American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1909-01-02
RESTS ENTIRELY
WITH THE FARMER
Success or Failure Depends
on Individual.
Man Who Thinks He Can, Without
knowledge or Experience, Make
Success of Farming Will Soon
Learn His Mistake.

Wy "a. NIL iCloOll.1
l have recently been studying the re-
suits obtained on the farms on the Twin
Falls tract for the year of 1908, and
find that the crops as a whole are not up
to the standard. Many of the farmers
attribute the low yield to the season.
On the other hand, find many farm
ers who have this year obtained maxi
mum yields of almost every crop that
they raised, and are well satisfied.
1t suggests itself that there must be
another reason for the non-success of
many of our farmers than the so-called
<'of year"
When / find first class farmer /
find man who feels the necessity of
more and better knowledge of the
things that he has studied most,
! because he realizes that the simplest,
everyday affairs on the farm are deep
things. The wisest of the farmers and
the greatest students do not yet fully
understand all that is to be known
about the soil, how plants grow, and
the conditions best suited for their
growth-the COW, the hog or the horse
or about the bacteria that plays so i'm
portant a part in crop production.
There is not natural law that is yet
fully understood by them, and you will
find these men attending all farmers
I institutes or places where they may
learn-reading the best of farm litera-
ture in quest of knowledge taking
an interest in the markets and the gen.
seral welfare of the tract.
Now if these best students and sue
cessful farmers, who have been success
full even in an off year, do not fully un-
derstand the things that pertain to the
farm, and realize that each year brings
different aspects of the same problems,
what about the men who never read
! farm papers or attend Institutes where
4 they may learn from others experience
as we'll as from scientific investigators?
They must make more or less of a fail.
s ure. or at least never attain to the
q standard of the best farmer. They
= live on the surface of things, do little
= thinking of the work they are at.
= Many times | have visited such homes
= and the questions they have asked me
: : could have been fully answered from
s 8 the books and bulletins issued by the
station aud agricultural de-
o partment reports, which were reposing
dust covered on their shelves.
81 The crying need of our farms today is
81 better stock and better knowlege of
h them; better knowledge of soil improve
ssz ment; the utilization of every scientific
fact and the result of the experience
%kand investigation of other farmers, eX-
pertinent stations and government in.
Sformation.
SSs / sometimes ask myself the question
80 AH Why is it, that man going into any
other profession will spend years OF
patient study to fit himself for that vo
cation in life, and yet how many mer
1ntending to follow farming as living
have prepared themselves for that line
SzsSpf work."
Fundamentally there can be but one
answer to this question. We have beer
psing our schools to make most every
hing else but farmers. Our teachers
rom the country school ma am up tt
he college president have been inspir
hging our country-bred boys to make
>f themselves anything but farmers
That has been their only idea of rising
b the world. Had the country distric
chools of the eastern states so years
go taught the elements of good farm
pg, as they could easily have done
ad they put in the hands of the countr!
outh intelligent ideas of even the ele
Tents of fertility or plant growth, an(
pthing more it would have resulted il
eoducing ten good farmers where the.
i've one today. The average farme
nmbles over the ground, not realizing
e mysterious forces that are working
ere, having no desire to work togethe
lth nature or natures laws in rotating
Dps as they should have done in orde
maintain the fertility of the ground
hey SKINNED ther farms and thus be
me poverty stricken, robbing them
Ives and their posterity, their stat
q their country, for the prices o
rms went down and the young mel
rushing west to buy the virgil
lds-for what purpose? To repea
experience of the east? This the.
Il do unless a halt is called and the.
taught better way