St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-03-20
| FARMER AND PLANTER
A PRESENT PROBLEM.

A PRESENT PROBLEM.
How Shall FaF0ers Produce Crops Undoe
Existing Conditions without Lossf
Extract from an address by John Dymond.
Dfesident Louisiana Agricultural association.
It the annual meeting ut Baton Rouge1
Suggestions rs to how we shall DO
relieved from our agricultural depres.
sion are easily made, but actual REM
edies are hard to find. We must re-
member that all the world is now
ono common field. The time was, and
within my memory, when a local
drought in an Ohio country would adj
vance the price of wheat To-day
drought, food and freeze may como to
annihilate crops Of wheat, Of cotton
and Of cane. and yet prices may fall.
The telegraph, the railway and the
steamship make all the world one,
ana il wheat be low-priced in the Black
sea it can not sell high in Chicago; II
cotton be low-priced at Bombay it can
not sell high in New Orleans; il sugar
be held high in Hamburg telegram
may bring thousands of tons from
Java or the distant Philippines, and
Louisiana be left to mourn over her
neglected produce.
"Do we not see. then. that we are
engaged in an Industrial war? If En-
gland wants wheat she may ordinarily
buy it where she pleases, from the
wheat fields Of Hungary or Russia.
whence the supply of Europe has come
for thousands of years; from the plains
Of India or the pampas of Argentina,
while the wheat farmers of our great
potion. This is industrial war, war to
the knife, and the knife to the hilt.
In the conflict some must fail, some
must fall. Who will survive? The
fttest. Of course-thcse most able to
meet the requirements of the times
'.Now, let us ask ourselves IL We
shall survive in thin contest. Arc we
the ablest agriculturists in tho world?
DO we know what is best to do? Are
we familiar with oil the solved prob
lens in modern agriculture. and
are we utilizing this knowledge?
Are we struggling with and studying
the mysteries yet about us, seeking
to solve them? Not yet; we have
not yet learned all this, but we are
here, earnest seekers after truth,
striving to dispose of the difficulties
about us; striving for better methods,
for better results. by your aid here
in this annual meeting. by the rela-
tion Of your experiences and conclu-
sions we shall hope, each Of us, when
we return to our homes, to be better
able to meet and 10 solve the agricul.
tural problems that confront us.
Few persons are aware of the i'm
pcrative necessity for the adoption of
better agricultural methods. The
trouble with many of us in the past
has been that we have been able to
live. to make some money. notwith-
standing our antiquated, wasteful
methods. When this society was Or
gained ten years ago sugars sold 1T
81 cents that sell at az cents now.
This would seem q crushing decline to
meet, but somehow we have met it,
and are about as able to succeed now
at 3H as we were .then at 81 cents.
This teaching Of our Sugar Planters
association. of our sugar experiment
station, and of our sugar school.
'.Now, TO what school shall we 20
70 learn to produce without loss four
cent cotton and two-cent rice? This
problem seems unsolved, though a re-
cent writer reported in the columns of
the Picayune claims that he can sue
ccs sfully produce three.cent cotton.
The fact of the matter is that we DON'T
know what We can do until we try
Necessity is the mother of invention,
the mother of effective and economic
methods. We have learned how to
produce sugar more cheaply, and we
can learn how to produce all our crops
more cheaply. That is what we are
here for. The special papers that will
be read to you here by gentlemen
familiar with their various subjects
are directly to the point They know
whereof they write and speak. The
incidental discussion Of these papers
will bring out information of great
value, and will thus educate US all
rapidly in the right direction.
-''Before closing this address and
taking up the regular business of the
meeting, / should say that apart from
any desire on our part to solve the ag-
ricultural problems around us, we find
that II we do not do it others will, and
we shall be left behind in the march Of
progress. About us everywhere in ag-
ricultural circles we find earnest ct
forts making to disseminate sound ag.
ricultural data. Experiment stations,
schools of agriculture. agricultural
fairs. conventions and meetings are
the order of the day everywhere.
zone of the most successful plans
for the dissemination of agricultural
knowledge in the other states has
been through farmers institutes, meet.
iugs held in various communities
where expert agriculturists. men who
have won their reputation by &C
tual results, in the, employm
OF the agricultural department,
deliver lectures on their speeiAfties, in.
vite discussion, answer questions and
thus do.a world of good. J, We, should
have hundreds of farmers institutes
in Louisiana.
"Apother excellent plan recently
adopted in Wisconsin and Pennsyl-
vania. and perhaps in some of the 9th.
er states, is that of short courses in
agriculture in the agricultural col
leges. The young farmer who can de-
vote six or eight weeks Of his dull sea
son to the careful study of his bust.
ness il given q chance. The school Of
the Pennsylvania state college has
adopted this plan, and. has now 81
students, 80 of them in the creamery
course and u in the short codrse e,
and and college has been com.