The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-01-20

ford a single failure. we are too near
the margin of production for trifiing
The country needs the best, the very
best her agricultural possibilities will
warrant. To secure these results, she
must do her full share by placing ag-
giculture at least abreast of other and
less important vocations. This can
only be done by means of an educa-
tional awakening that will enlist the
best blood of the nation, not only in
the production of wealth, but also in
its distribution; not only in the har-
vest fields but In the legislative halls.
The producer of wheat should fix
it's price, just as the manufacturers Of
hats and shoes fix their prices to the
consumer. Why not? What natural
law makes the farmer an underling;
that relieves him OF every political
responsibility, but paying taxes, and
every business responsibility except
to take the price fixed for him and pay
the price demanded of him? To be
forever asking, what will you give? or
what will you take? becomes monoto-
nous. Under any circumstances, it is
unfair, which alone should prove its
ultimate undoing.
Creative Power.
But to the subject in hand: In the
realm Of agriculture, human skill,
backed up by scientific knowledge, can
work miracles in the way of plant and
animal Improvement. 1t enables man
to become a creator in large sense
co-creator with God The blind
nF cyFr ,rrth
durance: but the forces of nature, di-
rected by scientific intelligence develop
quality-the element in both plants
and animals which fnsures a profit to
the husbandman The domesticated
farm animals differ from their wild
ancestors just as cilivized men differ
from savages--because of development
Development stands for quality, for
! Improvement, for usefulness. The
same is true of plants. But we are
not satisfied today with even the
| splendid Improvements of the past.
The last fifty years show more pro-
gress than was made during any for
mer 500 years of earth's history. More
over, we are just waking up to the
| fact that greater things are to be ac-
complished in the next decade than
during the past fifty years. Much of
this Improvement will be accomplished
on the farm and for the farmer
What Edison has done for the appli-
cation of electricity, the scientist will
do for the husbandman.
The creation of the Early Ohio po-
tato has been worth millions of dollars
to the world. The same is true OF
many improved vegetables and fruits
such as the Hubbard squash and the
Wealthy apple. But the great bene-
factors in plant creation have received
less recognition for their contributions
to mankind than the writer of an or
binary poem Not because they and
a host of others are not worthy to be
classed as world benefactors, but be-
cause agriculture has been considered
a vocation Of low degree. Not SO
now. We are drifting slowly but sure
ly from the fetish that knowledge oil
Greek, Latin, history, and philosophy
alone constitute real scholarship. We
are advancing slowly but surely toward
a more practical-a more vitalized edu
cation, toward a type Of scholarship
founded more largely upon the physi
cal sciences anu THAI IldhGS a mar
useful as well as ornamental.
i We have discovered that, within tn,
realm of nature, the mind may f1nt
material for highest development, no
alone for usefulness but for cultur,
and contemplation.
improvements Have Been Made.
Even children grasp the new ideals
. with a ra1isb NOT horn ~ uopdat
benches and dry text books. During
| the past year more than 5000 Nortl
Dakota school children engaged il
: corn growing contests, the future re
suits of which both upon the children
J and upon the agriculture of the state
! win be worth more than the Agricul
{ tural college has cost since its foun
, dation. Such exercises direct thei
: minds and ambitions toward, and no
} away from the only work that will II
any degree develop the state.
I During the past two years, on
/, demonstration farms, at slight expens
: to the state, have shown how to doubl
3 cereal crops through the exercise o
) good judgment, use of manure, goo
: seed, and proper tillage.
Last year $4,000 boys in four south
ern states, Arkansas, Mississippi
South Carolina and Virginia plante
! each one an acre of corn and cult
: waited it according to instructions give
) by the department Of agriculture. Tn
E average yield of corn vast year wa
, about twenty five bushels per acre
: The South Carolina boy who won frs