The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-04-09

Uncle Sam has taken it upon him
self to furnish the farmers with an
object lesson in up-to-date farming
He is establishing model farms
throughout the country and Mississip-
pI gets two or more. One has al
ready been established at Virgins
and the second will likely be located
in the northwestern part of the State
and third in the delta. Profs B. M.
Tracy and W. j. Spillman are in
| charge of the work.
Prof Spillman makes public the
following statement regarding the
work of these farms, and the method
of their selection, portion of which
Is as follows:
These farms are in no sense ex-
pertinent stations. They are purely
business propositions. The type of
farming to be followed is in each case
determined by local conditions of soil,
climate and markets. 1t is the inten-
ton to develop on each farm sys-
TEN that will become permanently
profitable, and that will build up the
fertility of the soil. AS soon as a
farm is in proper working order, ar
rangements will be made to permit
large numbers of farmers to visit It,,
and inspect the stock, crops, build
ings, the methods employed, etc. In
connection with these visits, lectures
will be given in which the details of
the farm work and the results OBJ
tanned will be explained. The plans for
the work of each farm are made joint
ly by the officers of the State expert
ment station, representative of the
national department of agriculture,
and carefully selected committee of
the best local farmers. The owner of
the farm is given the power to veto
the recommendations of the commit
tee, but when once plan has been
agreed on, the owner agrees to fol-
low it faithfully. He also agrees to
keep a record of the work done and
the results, SO that it can be publish
ed for the benefit of other farmers.
Since this line of work is new, in or
der to encourage farmers to take
hold of it, the department of agri-
culture agrees, in the case of the,
32 farms established this year, to
furnish seed for so acres and fertilizer
for 25 acres the first year, in cases
where the owner Of the farm does not
already have seed on hand. After the
work is well organized and there are
results to point to, no subsidy of this
kind will be offered.
THE farmers thus far organized are
confined to a combination of dairying,
hog raising and market gardening.
There is room in the South for ex-
tensive development of all these types
of farming. AS soon as the work is
well in hand it is intended to extend
1t to all parts of the country. When
the possibilities of section and the
type of farming a farmer desires to
follow are known it is not difficult
task for one familiar with agricultural
science and the best practice to form
ulate a cropping system for a farm
that will produce the largest returns
in feed and sale crops. When it is
known that here and there men of ex-
ceptional ability have already develop
ed systems that return three or four
times as much from a given area as
the average farmer obtains, and when
1t is remembered that the average
man is capable of being shown it, it |
is not exaggerating the possibility to |
say that the average production of |
American farms can be raised ten per |
cent per annum to adopt the methods |
used by the most successful farmers. |
This would mean the annual addition |
to the agricultural wealth of this
country of something like 100000
)00 If this is possible, and it GER
-ainly is, there is little prospect that
he race will begin to starve in an
,ther third of century as some econ
,mists have lately commended"
The climatic and crop service report
or Mississippi has just been issued by
he government, and contains much