The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10
WHAT AUBURN IS DOING FOR
 ALABAMA'S AGRICJL TURF

| A'oetSS VI SQbtCu 10 piduts tuS bSSs means of cultivating cotton, the cul- i tivation of the plant that will best build up worn out lands. the best sys-
 tenn of feeding cattle and the best
 means of grain growing heretofore toe l much neglected n Alabama
 | Other Agencies Employed.
 I As great field as these enumer- ated efforts cover. they do not cover all that Auburn Is doing by any
 means for the States agricultural in-
 terest. Nothing has yet been said of a very intelligent and efficsent horticul. | tural department, nor has anythine
 been said of the able work of the State Victorian in Improving cattle and turn l ing the thoughts of Alabama frmers | more to cattle breeding than they have | been in the past. Nor has aught been | said of the work of the State Chemist
 member of Auburn's faculty who in vestigates and reports upon the value of all fertilizers of the State and who studies their connection with the other | officers of the State the adaptibiiity of certain varieties of the States soil It Is necessary here only to call at- tention to the recent establishment or | the department of Entomology at Au- burn, department the work of which will begin with next September. The l exclusive work of this particular de- | Pdftf1cHl VIII pt tne SluQy Ol ihSVStr l and bugs which are injurious to the crops of Alabama A skilled entomo- | logist will come all the way from Call | ifornia to take charge of this depart ! ment. Its principal business will be
 to circumvent and destroy bugs which ! have destryed the Alabama crops of the past
 1 Nor is all this work theoretical It l is made as practical as man can make ~1- Az books in which nobody ever looks. but
 they are preserved and printed in bull
 letins which are given the widest pub lication Not only is information dis tributed in these bulletins but the Ala bama farmers are met face to face and told of the investigation and the re- suits and advised of the best means of farming. They are met face to face in farmers institutes and they are urged and invited to come each sum-
 mer to Auburn's Summer School for | farmers where these things are made quite clear and quite practical to them. Tue Farmers' Institutes.
 No less than thirty-nine farmers in-
 stitutes were held last year by mem
 bers of Auburn's faculty. To these in
 stitutes more than 4,o00 farmers came .s
 They were held, these institutes. un-
 der the direction of Professor c. A.
 Cary, assisted by members of Auburn
 faculty. These teachers and instructors
 went from county to county in Alabama
 talking and teaching. They sent ahead
 notice of their coming and the farmers throughout each section they visited gathered to hear their lectures and their instruction.
 One of these institutes, to show their value, was held late in the summer of last year at Silver Hill in Baldwin county. Now the farms about Silver Hill are peopled with Swedes, born in the old country and emigrants to America who were brought to South f Alabama by the industrious efforts of agents and officials of some of the
 Baldwin county land companies. They
 were to a great extent ignorant of agricultural conditions In Alabama but
 were willing and eager to learn. At
 this institute at Silver Hill the entire population turned out and so eager were they to learn that in featuring and in answering questions Professor Cary was on his feet and talking for more than five hours on summer day. The instruction. on this particular oc-
 casion, had largely to do with the need and advantage of growing fall crops for that section where vegeta- ble raising Is the principal industry. But outside of and beyond these i'm stitutes the Alabama farmers gather each summer at Auburn where they are given instruction In modern and scientific fay ing, where they are
 taught to improve their stock and
 where they are given the practical benefits of seeing not only the intelli- gent agricultural experiments that are conducted on the college farm, but where they are taught the fine points and the advantage of high bred cattle with the practical exposition of this
 instruction by means of the fine herd of blooded and pedigreed stock that forms part of the colleges agricultu- ral equipment
 A word should be said at least for
 the work that has already been accom-
 plished by Professor R s. Mackin-
 tosh. the State Horticulturalist Since
 his coming to Alabama, Professor
 Macintosh has organized the State Horticultural Society, assisted in hav-
 ing passed the present stringent fruit
 inspection law to prevent the impor- tation of diseased stock and to pro-
 mote the interest of ffuit growing throughout Alabama
 The Institute Farm.
 The principal part of this work is l Of course done at the Agricultural Ex-
 pertinent Farm adjoining the college and which Is under the direction and
 supervision of Professor J. F. Dug
 gar. Now this farm is located on one | or Lee county's. sandy and rock hill- sides middle Alabama farmer ac-
 customed to the Black Belt prairies. l If he was in the market for land would not look at the farm a second time And yet intelligent farming has brought 1t up to a high state of cul- tlVatlon and made 1t one of the most productive farms of the State. For in stance this week they are harvesting
 the oat crop, and the crop of fall oats l IS yielding without special effort from torty to fifty bushels to the acre The principal experiment in oats this year nas been the comparison of oats plant ca Tn the fall with oats planted in the spring The former experiments with oats made for several years were more than confirmed as to results The falI oats practically doubled the yield Of the spring crops.
 It might be said incidentalIv that the l fence which encloses the Exneriment station farm has been called the best | renee Tn Alabama. This fence is built | or wire with concrete posts. These
 concrete posts are made of sand and
 cement. and their cost is four times
 that Of the posts ordinarily used in
 the construction of fences, but the
 posts Of concrete will last indefinitely.
 Ihey will last as long as though they | had been of stone
 For two winters past Professor Dug
 gar has made careful and accurate ex-
 perments In the feeding of steers
 Ihese experiments have provd that for
 steer and cattle feeding cotton seed I meal IS better than corn and that cot ton seed fed to cattle gets quite as | good result as corn. The results of these cattle feeding evnarInoants uiJl