The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-21
The Farmer Will Have to Hustle.

and be directed to the visitors gallery, Oh the
Press Room.
The Farmer Will Have to Hustle.
The rate at which applied science IS pc
ing introduced into farming indicates thae
In a generation or two the farmer VIII
become of necessity as much OF a teen
nician as a mechanical engineer or
chemist. Chemistry, physics, botany ana
zoology are daily forcing their discoveries
upon the farmer. He Is beginning 10 I'M
derstand that in wisdom there Is a tat
bank account. Farming depends SO Iflucn
upon weather that in the old unlearneo
days the farmer was looked upon as the
snecial care Of Providence. His occupa"
ton was a hazardous one, and 1t dldn
make much difference how much care ne
gave to it. This laissez faire notion began
: to die out in the United States wnen
the era of small farms began
to come in, and the farmer was confronted
with the necessity Of making living off
small area. It has been killed by the ap-
plication of science to the farm.
With each year it becomes more widely
understood that in addition to a, good
soil the Mariner needs good brains, and
brains, too, that are used. Agricultural
colleges and state and national agricul-
tural departments are engaged in stirring
the farmer up, while the agricultural pa
pers keep him stirred up. The farmer
who reads, who has energy and takes
farm paper can't help improving. The
paper pursues him mercilesslys Every
week he is reminded that no matter how
we'll he has done he could do much better.
Every week he is spurred on to better
things. To the farmer the modern Amer
lean agricultural press is as a, magazine
of the Success type to the general reader.
It keeps him keen and interested.
The general reader will be interested
in the mention Of two recent results Of
applying scientific methods to agriculture.
One concerns corn in the United States,
and the other wheat in Canada. Mr.. A. D.
Shamel, Of the Illinois experiment station,
says in the current Cosmopolitan that the
marvellous possibilities Of corn culture have
been, until recently, unknown to the av-
erage farmer, but the improvement has
begun to attract the attention of the busi-
hesslike grower. It has been demonstrated
that corn can be improved by selection to
a remarkable extent. One of the Illinois
farmers who became interested in the
experiments of the Illinois agricultural
college in improving corn seed, planted 500
acres with new seed and was rewarded
with a crop thirty bushels to the acre
larger than customary. These 5000 addi-
tionaI bushels without any increased cost
of production meant about $4,000 to the
wise farmer. Another farmer secured the
improved seed and planted it on eighty
acres. He raised about twenty-five bush
els more per acre than with common seed
The next year 1000 acres were sown to the
improved seed, and the third year 1000, in
addition to thirty breeding fields laid out
for the purpose of systematic and scien-
tific Improvement of the varieties grown
on the farm. The Illinois Seed Breeders
association has been formed for the pur.
pose of furnishing well-bred seed to the
farmers and to prevent the loss from pool
seed sent out by INSCRIPTIONS dealers
Corn breeding is modification Of live
stock breeding and follows the same gen
eral rules, laws and principles. BY select
ing ears having long shanks the Illinoi.
Agricultural College experimenters have
increased the length of the shank TIVE
feet In five years and have made many
more equally marvellous changes. It i
no wonder that Mr.. Shamel says that wha
the future in the study and developm en-
of corn will reveal will astonish TIL
world.
In Canada James w. Robertson, com
missioner Of agriculture and dairying, be
ing provided with a fund Of $4,000 by ST
William c. Macdonald, got over 600 boy
and girls to compete for prizes for whea
seed improvement. The competitors wer
required to pick by hand the largest head
from the most vigorous and productiv
plants, in sufficient quantity to obtai
seed for a quarter of an acre. Before TIL
crop. from this plot was harvested TIL
competitor was required to gather enoug
Of the best heads to seed the plot agar
and so on. Of the large heads se1ecte
every year the competitors each sent t
Mr.. Robertson 100 of the largest. In thre
years the number of grains per hundre
heads increased Is per cent, and in weigh
rs. per cent.
At the government experiment static
Of the Minnesota Agricultural colles
there have been some very successful e.
periments in improving wheat seed.
These are mere samples. OF the benz
ficent activity of scientific men in the ii
terests Of farming. 1t will not be long b,
fore the farmer will have to be as thero
trained as any man In the community,
he is to keep up with the possibilities
his calling.
The field Of governmental functions e.
pands rapidly under modern condition
There isn't much left of the old mott,
that the sole function of the governme
is to protect the citizen against injusti
and foreign aggression. For the most pa
this expansion is natural and benefci
In times when governments did not CO
Germ themselves with such matters t
foot and mouth disease that broke out
New England last winter would have be
left to run it's course and destroy cour
less herds of cattle. But the governme