Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-12-03
The Unproductiye Farm.

The Unproductive Farm.
The American people are prosperous.
Labor is all employed at the highest
wages paid in our history.
Skill is in demand in all lines of in
dustrial activity.
Capital is increasing and active.
Every industry in the land is extend.
ing.
Labor from other lands looks to us
and comes to us.
Schools are overflowing.
Our transportation systems, the bes
in the world, are unable to meet the re-
quirements of commerce.
Our manufacturers more nearly sup
ply home demands than at any time in
the past and sell heavily abroad.
The farmer feeds the people as no
people ever before were fed and sells in
foreign markets surplus of 1,14S mil
lions of dollars worth of his products.
Prosperity quite up to the average of
human success attends intelligent man.
agement of farm affairs nowadays. No
class of people live better, enjoy life
more, or contribute as much to the
wealth of the republic. These are the
strong things to be said. Syracuse asks
us to consider weak link in the chain
I-unprOductive farms. 1t is wise
move, and it would have been commend
able in every state to make such in
quiries at any time during the last CEN
tury. The call comes late; the evils to
be remedied have travelled far in all the
states.
The people of the United States have
wasted their inheritance of land and
wood, of fish in the waters, and minerals
in the earth. The soil has been robbed
in the East and South and West. We
have reached very high prices for farm
products; we see wood famine and
very high prices for fuel. Prices of
lumber have doubled in less than dec
ade. This convention has been called
to consider decreased productiveness of
the soil near great centres Of population.
Such conventions might well be called in
the states of the union. They are all
soil robbers and wood robbers and water
robbers and mine robbers.
There is an awakening everywhere
along this line. The southern states are
inquiring; they have grown one crop too
long. The newer states of the West are
looking into soil deterioration and it's
remedies; they find that continual drafts
on the soil exhaust natures deposits.
Your state has taken the lead in numer
Gus specalties that are successful and
profitable under present conditions. You
have good farmers here, and many of
them, whose methods in dairying, fruit
and vegetable growing and other lines
have been followed by people beyond
your borders.
Good farmers have lived in the past,
before colleges were instituted to teach
or make research into the sciences of
agriculture, but their experiences died
with them. The books ON agriculture
in any library twenty years ago were
very few and seldom written by prac-
| tical and scientific operators. We must
not deal too severely with the man who
has failed TO make his farm profitable in
| the past, unaided and alone, without
school or college or library to help him
to better practices. These things are of
recent conception, and in many states
are only being fairly organized.
The old-fashioned farmer with thin
soil has in most Instances fought good
| fight. He struggled to educate the
young people, whose education led them
away from the farm and left him to
struggle alone. Everything taught |
them had tendency to turn their eyes
toward anything but agriculture for a
career. The farmer was tolerated in
these days. The developing industries
the factory, the railroad, the forest
and the mine-cOaxed the boys away |
with big pay The nation was offering |
farms of new land for nothing. 1t gave
its mines for developing and its for
ests for the cutting, and it protected the
factory of every kind, enabling these in
dustries to outbid the farmer when he |
wanted help. The state encouraged the
railway, and it's schools furnished forth |
| the youth of the land for every vocation
but agriculture. The boys and girls
went away leaving the father and moth
er with gray hairs on the old acres. |
The unproductive farm of to-day, in its |
primitive strength, educated boys and
girls who have helped to build up the
West and Southwest into great states,
and have helped to build up the indus
tries of the empire state.
EDUCATIONAL.
The Congress, half century ago,
recognized the wisdom of providing for
the education of the farmer. Provision
was made for an agricultural and me- |
chanical college in each state and terri |
| tory, and more recently research into
agricultural problems has been provided
for. These institutions are making as
satisfactory progress along lines of edu-
| cation and research as could have been
| ex pected, and rank high among similar
enterprises in the world. The young
farmer is studying the sciences of agri'
culture and the old farmer in many
states is being reached and interested.
Faculties are being enlarged and
strengthened in these colleges and ex-
pertinent stations. The states are add
ing materially to the Federal endow-
ment, with the approval and on the re-
quest of all classes of citizens.
The farm newspapers of the country
are occupying higher positions as edu-
Gators, their stats and themes being re-
inforced from the agricultural colleges.
The publications of the experiment sta
tions, dealing with the problems that
affect their respective localities, are read
and in demand. Vigorous efforts are
being made to prepare young farmers
for their life work. We have sixty.fve
land grant colleges, with ten thousand
students of agriculture in attendance.
They have funds and equipment amount
ing to SS4, 600, 900 and annual revenues OF
Sl4, 100000.
These colleges are giving us educated
men for teaching, writing, superintend-
ing, and making research. Each state
has an experiment station, where re-
search is made into local conditions of
soils, plants, animals, and the manu-.
facture of farm products. These sta
tions are endowed by the Federal Gov
eminent with $4,000 each annually.
They are steadily improving their work.
Your college of agriculture at Cornell,
with it's 552 students and strong faculty,
gives promise of good things to come for
your farmers, and your research station
at Geneva is attracting attention. The
place for New York is at tho head in
this regard and there are many indica-
tions that it will be found there in the
near future. Your home institutions
are the exemplars for the farm.
The Federal Government authorizes
the department of agriculture to do
things of a general nature. 1t is uni
versity where graduates of the state
agricultural colleges specialize under
scientists of acknowledged proficiency
in their lines of work. We have over
8, 1000 people in the department, of which
, number over 1000 belong to the scien-