Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-20
THE GAZETTE FT. WORTH, TEXAS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER g.

teachings of our colleges, etc, we have a
most decided opinion as to what it takes to
constitute scientific agriculture, or scien-
tiic farming. Scientific farming is simply
intelligent farming-nothing more nor less.
Science, according to Webster, is '.know-
ledge, penetrating and comprehensive infor-
nation, skill, experiences and the like. The
comprehension and understanding of truth
or facts investigation of truth for its own
sake; pursuit of pure knowledge"
This covers the whole case The farmer
who studies effects in search of their causes
and thus gets at the truth of matters with
reference to his calling, is scientific
farmer, and that is all there is OF it. OF
course some farmers may go deeper into
these studies than do others, still the man
who puts up fence which falls down the
next day, and then proceeds to find out
what caused 1t to fall in order that he may
remedy the trouble at the next building, is
scientific farmer. and you can't make any
thing else out of him. But if he proceeds
to put up the fence just as he put ii up in
the first instance, without at ali inquiring
into the why's and wherefores leading to
the necessity Of second building, he is
not a scientific farmer in any sense of the
term.
And while such thing would scarcely
seem possible, the truth compels US to ad
NIT that we have farmers of this very char
aracter. They go ahead in an old routine
without troubling their brain at any kind
of investigation after why's and where
fores in the practical part of their calling,
and of course they come out at the end of
the horn from which emerge all the boys
who find in farming business that cannot
be made to pay nohow.
Mr.. R. H Summers of Scyene, Tex, tells
Farm and Ranch good story, which,
while intended for application IL differ
ent case, applies well as an illustration of
the non-scientitic farmer
Mr. Summers farmer was a gentleman
of color He was probably an all-cotton
darkey, but having heard that farmers
should produce their home supplies in full,
he borrowed his wife's wash money and
bought q few cheap and poor razor back
shoats out of which to make the family
meat for the next season. He built them
nice pen, all Uoored, put in trough and
proceeded to feed them literally with nu-
tutious swill. But their condition did not
improve. He increased the ration, as well
as the frequency OF feeding; but the shoats
became poorer every day. He asked the
Stn h,Nt ~ apR tho stnpal-aanar
said they needed tonic, and 50 sold him
some compound medicated Patagonian con-
dition powders, but the pigs seemed to
take on an additional layer of leannesss.
This was enough to surprise any
body, and it was said of the farmer
chiefly interested that the eyes of
his establishment protruded until
you could hang your hat on them, or lasso
them with grapevine. He began to seri-
ously doubt whether two pigs like these
were better than one, but he thought that
two heads might be better than one, espe-
pecially the one he wore every day. There
fore he called in neighbor who was Of
rather an investigating turn of mind; in
other words, he was what we have termed
a scientific farmer So far as he went. The
neighbor looked in at the shoats; he then
examined the nutritious swill and took q
smell at the compound medicated Pata-
gonian condition powders. Not appearing
to be satifed as yet he walked around the
pen, stopped and looked under the floor,
then got into the pen and turned up the
trough. There il was: q hole in the bottom
of the trough through which most of the
nutritious swill and compound medicated
Patagonian condition powders had regularly
escaped to regions beneath the floor