Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-08-13
THE FARMER AND POOR CROPS.

Who is most interested in a good
crop and sure crop? asks w. Z.
Palmer of the agricultural college.
The farmer, the manufacturer, the
railroad man, merchant or the bank
err? The more | study the problem,
he SAYS, the more it looks as though
The farmer is the best fixed to stand
poor crop, and that 1t hurts the
others more. The farmer loses less
sleep over it than any OF the others
and proportionately fewer farmers
fail than any of the other lines of
business mentioned in time OF poor
crops. The farmer can get his llv'
ing from the farm, can reduce ex'
penses and economize in way that
the others cannot From this 1t is
plain that it is of vital interest to all
that good crops be sure thing for
each year, and each of these indus
tries which has really grown out OF
the farm ought to put forth their best
efforts to see that the farmer handles
his farm according to the best that
we know of farming.
A most wonderful change has been
brought about in the last two genera
tons. Then nearly everybody lived
on the land, Now less than one
third of the people get their living
directly from the people who live on
the SOIL They make machinery. They
make clothes. They manufacture
their grains. They build railroads to
transport these grains to the factory
and other products back to the farm.
So that while industry has developed
into this complicated system, the
farm remains at the foundation OF 1t,
and as this development goes on 1t
becomes more and more necessary
that the soil shall be made to pro-
duce up to it's capacity.
A vast fund of information has been
worked out during the last sixty
years on how to manage farms anu
institutions are now at work digging
out more of this kind of information.
Other institutions are at work giving
this to the farmer and these need
every support, as the products of the
soil are going to depend upon how
much of this information is put to
work, and as we have seen before
all lines OF industry are conditioned
on the amount of crops produced, so
that such institutions as experiment
stations, agricultural colleges, farm
ers' Institutes and the extension de-
partments are advancing farming as
fast as their means will allow them.
and in advancing farming they ad'
vance all forms of industry. So that
they might in one sense be calico
1.-The prosperity makers of the nation
The wise men of this country have
realized that and support these insti-
buttons from the national treasury to
some extent, but do not furnish suffl-
cient funds for them to develop to
their full capacity, so that they have
been left partly dependent upon the
state. The railroads are anxious for
more traffic and they realize the agen-
cies that bring it about. They were
the first ones to furnish money to run
demonstration farms. This last year
the Northern Pacific railroad placed
train at the service Of the North
Dakota Farmers Institute and Agrl'
cultural college that they might put
apparatus, appliances and instructors
on the train and in this way bring
the teaching of the agricultural COL
lege to many people who would not
otherwise have the opportunity OF get
ting such instruction which would en-
able them to grow larger crops and
to diversity their farming more. The
Great Northern railroad at one time
gave away large numbers OF pure
bred cattle and hogs that the farmers
along their railroad could produce a
higher quality Of stock and stock that
would give them larger return for
the feed that they fed them. In all
these cases it was business PROPOSE
ton with the railroad to increase the
traffic along it's lines.
1t is we'll to stop and consider the
great developments that have taken
place and the new duties that this
devolves on US, and also to consider
what it is necessary to do IN order
to have this development go on and
in order to bring 1t to it's highest per
lection.