The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-05
AGRICULTURE IN SOUTH
Educational Conference In Little
Rock Discusses Training for Farm
er-scientific Farm Work, ~rxrl
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

ence which held Its meetings In Lit
tie Rock recently, is a body repres-
entative of practically all education
al institutions in the South, public
and private, primary, secondary and
higher. 1t Is, therefore, a fact of
tremendous significance that the con-
ference will devote its entire atten-
ton to the subject of agricultural
education. The South has not yet en-
tirely recovered from the devastation
of war and the anarchy of reconstruc-
ton; 1t has always to deal with the
race problem; and it has not enjoyed
a proportionate share of the great
prosperity which has blessed the Re-
public in late years. That the South
ern farm and the Southern farmer
must be depended upon to bring the
South CUP with the procession is
the conviction of every man who has
studied the problems involved.
The educators in conference at
Little Rock desire to make the call
ing of the farmer a profession by Civ
ing him a professional training.
Wherever schools for farmers have
been established it is the record that
the graduate has been able to pro-
duce twice as much as the uneducat-
ed farmer on a given acreage.
The South has 10000, 900 acres of
improved farm land. In some of the
Northern States it has been demon
strated that scientific farming yields
about Sl4 per acre more of profit than
date at least four-fifths of the South s
titled acreage is being farmed by the
drudge farmer. Applying the lesson
of the Northern experiment stations
100000 acres of Southern farm
land might be made to yield S14 an
acre more than at present, a gain OF
more than one and half billion dol
lars. Take even half of 1t. and still
there is an increased value per year
amounting to $S40000.000
Good Out OF Evil.
There are many instances of the
haphazard ways that characterize the
farming operations OF the South to-
day-and those of the North OF yes
terday. But the most striking IL the
experience of a large number OF
Southern cotton planters, because II
not only shows how faulty the sys-
tenn has been but also that good may
grow out of evil. In parts of Louisi-
ana and Eastern Texas there mas
been great dread of the invasion OF
tire boil weeviI into the cotton fields
This has led many cotton planters
to cease the cultivation of cotton and
to begin the growing of rice.
The result has been in many in
stances that where So worth OF cot
ton grew heretofore SIG worth {
rice grew this year
Intelligent crop rotation has been
proved to be a boon TO land. enrich
ing it all the while it is producing
direct wealth. On the other hand
single-cropping results in a positive
drain on the soil. in the end making
it so poor that even the proverbial
black-eyed pea will refuse to sprout
in it. AS there is no other section
of the country so favored with long
seasons and a bountiful supply OF
heat and moisture. it follows that the
methods which have been employed
to make every Northwestern State a
veritabIe empire within Itself might
be allowed with even more advan'
tage to the South.
Worn out land is the bane of the
Southern States. and yet schools for
farmers may work the redemption OF
these waste places and make them
flow with milk and honey 1t has
been calculated that an educated
farmer is worth $4,000 more to the
community than an uneducated one
from an economic standpoint. The
great DIFFICULTY encountered by those
who would inaugurate scientific
farming methods in the whole coun-
try has been to awaken the farmer
to the Importance of it Al, so that
he would lend a hand in the effort tC
pull him out of the rut of imprac-
ticabTe routine. For years scientific
J farming education hiss been obtained
as easily as an education for the
law. the ministry, the countinghouse
or the medical profession Yet the
' SON who was to remain farmer was
not sent to a school for farmers as
| tho one who was to- become lawyer
/ was sent to the school for lawyers.
Scientific Farming.
Today the educators are carrying
| the evange of scientific agriculture
| directly to the doors of the farmers
| Where bulletins and other advice is
| sued by experiment stations and az
| ricultural departments seldom ar;
acted upon, on the theory that "this
might be true on some other land, b It
| it would not do the same IN mine
| the ocular demonstrations of thu
modern agricultural teachers have
| awakened live interest and have
convinced the farmer that it will d,
Il