Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-05-23

hiCe, leCtuEcr VI tuc haSsdSuuSCttS Stoec
Grange.
have read with edification and de-
light the articles that have appeared in
The New England Farmer-able, in
teresting and instructive. He who takes
his pen thinking he can dash a brilliant
meteor across the horizon of New Eng
lands great industry, agriculture, will
be astonished to find he has only shed a
single ray of light in the minds of great
agriculturists. We doubt much II any
agricultural paper or periodical has ever
awakened more thought, or echoed the
word advance, with such thrilling and
impressive tones as have been given by
the writers under the heading, The
Chief Needs of New England Agricul-
ture.
We are living i'm an agricultural age,
when the work done fifty years ago in
one wear must now be crowded into one
month. The agriculturists to-day are
feeding millions of people, where fifty
years ago they supplied the demands of
only thousands. This calls for the best
and most approved agricultural appli-
ances. All hail to every new invention
New inventions will never overstock the
market in excellent produce.
The shoemaker with his lap stone and
waxed thread would answer the demands
for shoes in tue days of our early set
tiers. The great inventors must answer
that demand now by modern machinery
applied by the skilled brainy foreman.
This is one of the chief needs. An
other, as il has been truly said, is "know
YOUR business" The surgeon who am
putates shattered limb, the druggist
who compounds the drug that may kill
or cure YOU, the manufactures who
weaves the delicate fabric that adorns
the person, or the tailor who cuts your
suit SO that it fits as though by some
magic power you had been melted and
run into it, do not require more
thorough training for his chosen voca-
ton than does the tiller of the soil.
Every farmer of fifty or one hundred
acres has perhaps dozen different soils
to know; then he requires knowledge; to
apply that knowledge requires skill.
You plant one acre and your crop is
failure; if it had been planted on another
part of the farm it doubtless would have
proved more remunerative. Different
kinds of plants require different kinds of
plant food. The agricultural colleges OF
New England are shedding a great light
on this topic and the agricultural col
lege is one of the great and important
chief needs. There is but little excuse
for man to make many mistakes when
there are innumerable opportunities for
him to be well informed in agricultural
applications.
A business education is one of the
fundamental factors and we might add
the KEY To agricultural success. The
inventors fertile brain may have put
ten thousand dollar machine into fac
'ory; the manufacturer may have turned
out class of goods excellent in quality
and maybe superior To any already in
the market, but if there is no business
push the machinery, the raw material
and the cast of labor are lost. This
principle applies to the agriculturist.
Every farmers boy needs a commercial
education and au understanding of the
laws of trade; he should also fit himself
to be a good salesman.
This is another of the chief needs:
Having been in close touch with the
Massachusetts farmers in talking to ard
talking with them and in studying their
methods we are forced to say that many
farmers buy too much and sell too little.
NV father was succ. ssful farmer and
many instructions he gave have not been
forgotten; among them: Never buy any
thing for the farm you can make the
farm produce. All the beef aud pork
required for the family and hired help
were raised on the farm.
One day neighbor called at the barn
and remarked: "A fine lot of heifers
you have. What did they cost?" Had
bought them they would have doubtless
cost me $500, and should have missed
the money, but | raised them and do
not realize they cost me anything"
Our climate and soil have not greatly
changed in the last half century and
why cannot corn, oats, rye, etc., be
raised with all of our modern improve
ments better aud cheaper than fifty
years ago? To raise grain and beef as
commercial business, competing with
the great west, would be a hazardous
business, but to supply the demands of
the farm in many cases it would be an
economy worthy of careful consider
alton.
Another chief need flashes before the
agriculturist' vision like the Outburst
ing OF a dormant volcano; like Banquo's
ghost it will not down. That great need
is good skilled help. II you want good
stock raise it; study the character and
disposition of your animals; make them
fond of you and you will be fond of
them. They will then do your bidding.
II you want good help on the farm and
YOU are blessed with boys, teach them
to love nature and everything that teens
with rural life. A horse is vicious be-
cause it has been viciously managed.
A boy revolts against farm life because
he has seen only the rough work side
of it.
NV father loved nature, animals,
flowers, forests, brooks and rocks. He
used to talk about them to his children.
How those early lessons linger fresh in
my memory, l was early taught how to
use all kinds of tools; and prefer to be
an expert in handling the hoe-handle
rather than the billiard cue or golf stick.
IL hired man takes an interest in the
farm, skilled, faithful and honest, treat
him as though he were man in the full
est sense of that word and pay him lib
orally. If he is like the kicking cow and
balky horse, let the other fellow have
him before sunset.
The successful man is held up to the
world as pattern for all the rest. The
successful agriculturst, backed by a
clean business record, is not OvershadOw-
ed by the most brilliant career known in
tbe history of man pursuinp any other