The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-07
SCIENTIFIC FARMING IN NEBRASKA.

Record, refers to the great changes
which have taken place in agricu1-
tural methods in that State as. a CON
sequence of the introduction of scien-
tific training by the agricultural col
leges as follows
"There are fewer farms and fewer
stores in Nebraska than there were
four years ago, but both are larger
and more profitable. Farming is no
longer carried on in desultory way.
1t has become an exact science. Busi-
ness methods have been introduced
by use of which men of industry and
intelligence win and the other kind
of farmers lose in the competition.
This is true not only here, but all
over the West. The agricultural
colleges are largely responsible for
these conditions. Nowadays, it is as
necessary for a farmer to be educated
for his occupation as for a lawyer or
doctor, and the degree of bachelor
of agriculture is conferred by the
universities as we'll as of arts and
medicine
The State University of Ne
braska, for example, is a typical in
stitution and illustrates the demand
as we'll as the appreciation of the
people for learning. It is situated at
Lincoln, was founded in 1859, and
! the bricks for the first building were
! hauled sixty miles from Nebraska
City before railway was opened. A
class of two was graduated in 1878
and class of nearly two hundred
this summer. There are eighty in
structors in the faculty, 1900 stu
dents on the rolls, and an alumni of
several thousand, who are the solid
men of the State. 1t ranks with the
great institutions of the country, and
is especially important because it
/ gives a practical education applicable
/ to the climate and the soil and other
conditions of the country that cannot
! be controlled. 1t turns out every
year botanists and husbandmen,
agriculturists, irrigation engineers,
veterinarians, horticulturists, geolo-
/ gisUs, chemists and all other classes
of culture, who are needed and scat
ter over the State, devoting their
talents and industry to securing the
largest returns for the least labor.
You find these men everywhere
in Nebraska and many of them upon
the farms, where they are engaged
in what may be called concentrated
and systematic farming. Nebraska
is divided by longitudinal lines into
different zones. The eastern half of
the State has a heavy and sufficient
rainfall The western half is too
dry to make agriculture safe with
out irrigation. The easternmost
counties are devoted entirely to
farming, the next strip to farming
and fattening cattle for the market,
the next to farming and ranching,
z placing the most important. industry
first, the next to ranching with lit
tie farming on the side, and the
western counties to ranching, with
imported vegetables and butter.
Aurora stands in the center of
the fattening district. It has a
favorite locality where corn and
alfalfa-those two great mortgage
lifters-grow with equal luxuriance,
and is surrounded by what are called
feeding farms, to which lean noun
tain cattle are brought by railway
train and turned into beef They
may properly be called meat factor
les, for they convert the raw mate
rial of the cOuntry-grain, grass and
water-intO beef, mutton and pork.
1.-The esta abIshments are conducted
upon strictly business and scientific
principles. One of the feeding
farmers told me that seventy five
bushels of corn and few dollars
worth of alfalfa would put from 4OC
to 500 pounds of beef on the bones of
a steer, and that one hog can be fat
tened upon the leavings of three
steers, so that the pork is a clean
profit "A shipbuilder nowadays can
tell you exactly how many miles an
hour Rhe steamer he is designing can
, make before the keel is laid. He
caIeuld5es the assistance of the water,
the Iuti0ns of the wheel and the
, amou eoal consumed, and then
by a ma atical process can deter
, mine to within a few hours how long