St. Tammany farmer., 1903-03-28
FARMER AND PLANTER.
EDUCATION OF FARMERS.
Various Reasons Why the Farmer
Needs Education to Insure Sue
cess In His Calling. E

The word Education" as commonly
used refers to mental training which
| our children get in schools, colleges
| and universities. This education is
derived mainly from books and lee
| lures. But there are two other i'm.
| portant sources which we think
should enter into the discussion of
| this subject. These are experience
| and observation. And it is proper
mingling of these three that gives the
| well-rounded education. While it is
| true that the science and theory
should sometimes come first, it is
equally important that the applica-
ton of these theories and principles
| should go hand in hand with them.
| 1t is a great mistake to cram the
head with a vast mass of theoretic
| and scientific information gained
| from books, without at the same time
giving sufficient experimental appli-
| cation to give the student power to
digest and appropriate this meal
thoroughly. .-..-- j
The Kind the Farmer Needs.
The education which the farmer
needs furnishes an emphatic illustra-
| ton of the truth. 1t is important for
the farmer to know that blowing
should be done, and why it should be
| done. These he can learn from books
| and the schools. But it is equally
| important that he should know how
it should be done and when it should
be done. This he can only get from
experience. 1t is also important for
him to know the comparative results
when this blowing is properly and
when improperly done. This he could
learn after awhile from his own eX-
perience; but he can certainly learn
it a great deal quicker from other
mems experience, without waiting a
long period of years to work it out
by his own labor.
Farming is not q new occupation.
1t is as old as the race, antedates the
dawn of history, and is as extensive
| as the human race. And yet, for
want Of intelligent use of experience
and observation, it has remained
much the same it was 5000 years ago.
Schools have attempted to teach it,
| but failed. Within the last half cen
tury this new idea has taken posses
sion and wonderful progress has been
| made.
Recognizing this great underlying
| fact, our own government has provid-
ed for an Agricultural and Mechan-
ical college in each state and terri
tory; and she has amended this pro-
vision by addition of a fund for an
experiment station and farm, also,
| to be conducted in each state and
territory. She has also provided a
bureau of information at Washington,
where the vast fund of information
worked out at the several experiment
stations is collected, digested and
published in popular form for the
| benefit of the farmers. "A
The Soil. .-,
But to return to our original prop
osition, the farmer needs to be edu-
Gated in order that he may inteIi-
gently go about making his crop. AS
his soil is his capital, it is important
for him to know that this soil is vast
storehouse of locked-up plant food,
placed in safekeeping by an all-wise
Providence, ready and waiting for the
hand of intelligence to unlock and
utilize it.
1t is important for him to know
that he does not plow simply because
others have plowed and like others
have plowed, but that he plows be-
cause that at present the plow and
the harrow furnish the key by which
he may unlock as much of this
storehouse as his necessities may re-
quire; and that by the proper use OF
the key as to the when and the how
he may very greatly increase the
yield of any crop that he may de-
sire to grow.
Deep Flowing. ~
It is important for him to know
that his soil will be just as deep as
his blowing, and that the oftener he
plows and the deeper he plows, the
richer his soil will be in available
plant food. The finer he pulverizes
his soil, the larger the crop he will
be able to produce. The action of
areation, natures great process of di-
luton, will be in direct proportion to
the depth and fineness of his soil.
Killing Grass. ~
He does not plow simply to kill
weeds and grass, but to put the soil
in such condition that more grass and
weeds might grow. But he kills the
grass and weeds to prevent them
from stealing the plant food which he
has made available for his crop. It Is
also important for him to know that
this plowing should not be done when
the soil or subsoil is wet; because II
stirred when wet and then dried by
action of the sun and wind, the soil
is made into millions of little sun
dried brickbats, which will not give
up the plant food in them, and which
are utterly worthless to the growing
crop. The ignorance along this. line
is appallingly apparent in the washed
and worn and quilted fields which we
find all other this country. Had our
fathers and forefathers known the
value of and necessity for deep plow-
ing, these gullies would not have been
here, these worn and exhausted fields
would not have been here, these sec
ond growth pine orchards would not
have been all over this country.
Making the Farm Richer.
Proper cultivation Of the farms
would have made them grow richer
instead Of poorer; and the old field
would have been the rich field, instead
of the poor field; and the old farm
would have been more desirable than