The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-11-04
HILL APPROVES
METHODS OF CLUB
Especial to the Silver State.)

cal farming, the work of agricultural
colleges, the scarcity of competent
farm labor, the diminishing food sup
ply and other economic questions are
discussed freely by James J. Hill,
chairman of the board of directors Of
the Great Northern Railway company,
in letter to David Brown, chairman
of the local committee of the National
Country Life congress.
Mr.. Hill endorses the aims and pur-
poses of the nationwide farm better
ment movement,to be launched in Spo
kane, November 23 to 30, and says
it will do real service bv obtaining
authoritative information which it
would be possible for the farmer Of
the country to put into actual use, ad-
ding among other things:
ALWAYS the first and most import
and matter is to reach the individual
farmer and show him what he himself
can do on his land. The most highly
educated agricultural professor or
teacher, when placed upon farm, can
do little more, if anything, beyond
adapting his crop to the soil. To Sc
lect good seed and to properly culti-
vate the land-that is all within the
reach of the average farmer.
"He can or should know what crop
his land is best adapted to raise. He
can test his seed by taking a hundred
grains of each kind and planting them
in a box of average soil and place
the box in place where the sun will
shine upon it. The number of grains
that grow will give him the percent
age of good seed from which he will
get results. He should use every par
ticle of barnyard manure as fertilizer
and he should prepare his seed-bed by
Thorough cultivation before planting
and then it should be well narrowed
'That is practically all that the
best informed agriculturist could do
under the same circumstances. If the
farmer is successful in raising full
crops I think it is fair to assume that
he can be trusted to improve all his
home surroundings and his social con-
dition. IF his farm work is not well
done and the results are poor crops, the
other work will not appeal to him nor
can he afford to spend much time or
money on other matters.
"Most of the men who discuss agri-
cultural subjects are apt to talk over
the heads of their audience and to talk
about matters beyond the reach of the
average farmer. Many of our agri-
cultural schools are more engaged in
turning out teachers rather than
farmers
ssTn the agricultural countries in
Europe, agricultural education has
further advanced than with us. Great
Britain has worked at it for a CEN
tury and has raised it's yield of wheat
from IA or Is bushels per acre to 33.
Denmark, with an area of about twice
the size of Massachusetts, has more
than so agricultural colleges and
schools and in practically every neigh
borhood experts are assigned to help
the farmers in a practical and common
sense way. In Belgium every school
must maintain garden of at least
39h square rods. All these efforts
bring the better methods of cultiva-
tiop direct to the farmer.
cat the National Educational asso-
citation meeting, last year, speaker
said Il recently heard young ag-
ricultural college graduate, who had
been placed in charge of a farm, de-
plore the fact that he and Others like
him could go through college and re-
ceive bachelors degree in agricul-
ture without anywhere, either in high
school or in college or on farm,
learning how to plow, or dig a ditch
"What will help a farmer most is
clearly to enable him to help himself
and this can be done by showing him
on his own farm. We have tried many
methods and found that the only re-
suits worth while have been obtained
by showing the farmer through the
preparation of small plot of ground
say FIVE acres, how to cultivate his
land.
"Manual training would never
amount to anything if the pupil did
} not actually make things, and the same
applies to the cultivation of the
farm.'
Regarding the farmer being interest.
ed in the prosperity of the wage-earn
er and the business man, Mr.. Hill says:
"Our agricultural population 4C
years ago was about so per cent Of
the entire population of the country
1t is now less than one-third. Forty
wears ago the agricultural population
had to raise food for their own mouths
and for one additional mouth. Now
we have to raise food for two add:
tic nal mouths.
"Relying upon our home market
which was furnished mainly by the
agricultural portion of our community
we had stimulated industrials until we
had destroyed the proportion between
production and consumption, and the
time is rapidly approaching, if it is
not already here, when many of our
industrials will be compelled to seek
market in other countries for their
production or cease to produce.
"The scarcity of good farm labor
today is felt by every farmer in the
country and the want of it is compell-
ing him to limit his cultivation prac-
tically to what can be done by ma
chinery. 1t is very difficult to get
farm labor competent or willing to
take proper care of livestock or milk
COW. Still. if you should ask anv
labor leader in the country he would
} tell you there is too much labor in tn
country and that some steps should re