Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-01-09
TOPICS.
The Recent County Institute in
Detail.
THE PROGRAM IN FULL GIVEN.

numbers attending the Rock Island
Farmers Institute that otherwise
would at Port Byron. 1t was quite
disappointment that DR.. Evans
failed TO be present; nevertheless.
those old stalwarts- Thomas Camp
bell. j. H. Vanderslice, w. +. Craw-
ford, 5. w. Heath and W. S. McCul.
Tough were present, although the,
had to travel miles through the bit
ter cold early in the morning to
catch the train. On the whole it was
a happy gathering sort of farmers
experience meeting. 1t does one
good to get out once in a while in
order to have the cobwebs brushed
off you. especially when you meet
such friends as there are in Port
Byron, who take special pride in
making all your surroundings pleas.
ant and comfortable. 1t has a ten
dency to make you feel, with all our
troubles and trials, that life is worth
living after all.
Corn Culture
The paper read by Hon W. +.
Crawford upon the topic of Corn
Culture" was very interesting. and
was freely discussed and criticised.
MIR. Crawford claimed that ..corn is
king" and it would be a great bless.
ing to mankind if more was used for
food. He would not pillow more than
four inches in depth; then he would
use the disc. He did not have as
much faith as some people in clover
as fertilizer. We make a mistake
in planting corn too deep. MIR.
Heath claimed that Mr.. Crawford
had model farm, which had been
made rich at the expense of his
neighbors-that is, he had bought
their grain and converted it into fer
tilizers and had enriched his own
farm. while his neighbors had be-
come poorer and they were obliged
to pillow deeper and adopt other
methods not necessary to Mr.. Craw-
ford. Mr.. Cox claimed that. the
farmers of the upper end were
obliged to clover their land, in order
to fertiiize it. or they could not raise
anything.
The farmers were unanimous with
regard to the proper method of Be-
Letting and caring for seed corn. 1t
was not best to go into the field be.
lore corn was ripe and select the
ripest cars; VIC would soon have an
early planting corn and small ears.
The better way was to select the best
and largest ears when we first com
mence cribbing corn, having a bas-
kct in one end of the wagon for that
purpose, and carry 1t into the cellar
rs it is selected. BY adopting this
method it was claimed every kernel
would grow and would sprout and
be through the ground "a hours ear
lier than seed selected in the old
way. The following year we should
select about half a bushel of the most
perfect cars for our first planting.
from which we could select our seed
for the following year, and thus con-
tinually improve the quality of our
corn.
Countys Future.
S. w. Heath followed on the topic,
The Future of Rock Island County,"
He claimed we could only Judge the
future by the present and past. He
then spoke of the hidden wealth
which nature had bestowed upon us.
We had coal and fire clay in abun-
dance and porous subsoil; the two
streams, Mississippi and Rock rivers.
The Indians selected this part of the
country because there was every
thing necessary to their existence.
The centre of population will shortly
and ultimately be found in Rock Isl
and county. We shall soon have a
continuous city from Milan to Wa
tcrtown and will be conveyed that
distance by electricity for a nickel;
and he firmly believed that although
electricity will he an important fac
tor in our future progress, yet it will
be finally displaced by something
He had talked with men
who had travelled extensively. who
said they had not found anything to
compare with Rock Island county,
and he could not see any reason why |
the congress of the United States
should not he convened in our II idst. |
After Mr.. Heath's paper there was
spirited discussion which was very |
Rev.R. ii. Ncwlands sang two select |
solos which were highly appreciated.
In the evening the topic was 'Shoald
Farmers Give Their Sons and Daugh-
tiers a Liberal Education?" d.. |
Evans who should have given an ad-
dress on the above subject not being
present, several spoke, j. G. Osborne
taking the lead. Severed good ideas |
were brought out with regard to
what was meant by a liberal educa-
ton.
Woman's Place In the World.
a feature was the paper by Mrs.
j. w. Simonson. of Port Byron. on
"Woman's Place in the World" Sine
said:
III anyone had ventured 100 years
ago to breach the question of
woman's place in the world people
would have looked at him askance
and wondered if he was little lack
ing In the upper story. The world
was for man to civilize, to cultivate,
to occupy for himself. Woman was