St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-09-01
DEPARTMENT
Especial Correspondence Home and Farm

Especial Correspondence Home and Farm.J
! Home and Farm is about the only ag-
! rlcultural paper that comes to us which
has Independence enough to tell the
! plain truth about the mOnstrOus i'm
| position upon the farmer known as the
Agricultural Department. A lot Of
politico- farmers, most OF whose farm
ing is done at conventions, and farm
eis' assemblies, gotten together by pol
! iticians, have for years past been harp
ing upon the one string Of Secretary
| of Agriculture, until the real politician
in Congress, installing these demon
STATIONS for demands from farmers,
concluded it would be popular thing
+ for them to make department for the
farmer. Now the farmers, as a rule,
| do not care a continental about the
| agricultural bureau, and do not care
whether its head is made cabinet Off
! Ger or not. They are we'll aware that
| the concern has been no benefit to them,
aud are uttesly indifferent to it. Every
sensible man knows that there is just as
much reason for a secretary OF shoe
makers, a secretary OF miliners, aud
any other occupation, trade or profess
sion as a secretary of agriculture. All
that our agriculture needs is to be let
alone by the government and to be re-
| lieved of the numerous h0unties they
pay to make the manufacturers rich
while farmers starve.
Relieve our agriculture of its unjust
burdens and do not add another bur-
den in the shape Of a crowd Of useless
officials at Washington aud elsewhere.
The agricultural department pays
81 900 Il year to a stiStical agent in each
State. This agent simply stays at
home aud draws his SALARY and sends
an occasional guess about crops 70
Washington. From all these euesses
the chief guesser at Washington
guesses again and sends ont what are
called agricultural statistics" which
are about as reliable as the statistics OF
after every intelligent farmer and gard
ener has pitched his crops Tor the sea-
son, comes big bundle Of seeds Of va
riOus common kinds, that we all know
all about already, witt, printed re-
quest to test and report TO the depart
ment. Ii the seeds were new and rare
there would be some sense in this, but
when they are Dearly always varieties
VIC have tested for the last twenty
years and know all about, the tests
would be of no use except to give the
ignorance at Washington some iufor-
nation that competent men in their
places would have known already. 1t
would be just as reasonable for them to
send the shoemakers a box of shoe
pegs with the request to "test and and
report" as to whether they are shoe pegs
or not. This tinkering with the fam
ers at Washington will not stop until
all the farm papers of the land have
the Independence to denounce it and
demand sensible measures of reform
which will relieve the farmers OF The
burdens now upon them, including the
agricultural department., or bureau.
With it as a mere bureau there was
some hope that some day practical
and sensible agriculturist might be
placed at its head, but as an independ-
ant department, with its head in the
cabinet no man who has any experience
10 practical agriculture will ever get 10
sight Of the position. The politicians
having made the place will fill it and
the farmer will be like one of our Vir-
ginla editors of humorous procliviirs,
who was recommended last winter to
go to Florida for "cbange and rest.r
On his return he told the doctor that
the hotel walters got the Change and
the hotel keepers got the rest" So
with the department ostensibly for the
hpnefitand information Of the farmer,
the politicians will get the benefit and
the spectators tile information while
the farmer gets empty pockets. just
so witt, The tafy thlown to the farmer
10 the shape Of the $4,000 appropria-
tiOns for experiment statious. In al
most every instance the few has been
gObbled by the agricultural colleges and
their own professors put ia charge of
stations.
Ii the past history Of the majority of
colleges can I've taken as any Indication
for the future, it is evident that in niue
cases out OF ten no practical result can
come from these new stations. Oriyi- !
nalIy investigations properly carried |
out demands the whole time OF the man |
engaged upon them, and the investiya-
ton attempted by men engaged in The !
routine work of college classes will be |
of necessity crude and inaccurate even
when the professor has the necessary
ability.
When, therefore, an institution has
made dead failure, as a college of
agriculture, is there much hope that the
same men who have failed to make
1T effective as q school, Will be auy
more successful when the work of ex-
perimentation is added to the other 2
WIFE not the failure be more copspicu-
0use
Clozet, va. W. F. MASSEY.