, or of
ten different trees that grow in our forests
How many know enough about plants to tell
an annual from perennial. We must know
something about the life of weeds, in order to
know how to kill them. The Canada thistle,
for instance, is often benefited instead of de-
| stroyed by the efforts of the farmer. The
only possible way to eXterminate it, he said,
is to grub it up every time it makes its ap.
pearance
Several questions were asked by his
hearers, which he answered at length.
The practical application of agriculture, he
said, ought to be taught in our public schools.
(Applause) Not only real, practical benefit
would result from it, but if boys knew more
of the chemical constituents of soils they
would take more pleasure in farming and
would not want to leave the farm. Farmers
sons should remain on the farm. The sons
should take the places of their fathers, and
the only way to get them to do this is to fos.
ter in them love for farming. There is
much drudgery in farming, but also much
poetry, and when they learn to see this there
will not be such stampede from our farms
as at the present time.
This is not mere theory. 1t may be said
that these things can not be taught. | say
they can. Boys and girls delight in learning
them. When they get tired of hunting out
the little islands on which no one lives or I'M
important capes-knowledge which INVOLVES
no principle, and induces no mental develop
ment, no exercise of reason. What is called
smartness in our public schools is only an
effort of memory. Take them from the beaten
track of school work and you will find them
as ignorant as children who have never gone
to school. Half an hour day in our schools,
devoted to the science of agriculture would
be observation-disclosures holiday.
AS teacher he had asked farmers sons
about work on their fathers farms. They
could tell him how the crops were rotated
but were ignorant of the reason. They had
never thought of it.
To show how children can he interested
in agricultural subjects he had known boys
to desert the base ball field and girls the Gro.
quet ground, to listen to him while he lectur-
ed on grating trees and showed them how
to do it. He had discovered, on an arbor
vita tree in the school campus, one of the
worst enemies the farmer has--the basket
caterpillar, and the boys and girls all went
with him, during their hour allotted to play,
to hear how to destroy it. In answer to
II question he said they could only be destroy
ed by picking them off by hand as soon as
they have formed their basket They eat the
leaves at night and thus kill the tree.
Prof. Hedges urged upon the farming com.
munty the Importance of securing the enact
ment of laws looking to the introduction of
practical instruction in agriculture in our
schools. No man can be elected Governor
no man can be elected to the Legislature,
without the aid of the farmers, and when
they realize the Importance of the position
they occupy they will ask pledges of those
they vote for that they will endeavor to af-
ford in our schools instruction in the science
of agriculture.
If this were done teachers would prepare
themselves for it.
Prof Heiges' remarks were brought to a
close to allow the racing to proceed, greatly
to the disappointment of his hearers, who APP
peared to he deriving more benefit from the
address than 1t was possible TO obtain from a