The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-01

1 farm must be brought back to 1t, and 1 therefore they must have social as well I as economic opportunities, Everything should be done to encourage the growth in the open farming country of such institutional and social movements nH
 will meet the demand of the best type l of farmers. There should be libraries, l assembly halls, social organizations of all kinds. The school building and the teach
 CT in the school building should, through oue the country districts, be of the very i highest type able to fit the boys and girls not merely to live in, but thorough
 ly to enjoy and to make the most of the country. The country church must
 be revived. All kinds of agencies, from
 rural free delivery to the bicycle and
 the telephone, should be utilized to the
 utmost; good roads should be favored; l everything should be done to make 1t
 easier for the farmer to lead the most I active and effective intellectual, polit-
 ical and economic life.
 There are regions of large extent where l all this, or most of this has already been realized, and while this Is perhaps es- pecially true of great tracts of farming country west of the Mississippi, with some of which have fairly intimate personal
 knowledge, 1t Is no less true of other great tracts of country east of the Mis- sissippi. In these regions the church and the school flourish as never before; there is a more successful and more varied farming industry; the social advantages and opportunities are greater than ever before; life is fuller, happier, more use- 1 full; and though the work Is more effective | than ever, and in way quite as hard, | 1t is carried on so as to give more scope for well-used leisure. My plea is that we shall all try to make more nearly univer- sal the conditions that now obtain in the most favored localities.
 Management of a Farm. Nothing in the way of scientific work l can ever take the place of business man. agement on a farm. We ought all of us to teach ourselves as much as possible; but we can also all of us learn from others; and the farmer can best learn how to manage his farm even better than he now does by practice, under intelligent supervision, on his own soil in such way as to increase his income. This is the kind of teaching which has been carried on in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas by Dr. Knapp of the national department of agriculture. But much has been accomp lished by the growth of what is broadly designated as agricultural science, This has been developed with remarkable rapidity during the last quarter of a cen tury, and the benefit to agriculture has been great. AS was inevitable, there was much error and much repetition of work in the early application of money to the needs of agricultural colleges and experi- ment stations alike by the nation and the several states. Much has been accom- plished but much more can be ac- complished in the future. The prime need must always be for real research, result ing in scientific conclusions of proved soundness. Both the farmer and the legis- lature must beware of invariably demand II-4- .k.- in research efforts. It is probably one of our faults as a nation that we are too impatient to wait a sufficient length of time to accomplish the best results; and in agriculture effective research often, although not always, involves slow and long -continhed effort if the results are to be trustworthy While applied science in agriculture as elsewhere must be judged largely from the standpoint of its actual return in dollars, yet the farmers, no more than anyone else, can afford to ig- nore the large results that can be en- joyed because of broader knowledge. The farmer must prepare for using the knowl- edge that can be obtained through agri- cultural colleges by insisting upon a con- stantly more practical curriculum in the schools in which his children are taught. He must not lose his independence, his in- itiative. his rugged self-sufficiency; and yet he must learn to work in the heartiest cooperation with his fellows.
 Production and Manufacturing.
 The cornerstones of our unexampled prosperity are, on the one hand, the pro- duction of raw material, and it's manufac- ture and distribution on the other. These two great groups of subjects are repre- sented in the national government princi- pally by the departments of agriculture and of commerce and labor. The produc- d. ia1 fxf,1 l1n 5ttrfa of the earth is the sphere in which the de- partment of agriculture has hitherto achieved such notable results. Of all the executive departments there is no other, not even the postoffce, which comes into more direct and beneficient contact with the daily life of the people than the de- partment of agriculture, and none whose yield of practical benefits Is greater in proportion to the public money expended.
 But great as its services have been in the past, the department of agriculture has a still larger field of usefulness ahead. It has been dealing with growing crops. 1t must hereafter deal also with living men. Hitherto agricultural research, instruc- tion and agitation have been directed al- most exclusively toward the production of wealth from the soil. It is time to adopt in addition a new point of view. Hereafter another great task before the national department of agriculture and the similar agencies of the various states must be to foster agriculture for it's so- cial results, or, in other words, to assist in bringing about the best kind of life on the farm for the sake of producing the best kind of men. The government must recognize the far-reaehing importance of the study and treatment of the problems of farm life alike from the social and the economic standpoints and the federal and state departments of agriculture should cooperate at every point.
 The farm grows the raw material for the food and clothing of all our citizens; 1t supports directly almost half of them; and nearly half the children of the United States are born and brjought up on farms. How can the life of the farm family be made less solitary, fuller of opportunity, freer from drudgery, more comeortable, happier and more attractive? Such a result is most earnestly to be desired. How can life on the farm be kept on the highest level and where 1t is not already on that level, be so improved, dignified and frightened as to awaken and keep alive the pride and loyalty of the farm CTS boys and girls, of the farmers wife and of the farmer himsel? How can compelling desire to live on the farm be aroused in the children that are born on the farm? All these questions are of vital importance not only to the farmer, but to the whole nation; and the depart ment of agriculture must do it's share in answering them.
 Drift Toward Cities.
 The drift toward the city is largely de- termined by the superior social opportun- ites to be enjoyed there, by the greater