The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-18
Railways New Ally of the West
ern Farmers.
Thousands for Scientific Agri-
. culture Doctrines.
HELPS ROADS IN END
Freight Receipts Fattened by
Better Products.
Other Items Of General Inter-
est in Traffic World.

Kansas City, Mo-. April 1S.-When the
department of agriculture at Washing
ton and the colleges of the middle
west set out to teach scientific agr1-
culture to the farmer, the hardest task
they had to perform was to catch their
pupil. The rural dweller was not par
ticularly coy. but he was Indifferent,
skeptical and 5cornful. Believing that
he knew more about his business than
anyone could tell him, he manifested
profound contempt for book farming
and the theorists who taught it.
That same attitude is discoYerable IN
some sections Of the country today, but
for the most part the farmers have been
brought to understand that they were
cheating themselves when they turned
a deaf ear to scientific instruction and
that improved methods meant double
and treble production from their land
And that change has been fastened ma
terially by an ally to the scientists-an
enthusiastic publicity agent and an en-
ergetic distributor Of knowledge.
That ally is the railroad. 1t is the
railroad that has carried the product or
the scientists labors to the farmer and
proved to him by ocular demonstration
that there was something worth while
in book farming''-set before his eyes
better grain and fruit than he ever
grew and finer stock than he ever bred.
And along with the products OF tne
laboratory the railroad carried the sci
entistS themselves. who took the re-
1uctant farmer pupil gently but firmly
by the button hole and told him where
he was away off. And the farmer saw
and heard and was converted.
The railroads of the middle west to-
day are spending tens of thousands OF
dollars annually in assisting IN the
work Of spreading the doctrine of sci
entific agriculture They even have
gone into the demonstration business
on their own accounts and maintain
bureaus of publicity, experiment sta
lions, permanent displays Of improved
farm products. Each road, besides
aiding the government and the state
institutions, runs a little agricultural
college of it's own.
This generous activity Of the trans
portation companies is not inspired by
philanthropy-it is plain, cold business.
There's mighty little sentiment about
a railroad corporation and mighty lit
tie time for gratuitous missionary
work They reason thuSly: We spend
a dollar teaching the farmer how bet
ter to farm; as a result he grows larger
crops, consequently has more grain and
fruit and live stock to ship-our dol
lar, accompanied by several others,
comes back to US in increased freight
receipts.
The most valuable aid given the agri-
cultural colleges by the railroads has
been in supplying trains and travelling
equipment for the demonstrators who
carried messages to the farmers. These
trains, which on occasion carry stock
cars for exhibition farm animals, seed
cars for grain, and Pullmans for the
teachers, have proved so effective in
spreading the doctrine Of higher agrt-
culture that many OF the roads now
keep them in service the greater part
of the year, continuing the campaign
ing on their own account when the coll
leges are not sending out instructors.
The railroads bear the cost of these ex-
cursions, which include seed specials,
dairy specials and stock specials, and
the expense of operating one of those
trains is a thousand dollars a week or
more. The railroads, too. attend to adj
vertising the coming Of the agricul-
tural specials, and to bringing farmers
to the stations along the route to hear
lectures on seed selections, stock breed
ing, fertilization and rotation Of crops.
In Colorado the railroads are giving the
agricultural college of the state almost
as much money as is appropriated by
the state for college extension work, the
amount of transportation supplied alone
amounting to more than $4,000 year.