The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-03-03
WORST TALKS AT
Farm INSTITUTE
GIVES THE FARMERS OF DEVILS
LAKE AND VICINITY SOME
PRACTICAL IDEAS.

farmers institute came 10 close yes
tefday. 1t was a splendid success in
point Of attendance and in the interest
displayed.
One of the features of the institute
was the address by Pres. j. II. Worst
of the A. c, The lecture dealth with
| dry farming, crop rotation and the
agricultural education of children. He
explained that the man who had given
his field and crop the proper attention
had still to contend with weather con-
ditions and these were not entirely be-
yond his control The farmers of the
| old country have learned to control
them and can estimate ahead with sur
prising accuracy their yields while In
| this country a man never knows until
his grain is threshed how much it will
amount to.
Il believe" said the speaker, IF ev-
| cry farmer In the state would plant a
| line Of cottonwood trees or a row of
hedge we would never suffer again
from these drying hot winds. Every
! leaf would become heat absorber and
| the birds that would nest in their
branches would destroy the insects
that eat up more crop than can be
grown on the ten or twelve acres occu-
pied by the trees" 1t will take TWEEN
ty-fve years to bring about this condi-
ton and for that very reason, tree
planting ought to commence at once.
In speaking Of the danger Of farming
| too much, President Worst said that
it was impossible to farm two or three
sections with a small team force.
Such farmers should be properly call
ed wheat manufacturers and their
farming is a mere expenditure of la
Dor, capital and executive ability. Ev
cry time they take crop from their
land they are robbing 1t Of so much
power The land in North Dakota to-
day is suffering from a fungi diseasef
he said. Fungi, he described as liv-
ing organization that develops in the
soil and preys upon the plant like lice
upon an animal and as each animal
seemed to have it's particular kind of
parasite so each seed has its fungi.
Now when one crop Is planted in a
ground year after year, these fungi
multiply until they do severe damage.
But If wheat is. planted one year and
something else, say corn, the next, the
wheat fungi would be for something
on which to nourish.
The time was coming. the speaker
said with conviction, when we would
be proud we live in a dry country.
That time would come when farmers
had learned the methods of dry farm
ing and their land would raise accord
ingly in value.
Agricultural Education.
The speaker closed with an eloquent
appeal for the agricultural education
If children. He said, This great ag-
ricultural country cannot bend its edu-
cation away from the soil and Their
look to the soil for support. A great
author has called nature, Gods text
book, and the study of nature was
nothing. but the study of agriculture
The farmer pays directly seven ninths
and indirectly all the taxes that &c
towards school fund to educate the
children away from the farm"
Mr.. Worst would not say that the
school fund was too large, 1t was not
large enough. but he would not have
it expended entirely in the teaching Of
Latin, Greek and other classical sub
jects, but spent in practical instruc-
ton. He would have the course In
troduced into every country school
high school, normal and even would
not object to the university devotine
its efforts to agriculture.
Cases existed in, the state where the
farmer worked and toiled to educate
his children in the branches that un-
J fit him for farm life and tend to turn
. his sympathies elsewhere. al remem-
ber," he said, "the old. pedagogues who
used to travel through the country
in my youth and lecture at the school
houses and invariably their advice was
"be good and study hard and you will
not have to be farmers. Why" he con-
tinued, 'to be a good farmer requires
more skill than to be a doctor, lawyer
or any other professional man. The
doctor has spent thousands of years
studying the human body and there is
still much that he does not know about
It, While on the farm are numerous
animals and insects each nearly as
complicated in their structure as the
human body and the farmer must
know all about these"
Miss 5arrow's Lecture.
A large crowd of women took ad-
vantage of Mis- Barrow's lecture.
In brief, Miss Barrows explained
that we suffer today not from the high
cost of living but from the cost of
high living. In primitive times man
was satisfied to take whatever eat
able things there was at hand, but
with the advance of civilization food
products were brought to him from all
over the world and now he may have
any food delicacy at any time wheth-
er the fruit or vegetable or whatever
II is, is in season or not. But he pays
a big price for it whereas he might
have had a seasonable article, contain
ing as much, IL not more, nutrition
For example, there is as much nutri-
ton in quart of milk as in a quart OF
oysters, but a big difference in the
cost, the milk being ten cents and the
oysters fifty. Similarly one pound OF
nhnncn cnrtains as much nutrition q q a