The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-06-07
Fifty Ye;rs of Agriculture.

c0lIeEc, rccCHtiS. NoI' ~ - ~" h""'
professor Of agriculture, made an ad-
dress on "Fifty Years Of Agriculture,
which was greatly enjoyed by those
present. The speaker thorou=h ia
miliari,y with the whole field Of agIi-
cultural cndcavor during the last half
century, makes him an authority and
he was listened to with closest inter
est by the members OF the club and
the many students present.
He spoke chiefly Of the advance
made in agriculture as an art, but
dealt also to some extent with the
science of agriculture. Following is
the substance of his remarks:
A retrospective view Of the last
fifty years Of agriculture has not been
as great advance in agriculture us an
art as NC might expect. The greatest
advances in agriculture as an art have
been made in the application of the
mechanical arts to agriculture, there
by improving methods Of work on the
farm. But exclusive Of this and of
the rapid advances made in the scien-
tifc knowledge of agriculture, we have
not done so much. For example, the
principle Of rotation, which the gov
ernment is now sending men over the
country to impress upon the people,
is over two thousand years old.
Fifty years ago, sub, soiling was per-
haps more common than it is now. The
Romans knew alfalfa, and it's value as
an enricher Of the soil. In my boy
hood clover following was very COM
mon practice for land improvement.
In these, as in many other practices,
we knew the facts then, though not
the scientific reasons on which they
were based.
There is one respect, however, in
Snich We have taken decided step
forward in farm practices, and that is
in the matter Of deep ploughibg. In
my boyhood it was the universal rule
to cultivate crops by deep ploughiug,
but happily we have largely abandon
ed this very bad practice though q
surprisingly large number of farmers
still believe in it.
In the matter Of what might be call.
ed home economics, in many respects
there was fifty years ago much more
intelligent economy practiced. Great
attention was paid to stock, provision
made fer them, and to the outstanding
of home manures; for it was not until
comparatively recent years that we be-.
came dependent upon commercial fer
tilizers. At that time each plantation
was little principality which did
it's own manufacturing-shoes, cloth
ing and the raising Of provisions for
the farm. We now spend millions for
farm and garden seeds; then we raised
our own, and they were preserved by
the good mistress of the family. Today
few farmers pay sufficient attention
to what I call the small industries of
the farm-the garden, the orchard,
the vineyard, the dairy. Then every
farm had these, though Of course VIC
did not have then our present large
industries in these things. But why
should we isolate these as separate in
dustries, and have the farmer depend.
ent for the products Of these upon the
people who make business of what
really belongs to the farmer.
The culture and social life of the
people in the country fifty years ago
was greatly superior to that of the av.
erage farming community Of today;
for the conditions then were much
more favorable, as all know, indeed
the world has never known more
cultivated civilization than was in the
South then, and it's leaders were the
country people.
But, as was said in the beginning,
great advances have been made in
agriculture as an art, along the line
of mechanical inventions for use in
farm work, and it is thus that i'm.
provement has largely come about.
For example, contrast the old coui.e1
with the modern steam gang plough;
and the old reap hook or the cradle
with the modern reaper and binder
combined, or the harvest and thresher
combined; and the old worm rail fence
with the modern cable wire fence, and
you will have only few Of the hun
dreds of ways in which during the
last fifty years farm interests have
been advanced by mechanical inyen-
tions. The union Of farm and shop
in such school as this is, therefore,
natural, and must work untold good