Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-06-09
WHAT FARMERS NEED MOST
A Thinking Machine Kept in Good Order
A Higher Ideal of the Farm and all
Departments OF Farm work.

bune:
A man who had vainly tried several
lines of business in the city without
success, while lamenting his many
failures, said that he would now try
farming, for farmers all make a shift
to get along in most any way"
One need of the farmer is firmly to
resolve at the opening of the year that
| he will make q determined effort to
| get out Of the old ruts. One of the
deepest ruts, and the hardest one to
| pull out of, or steer around after once
out, is that of soil improvement owing
to faulty tillage, lack of proper rota-
ton, or farming by guess" as it is
often called.
Another need Is q higher ideal Of
quality for his crops; Of selection Of
seed from such crops; Of breeds Of
animals produced. fruits harvested,
etc. A farmer should be able to point
with pride to his farm, to his home,
to this stock upon the farm, to his
bountiful harvests, and to his happy,
intelligent children. No man who
shifts along most any way" can eve
do this. That he will be mired upon
the highway Of life and at last stalled
is inevitable.
An acquaintance, while making a
visit, told of a farmer who housed In
his storing shed something like forty
varieties Of agricultural implements
and tools Of various kinds and sizes
the thrasher, the baling machine, the
reaper. wheeled sprayers. silage cut.
ter. tedder. horse hay fork-all were
there, but he was discontinued and
seemed to lack courage to face the
future, although blessed with the best
Of health and strength. Now. the
time for muscle farming has passed,
and mind farming is coming to take
It's place. With all the machines in
the plant Of this favored farmer, he
had negected to add a thinking ma
chine-the greatest need among the
farmers today. The others are all
useful to those who can afford their
great cost, but for profitable use of
them a thinking machine is indispens.
able. It does not occupy much space
on the farm; 1t can be fabricated in
the best manner for the small outlay
Of about two cents q day (much less
expense than any other farm ma
chine), and the wideawake publishers
of u most excellent and helpful agri-
cultural papers will cheerfully take
the contract for this sum.
The Agricultural Department at
Washington will add other material in
the shape Of Farmers Bulletins (now
numbering something like 1907, free,
upon receipt Of a postal card making
your wants known. The Experiment
Station work reports are valuale in
many lines. Other volumes may be
had for five cents to ten cents each.
Any farmer can have his name placed
upon the mailing lists of his State
Agricultural College for the printed
matter issued yearly. The thinking
machine, with the aid of a two-cent
lead pencil and a five-cent notebook,
will arrange and utilize all this infor.
! nation for needs of soils, crops and
/ farm animals.
Let any man attend, II you please,
q meeting Of the State Grange; let
him place in the question box q slip
of paper asking any farmer present
to state Liebig's four laws Of agricul.
tural practice. How many will be able
to answer offhand? Let him ask what
is a fertile soil. OF how a plant gets it's
food from the air, and how from the
soil, and what these foods are; let him
ask what is a proper rotation to con-
serve fertility of soil, or how to con-
serve moisture; let him ask whether
barnyard manure is a low grade or a
high grade fertilizer. and how Goes 1t
compare with those purchased for
richness in plant food, or availability;
how to proceed for best treatment Of
soil for cereals, or grass, or root crops.
What would be the results?
Let now pertient questions like these
be offered to the business men at any
Board Of Trade meeting, and 1t would
be strange, indeed, II any manufac-
turer Of textiles. iron, steel, boots and
shoes. or, indeed. any large business
could not readily answer such and
hundreds more closely pertaining to
this special business. Yet these ques-
tons pertain to things that are the
foundation stones Of all profitable agri.
culture. We go on by guesswork re-
moving what Is grown. and making no
return; and. when the soil Is en-
hausted W abandon the farm" and
migrate to fresh fields.
o.