The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-05-10

Helping the Farmer to Help H1msen.
Year by year the Department of Agriculture at
Washington grows more helpful to those whom it
was designed to assist. Annually it gets nearer
to the farmer and helps him in his work of con-
Quoting farm operations intelligently. Of all the
numerous documents issued by the Department
those which come nearest to the men of the farm
are published by the Office of Experiment Stations
under the title, Farmers Bulletins" To date,
1872 of these bulletins have been issued, covering
the widest range of agricultural information and
written in plain language, often accompanied by
Illustrations. Of these bulletins, perhaps the fol
lowing are those which would be most generally
useful to our readers:
Farmers Bulletin No. 22-The Feeding of
Farm Animals.
Farmers Bulletin No. 24-Hog Cholera and
Swine Plague.
Farmers Bulletin No. 31-Alfalfa or Lucern.
Farmers Bulletin No. 32-Silos and Silage.
Farmers Bulletin No. 37-KafGr Corn: Culture
and Uses.
Farmers Bulletin No. 41-Fowls: Care and
Feeding.
Farmers Bulletin No. 49-Sheep Feeding.
Farmers Bulletin No. 5O-Sorghum as a For
age Crop.
Farmers Bulletin No. 55-The Dairy Herd.
Farmers Bulletin No. 5S-The Soy Bean as a
Forage Crop.
Farmers Bulletin No. d and Geese.
Farmers Bulletin No. 72-Cattle Ranges of
the Southwest.
Farmers Bulletin No. 89-Cowpeas.
Farmers Bulletin No. 96-Raising Sheep for
Mutton.
Farmers Bulltin No. 1OO-Hog Raising in the
South.
Farmers Bulletin No. 1O1-Millets.
Farmers Bulletin No. 1O6-Breeds of Dairy
Cattle.
Farmers Bulletin No. 109-Farmers' Reading
Courses.
Farmers Bulletin No. 117-Sheep, Hogs, and
Horses in the Northwest.
Farmers Bulletin No. 123-Red Clover Seed:
Information for Purchasers.
Farmers Bulletin No. 126-Farm Buildings.
To secure any or all Of these bulletins a farmer
should make request, stating the number and title
of the bulletin, to his Congressman or to one of
his Senators, or directly to the Secretary of Agri-
culture, Washington, L. @. They will be sent free
of charge. Secretary Wilson is constantly on the
lookout for topics of timely value whose treatment
by practical, well-informed men will prove helpful
to agriculturists, and when these bulletins are
issued it is desired to place them in the hands of
farmers who will study and profit by them. It is
astonishing that hundreds of thousands of farm
es do not know of these publications or of the
bulletins issued by the State Experiment Stations.
The mailing-lists of these stations are ridiculously
small in comparison to the number of farmers who
need these publications. The successful farmer of
the future will be a reading man. Farming will
require more brain-work. It is idle to assume
that the sum of agricultural knowledge has been
acquired. 1t is folly to assume that all farmers
are well Informed. Only recently a bright young
farmer in Northern Illinois was warned by his
older but benighted neighbor that he would ruin
his corn by keeping the cultivators running dur
ing a drouthi This is a sample of the prevail
ent ignorance. Years of education are yet needed.
The Farmers Bulletins are very helpful in this
great Gazette.