The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-05-27
CUISINES PRINCIPLES" IN
FARMING.

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ment of Agriculture at Washington
and the various experiment stations.
The systematic study of soils has been
going on for many years, and every
facility has been offered the intelligent
farmer to profit by the published re-
suits, and yet very few have taken the
trouble to possess themselves of such
knowledge. The reason for this ne
glect is sought in an article contribu-
ted by Mr.. Frank K. Cameron to the
Popular Science Monthly for April.
This writer feels compelled to admit
that sentiment, as opposed to seien--
tifc method, still plays large part
as a governing motive in the manage
ment of American farms.
Business principles" if applied in
farm management, would require the
farmer to study each soil and its sit
uation, to determine to what crop, or
rotation of crops, it may be best
adapted. Instead of that, many farm
ers, according to Mr.. Cameron's obser-
vation, continue to cultivate the same
crops that their predecessors grew, or
else follow mere whIm or caprice in
the selection of crops, diregarding all
scientific reasons for or against a
given course. Tobacco is a staple crop
in southern Maryland, not because the
soils there are better adapted to it
than to other crops, but simply be-
cause the people have grown tobacco
in that region as long as they have
grown anything, and they like it. The
Maryland tobacco no longer competes
successfully with tobacco from certain
other regions. The land might be
more proftably devoted to other crops.
It is sentiment, and not "business,"
that causes the crop to be grown there
year after year.
A CHANCE FOR THE FARMER s BOY.
Mr.. Cameron. proceeds to show that
the American farmers boy has little,
if any, excuse for remaining untrain-
ed in the approved methods of soil
management, since agricultural col
leges, giving both theoretical and prac-
tical instruction, are numerous and
efficient. Attendance at these schools
is well within the means of a large
number of youth from the rural dis
tricts. Necessary expenses are not
heavy at these schools. "But it is an
astonishing fact that they are not
availed of, astonishing because to one
of a philosophical or scientific cast of
mind there are few, if any, fields more
interesting or better adapted to the
practical application of scientific
methods than those of agriculture, and
especially of soil management. Yet
in our so-called schools of agriculture
and mechanic arts it is indeed unusual
when the number of students, pre-
sumably farmers sons, who graduate
in the mechanical arts as engineers,
surveyors, etc. do not largely out-num-
Der the students taking their degree in
the strictly agricultural courses. This
is even more astonishing when we re-
feet that there is a demand, and a
growing demand, in this country for
skilled agriculturists to manage the
estates either of rich individuals or of
corporations, and the development of
special crops for special industries.
The demand for men of this descrip-
tion is at the present time greater
than the supply, and such as have the
proper training and qualifications can
command salaries from $500 to
$4,000 or $4,000 per year, possibly, in
exceptional cases, much more. A
case could be cited where a fine house
and grounds and $4,000 per year were
offered to a certain expert to take
charge of a large plantation devoted
mainly to the production of a partic
ular crop. These salaries are far
above the average incomes of young
men in other branches of professional
life The life is in other ways an at
tractive one; it requires more or less
aptitude in the qualifications of the
student, for, as in every other branch
of professional life, the successful
man is one that necessarily keeps up
with modern developments along his
line; but it must from the nature of
the case be largely an out-of door life,
and attractive to any one who has the
least spark of the love of nature in
his soul."-Review of Reviews.