The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1899-07-22

making up and doing out daily rations in
its underground commissary Thus vast
fund of useful knowledge has been obtained
and pla ced at the disposal of every planter
and farmer by the scientific Investigations
of the nineteenth century. So great has
been the demand for this information, that
all civilized governments have established
experiment stations especially for research
in agricultural matters. The first station es-
tabished was the evolution of the action Of
few farmers who combined and hired a
trained observer to test and experiment for
them. The act itself was simple one, but
the thought was revolution, resulting in
the establishment of an experiment, station
i'll every State, i'll every civilized community.
! When Jubal Early laundering at the
very gates of Washington in 1868, Abraham
Lincoln was engaged in affixing his sigma
ture to the Morrill, or land grant bill es-
tablishing agricultural and mechanical col
leges in every State and territory. These
schools were designed to- give to the indus
trial classes scientific and practical educa-
ton in the liberal arts. They have been
established in every State. and to day every
young man has the opportunity of receiving
scientific and practical education in agri-
culture. Nor is this all. While the college
has been founded for young men (and only
these have the time to attend them) in
stitute, Il home school, peripatetc in char
aCter, has been organized in nearly every
State and goes from parish to parish, car
rying the new gospel Of agriculture to every
farmer. Thus he who was born and raised
before agriculture recognized i
science, is receiving at his home the latest
intelligence relative to agricultural develop
ment, while his grandson in imbiling,
simultaneously. the same principles in al.
extended course at the State Agricultural
College. Surely the close of the nineteenth
century finds the farmer elevated from his
attention and solicitude by both national
and State governments.
Fellow ci,izens--we live in a State Of
marvellous agricultural resources. We have
but to strike Mother Earth right and she
responds with liberal harvest. Nature has
blessed with wealth rarely vouchsafed
to any people. Have the facilities for
acquiring the knowledge necessary for the
development Of these grand resources?
answer yes. Our Agricultural and Mechan-
ical College at Baton Rouge has able and
laborious instructors bending their energies
will enable them to become men of thought
and men of action in the grand material
drama that awaits Tuition is free to all,
and nearly three hundred young are
attending its sessions.
You have three experiment stations, one
in New Orleans, known rs the Sugar En-
pertinent Station. one at Baton Rouge, and
the third in the hill country of North Louisi-
ana. These stations are solving for you
many intricate problems and giving you
freely their results. The burden, labor and
expense of private experimentation have
been taken from the individual farmer and
are now borne by the stations. You have
i State department of Agriculture and
Immigration, with headquarters at your
capital, where information of every char
acter be obtained. This department
has organized series of farmers institutes,
and during the present summer nearly every
parish i'll the State will be visited. I
authorized to say that every parish desiring
farmers institute can get it upon appica-
ton the Commissioner of Agriculture
Add to the above, the great educational
influences of Farmers Clubs and Parish
Fairs, and the necessity of remaining igno-
rant on the part of farmers can scarcely be
admitted.
The agricultural press, now well repre-
sented in this and adjoining States, is also
powerful factor in rural education. The
low price at which our agricultural papers
published places them within the reach
of every farmer, be he ever impecunious
Fellow farmers, are here the mis-
5 ion of education. We have come to learn
well to teach, and while we discriminate
agricultural principles derived from patient
and careful investigation. we shall hang
with breathless attention upon your recitals
of pratical experiences, and trust that each
may be mutually benefited. Remember
what delightful emotions permeate the
he art of the devout and intelligent farmer as
he sees the pillow walking in rustic majesty
,down the burrows, opening the genial
bosom of Mother Earth to sunshine, rain
and air, scattering the seeds of rapidly null
tiplying ferments throughout the soil, when
he views the waves of light chased by the
South wind run his fields Of dark green
corn with silky and deep brown tassels.
How eXhilirating to witness the f1eeCy staple
glowing with immaculate Wilderness its
tender stems bend with their burden of silky
fibre, how inspiring to your efforts at further
light in agriculture when you your
fields of COW peas, lespedeza and clover
sparkling with the emerald and ruby tints Of
restored fertility impaired to them by their
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