The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-12-11
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FARMERS EDUCATION.
Fhe Necessity for Farmers Knowing How
They Stand

Institute, by Hon. L. L. Foster, Com
missioner of Agriculture, etc:
Following the establishments of the
Department of Agriculture, and in fura
therance of the objects sought to be
obtained thereby, agricultural colleges
have been established in the vari-
Gus States of the Union, and each year
young men skilled in the science OF
agriculture are going out of these insti-
tuti0ns with more enlarged views of
the dignity of intelligent labor, and
thus educating forces that shall aid in
uplifting the cause of agriculture and
| placing it on higher plane of exist
ence, are gradually but surely being
planted in every community.
Seeing the impetus given agriculture
by the establishment of department
devoted specially to that interest, Con-
gress subsequently provided for the Or
ganization of experimental stations for
the purpose of carrying on experiments
in agriculture and its allied industries.
Recently provision has been made by
which the sum appropriated for this
purpose will ultimately be $40 900 per
annum in each State. The result of all
this will ultimately be that instead of
farming being life of dull, uninterest-
ing drudgery a field for the develop
ment of the mind worthy the ambition
of the most gifted sons of toll will in
vite the best efforts of their lives.
Farming will then be profess
sion for which the youth of our land
rnustbe educated and fitted and qualified
to follow, as they are now for other
callings. Those VINO do not qualify
themselves to follow it will fall as far
! short of the top round in the ladder as
would a person who should now under
take the practice of law or medicine
without having studied those sciences.
In this good time Governors and Sena-
tors and Congressman will, like Cincin-
natus, be found on the farm, and taken
therefrom into the service of the public
as frequently from the ranks of other
classes, as there will be as highly
educated men there as elsewhere. 1t
will then be as honorable in fact as
we'll as in name for man to follow
farming as it is to enter professional
life, because there will be as wide a
field and as good an opportunity to
make money and establish a reputation
there as in other departments of labor.
A farmer will then conduct his bust
ness like merchant or banker or a
railroad corporation He viii keep
books with himself and every body else
and know just what expense he incurs
in cultiyating an acre of ground and the
/ nj hn nd NH =
each Melted him at the end of the sea-
son. He will ultimately pay cash for
avery thing he buys and demand cash
for every thing he sells, thus comply
ing with the scriptural injunct ton to
''owe no man any thing"
Suppose a merchant should engage in
business in your community and buy
and sell and barter and exchange with
out keeping any account of his daily
transactions, without knowing how
much he owed or what sum was due
him from customers, what would be said
of him? He would be accounted a fool,
| if not lunatic. And yet this is just
what ine-tenths of the farmers are do
ing. How many farmers in William
son County can produce an itemized
settlement of this years business and
show just how they stand with the
world to-date? Oh! but you say mer.
chandising is business and of course
it can not be successfully carried on
without books and accounts. What is
farming but a business and can one
business thrive any better than an.
other when left to grope its way in the
darkness, trusting to chance for its re-
suit?
All of this must and will be changed;
indeed the disintegrating process has
already set in; old things are passing
away and the agricultural hosts are be-
ing rapidly reformed on new lines, ul-
timately promising the grand results
| above predicted.
Now this may sound to some like the
vision of a dreamer, but such state OF
affairs existed once in the history of civ
| ilization, and it IS not only possible, but
probable that history will repeat itself.
The Romans in their most prosperous
days placed agriculture in the front
rank, and the road to honor, fame and
wealth lay through the farm, No great
err praise could be bestowed on an an.
cient Roman than to give him the name
/ of a good husbandman, and therefore
when Rome needed statesmen to guide
the ship of state or warriors to fight her
battles she found them at the pillow.
The depression of agriculture in gen
eral affects each individual farmer.
The prices of all products are lowered.
and he gets less for each pound of
cotton and each busheI Of wheat
and oats grown. On the 9TH
| er hand whatever advances the
| agricultural interest in general puts
money into the pocket of each in
diVidual farmer. Thatthe organization
of departments of agriculture by the
National and State governments and
the collection of farm statistics has
armed and equipped the agricultural
classes with the data essential to sue
cessful contention with other interests.
and inspired them with new life and
hope, the grand forward movements now
being made by them all along the line
abundantly show. If it shall. enable