The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-12-01
Importance of Agricultural Papers.

ANo SACoS value Vi agricultural papers
and the wide scope of subjects successfully
presented by then are scarcely realized by
the most thoughtful readers, says S. S.
Boy ton in Rural Home. The term agri-
culture is too broad to be easily compre-
hendsd. It includes too much to be quickly
and readily 6 asped by the public. AS
generally used it signifies raising the plants
and animals found most useful to man. The
immense range Of such a term and the
wide scope included In it renders the agri-
cultural paper of great Importance.
Under the head of raising useful plants
comes the very selection of what plants are
useful. THIS selection has been going on for
thousands of years. Beginning with the
earliest dawn of civilization in China, India
and Egypt man has been picking out the
good and rejecting the worthless till it would
seem as if nothing further in this line re-
manned to be accomplished. If, however,
we stop to reflect that few of our present
cultivated plants were found in their pres
ent condition, but that most of them have
been rendered Of Importance to the human
race by hundred of years of careful Gull
ture, then we can see that labor of this
character still remains to be done.
Any list of valuable plants, with the dates
at which they came into general use, will
convince the most skeptical that this pro-
cess of careful selection is steadily going on.
Thus, cotton was not introduced into
Europe till the fourteenth century. Coffee
was not consumed in England and France
till after 1910, potatoes were taken from the
New World after its discovery by Columbus
tObaCCO and naZn yvare- "a atrihYtions fro ~
America. so were chocolate and quinine Tea,
though common in China after the year Co.,
was not used IN Europe tilt thousand years
later. It is in the lifetime of many that
one of the most useful aud valuable plants
in the world came into general use. We refer
to India rubber. IL was not till 1880 that
the use OF mineral phosphates and of guano
were made known, so that it will be seen
new facts are being at all times presented
and new plants are at the present time being
introduced.
The immense range of the term agricul-
ture and the wide scope that it includes
render the value of agricultural papers of
high Importance. They condense a vast
amount of useful matter within a small
SPACE. This Information is direct, practical
and applicable to the farm, orchard aud
garden.
Under the head of raising useful plants
comes q mass of interesting and important
information about sowing, cultivating,
transplanting, grating, pruning, and car
ing for the variety of trees and plants most
needed by the human race.
The writer must carefully sift his material
that he presents and adapt il to the part of
the country where the majority of its read
ers reside. Thus it is interesting to know
how chocolate Is obtained. but it is hardly
practical information to American readers.
If the agricultural papers presented much
information about the cocoanut, the
tamarind, the tapieca plant, and gave the
most minute and careful details how to treat
ginger, nutmegs aud cloves SO as to fit them
for commerce, the ordinary reader would be
but little benefited He wants to know
what variety of potatoes are the most
profitable, how to prevent his peach trees
from becoming diseased, how to make his
meadow yield larger cropaso it will be seen
that the Agricultural papers must select with
discrimination what topics to present. The
raising of useful plants and animals in
cludes such wide range that the writer has
abundant room to present a vast array of
topics. The various TOT OILS and implements
that are used give him ample scope in one
direction, while the best nianures and the
most reliable fertilizers open up a wide field
in another.
The fruit grower finds that he has many
topics in his department alone to study and
examine. NOluLD6. upon VOlutu6 mas DSSu
published in the horticultural division of
agriculture, and there are numerous jour
nails devoted to this one theme. Now, when
we stop to think that an agricultural paper
not ouiy devotes considerable space to
fruit but also takes up such matter as tie
We etabies, grains, textile plants, grasses,
the application of manures and prepared
fertilizers, together with the treatment of
different soils, it is evident at once that the
| hoc &r,f nd ha qrlo in %
pairing and placing these divisions before
the public in such a condensed and practical
form as will be of the most value to the
great body of readers. The definition of
agriculture was the raising of useful plants
and animals, but We have only briefly out
lined some of the themes that NUT be
presented in the first half of the defilition.
The raising of stock opens up vast field
for study and gives an opportunity of pub
fishing most varied and useful information.
The tiller OF the soil long ago sed to
be plodding, routine and I'm linking cod
hopper, but in place IS one of the most
useful and sagecious citizens of our coun-
try Tne agricultural school or college that
fits him for his calling where special train
ing is given presents high standard in its
course of study. This includes chemistry,
zoology, anatomy, physiology, geology and
still other branches OF learning. If all of
these or any cons .derable mum er OF them
are thought of practical service to the hard
working farmer, then the paper that aims
to instruct, lead and serve him must cover
wide range of topics. But the point to
which we call attention is that it must not
only prese t these themes, but it must con-
dense them, must call out the truth and
present substantial facts that can be
quickly grasped and at once applied upon
the farm.
The farmer is not situated like the doctor
or the lawyer. for his time is too much occu-
pied to spare many hours week in reading,
even If the subject presented for his coGsid-
era ion bore directly upon the work he is
doing. When his hay is down ard a storm
is coming all the papers in the world won't
help get the crop under cover. IL his hogs
have broken into the garden he must in
stantly rush to drive them out, and the best
article in the world upon swine won't &C.
oompli this half 80 quick as a good club
in the hands of angry farmer. His time is
80 taken up with the many duties of farm
life that he reads to rest himself rather
than to seek instruction. A dry, methodical,
u1interesting article upon the bugs that de-
stroy his potatoes, The frost that blights his
f~r{t ar fna drosf chit that kills his f.QTn are