Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-08-02

Polbbi anu nuSI DO no III We VIII nave any
general success in it, Along the line there
are wonderful Investigations yet to be
made, There are wonderful investiga-
tions now being made, and those yet to
come will have to come, not from us as
farmers but from some of US as experts
in that particular field. We have TO look
after the diseases that are due to the treat
ment that animals receive; diseases due
to particular methods OF feeding; dis
eases due to contagion; diseases travelling
from men to animals; diseases oonstitu-
tional; hereditary weakness of organs;
accidental diseases from poisons and out
ward conditions; diseases from parasitic
pests. All of these require expert study
by expert men,
Farm Machinery; Farm machinery has
made wonderful growth within the mem
DRY of most of us; in the line of invention
we could hardly wish for more, and yet,
in the testing of farm machinery, we may
wish for almost everything, Scarce one
of us knows how far his machinery pays
for itself and renders him profitable serv-
ice, with reference to draft, with reference
to friction, with reference to economy of
materials, with reference to economy of
motion and power, with reference to ad-
justment to the task that is to be varied
from day TO day, with reference to appli-
cation of power. In no other line of me-
chanical operations is there 80 great
lack of information in regard to use as in
the case of farm machinery.
Last, but far from least, is the question
nf I1,gfy1ff,., raota kbot lao, Oh
to this subject are a matter of growth,
Questions with reference to the duty of
water, with reference to the amount of
moisture needed at different times with
reference to the adjustment of that to the
circumstances in which it is to be found,
are to be answered only by expert obser-
walton, only by inquiry that comes from
those who are trained to inquire, perhaps,
in what is called the practical school of
experience long experience, perhaps, in
some fields where much has been done,
but more likely trained by trial of many
methods in a variety of circumstances.
The man who has been trained in the rOu-
tine of a single plan is likely to know but
one way of doing thing, and likely to
find himself wholly lost under new condi-
tions and circumstances. The man who
would succeed in a new country, under new
conditions, must be one who can train
himself by a variety of observations to see
the line to be followed.
Now, what experimental are loft to be
tried by farmersP These are all for farm
ers, and they are only brief enumeration
of those that come most readily to hand.
| have set them down without order and
without method except that l have re-
served the question of irrigation to the
last because 1 thought il was little closer
to your minds than the others, Expert
ments by farmers are just as necessary as
are experiments for farmers. All ques
tions with reference to the testing of profit
upon certain areas of land require the test
of many experimenters along each definite
line under variety of conditions. 1t is
the multiplication, the repetition of other
tests, which decides such questions. Tests
to find the average profit, i'll comparison
of cost and proceeds, must all be made by
person interested, We can tell you what
it has cost to produce wheat upon a sin
gle acre with fertilizers and without fertil-
izers, or in any other combination; but
that is not testing at all the average profit
of the community, or what the average
community can make out of any crop,
That must be tested by actual data fur
nished by careful observation among farm
ers who are engaged upon that work itself.
You may ask me which is more profitable,
this crop or that. l can tell you in this
way; We have a certain method of treat
ment for this crop and certain other
method of treatment for that crop, and
we have found one crop more profitable
than the other but whether throughout
a whole township or a whole county the
same thing would be true, everybody knows
is a question could not answer at all. 1t
must be the subject of actual test by
large number in the community.
The whole question of profit in feeding,
the whole question of the cost of raising
calves upon the average, the whole ques-
ton of feeding early or late, the whole
question of full feeding from the start,
can be approximately reached by careful
experiments in our station but can be
reached in reference to the general aver
age of a community, where the individual
man cuts 80 much of figure, only by
general tests upon general plan OF ex-
periments by farmers. Tests for adapta-
ton to the market, as to quality, as to
methods of handling that can be adopted
by farmers, and adapted to everybodys
powers; questions upon the keeping quail
tiles of fruits in general, and the general
method of handling; questions upon the
adjustment of one crop to other crops for
business interests, that is, for the interests
of the farmer in his business who carries
on a variety of operations at once, are
settled in the same way, If he were car
rying on but one operation, a certain
method might be wise-a certain adjust
ment might be proper; if he were carry
ing on another operation, still another
adjustment would be wise; but, in a com
munity, the best operation can be only
determined by the tests of the farmers
of that community. Suggestions can be
made, experiments can be prepared, but
actual experience must carry them out.
Tests of methods of culture, for adapta-
ton to soil, to climate, and to the habits
of the people, to the condition of farmers
at particular stages of growth in par
ticular regions, need the cooperation of
farmers. Methods that could be adopted
in Brown county with success would never
do at all for Cheyenne county. Tests of
methods suited to available labor are inn
portant among farmers. The labor of
one region is entirely different from that
of another, in its skill, in its energy, in its
numbers, in its customs and habits of &C
tivity. The Mennontes can do what you
and cannot; they can carry their methods
to success where we would make a failure.
SO the adaptation of any particular class