The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-10-29
SCIENTIFIC FARMING.

A few years ago it was the fash
ion in certain quarters to deride the
application of scientific principles to
agriculture. The teaching of farm
ing was considered by many people
as joke A belief prevailed that the
only reliable method of learning how
to till the sell was to hire out as
chore boy on a farm and go through
the drudgery of hard labor in the per-
Torrance of back breaking tasks with
crude tools The farmers themselves
scoffed at the idea that they could be
taught anything about the business
that their fathers had followed before
them, and when it was proposed
that their sons should be sent to school
to learn agriculture" they resisted, on
the ground that it was a waste of time
and money.
Today the farmers who hold out
against the teaching of farming prin-
ciples are hopelessly behind in the
race. The successful men on the farm
TODAY are those who have read, and
especially those who have studied at
institutions. They are producing
larger crops than their neighbors, are
making the fullest use Of the soil, are
living in greater comfort, and are
taking a more important part in local
and national affairs. They have proved
beyond a possible doubt that scientific
farming pays abundantly.
An increasing bit Of testimony
showing that the scientific school OF
farming today is firmly established,
comes in a dispatch from Ithaca to the
effect that the New York state college
of agriculture at Cornell is overcroWd-
ed. the number of new students being
so large that they cannot be accommo-
dated in the college buildings. Last
year the registration of four-year
students was S65, and this year it is
500. BY mid-winter there will be 1900
students in the college.
Virtually the same story is told
at every institution where agriculture
is taught The advantage of schooling
is being constantly more widely ap-
preciated in every section. of the coun-
try. Farmers who a few years ago
would have regarded the sending of
boy to such an institution as the ex-
IRENE of folly are now making sacrf-
fees in order to give their sons the
benefit of this preliminary instruction
in a pursuit which has become
business. and which must be learned
thoroughly.
In the development of this national
appreciation the department of agri-
culture has played an important, If
not the chief part. The experiment
stations established under the wisely
liberal policy of the government have
brought straight home to the farmer
in every part of the land the proof
that science pays in farming. The
skeptic waivers in his opposition when
he sees in tangible form the demon
stration that soils differ, and that these
differences can be turned to profitable
account The good roads work of the
department has had a valuable mis-
sionary influence. In every branch the
scientific researches of the govern
ments specialists have carried convic-
ton.
Estimates of the increased value OF
the American farms as result or
scientific development have been as
saved. in terms of scores, and even
hundreds, of millions of dollars. In this
one particular, at least. a process OF
conservation has been started which
promises to lessen the waste of time
and labor and of soil resources, and to
render a maximum of value to the peo-
pie