River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-04-06


in the monotony which daily toll NIT
igated but relieved not, planned that
her daughters should not be immurc!l
in the country as farmers wives. lie
who has not studied agricultural con-
ditions at first hand will find it diff
cult to realize the strain and struggle
and depression OF two decades and
less ago. 1t was not alone a financial
depression. The farmer revOlted be-
caues of that and Of other conditions.
1t was at this point of the lowest ebb
in the faith and fortune of the farmer
that agricultural science came? The
Twentieth century farm home, in
many and important ways, is a differ
ent place from the farm home of the
Nineteenth century. The home and
the farm alike have been improved,
the home in a large measure because
of the improvement of the farm The
rural telephone, the rural mail deliv-
cry, better rural roadways-these have
reduced or removed the isolation of
the farm. In one western county,
somewhat above the average, but
otherwise typical of many counties,
OEe-half of the farm houses have tel
ephones, 40 per cent. Of the farmers
are subscribers to a city daily news
paper from the metropolis 200 miles
distant, 80 per cent. of the farm houses
are reached by postal deliveries daily,
there are more than 60 miles of cleo.
tTic road and $50 miles of turnpike.
Conditions have not become ideal but
the improvement is decided Science
has heightened mans arms ard broad
ened his horizon.
The discomforts of the farm home of
a generation ago are not duplicated
in the farm home of to-day. Agricul-
tural machinery has brought about
many changes. More is accomplished
with less labor. The farmer has larger
leisure, or more often, he gets more
accomplished. In architectural con-
venience his house has changed for the
better. The log cabin has given way
to the residence built of brick or
frame, i'll which light, heat, sewage.
ventilation, are as carefully planned
as the more expensive houses on the
city lots. In the same western county
heretofore referred to one sees in an
afternoons ride scores of such coun.
try homes, neat, comfortable, slightly
The farmer has balance at the bank
His home shows it and school and
church give evidence. The social side
of rural life has changed, killing
monotony no longer rules and muir
ders. Science has come to the aid
of society in the homes without the
towns.
In the last analysis the bread and
butter question decides. Other ques-
tions enter into the calculation, but
this is chief. Here again science has
come to the aid of the farmer We
know more about agriculture than we
did a score of years ago. We know
more of the constituent elements Of
the soil, of the character and effect of
possible additions to the soil, of tue
adaptability of the soil to certain
crops, of the constituent elements Of
the farm products, of the breeding and
care of live stock, of transportation
of all that enters into agriculture The
largest cause of this increase of knowl-
edge is the Agricultural college and
the Agricultural Experiment station.
Their fields of investigation are broad
and their rightful province of instruc-
ton large. In some countries woman
and a dog may be seen hitched to a
pillow. the favorite farm hands. In this
nation science takes the place Of
woman and dog. 1t provides teaching,
teachers of teaching and information
wrought out from laboratories, seed
plot and experimental farm. The
know of agriculture and the know how
are direct results of scientific teaching
and investigation once looked upon
with secret suspicion or open ridicule.
The scientific farmer is here to stay.
Theory has been transmitted into
practice, with the result that agricul-
ture in its various manifold forms has
grown more profitable from the COM