Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-07-12
FOR AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL
Doctor Butt Shows the Great Need
of Scientific Farming

EDITOR CENSOR:
| am not farmer, but know some
thing of the subject. Having practiced
medicine for some years, it is easy for
me TO see that Vernon county vicinity
is sick and the census shows il. Rich
land Center, by going in debt for new
buildings, is adding new life in unpros-
porous times, bat Vroqua, depending
upon run down farms, is quiet.
DIR. Schreiner wrote for an agricul-
tural school, and says that Westby may
have one Of it's own. Those best in
formed see the need of agricultural
knowledge, and God pity the rest.
Many farmers living near the towns
of this county will tell you their rep
resentatives in business or the pro-
fessions are one-horse men, but | am
here to say that, judging by the scien-
tific knowledge possessed by all and
their ability to live well, the farmer is
the surest one-horse man we have and
holds the others back. Many of them,
for lack of farm knowledge, are com
PEELED to live in poverty or as misers,
while Illinois, the first state to apprO-
pirate largely for scientific farming,
has seen its farm lands double in value
within ten years. The last census add
ed Missouri and another state TO the
list, and Wisconsin did well, gaining
"a per cent, but not in this portion Of
the state. Land advances in price only
when farmers can make interest on
that price. Run down farms are sch
ing cheap, and instead of running away
from that problem for a few years by
going west for new land and rems lining
ignorant, our best spirited farmers
should be ready to learn new methods
in a state with more natural advantages
than many Of the farmers have who
left it.
Citizens remember how tobacco cul-
ture helped this ueighborhOod, and
many Of us are now dong well IN gin
seng culture. What makes plant
growth? Food from the air and drink
from the rain. The study of soil bac-
terra shows that heat and moisture fav-
or their activity. Lumber decays from
bacteria when it is wet and hot, and
milk decays from germs in hot wealth
er. The fence posts which support the
picket fence at my fathers home have
stood there 40 years because the poison
in them at the ground line is the same
a surgeon uses to kill germs during an
operation.
Nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid
double plant growth as manures be
cause they favor the activity Of germs.
In our blood, bacteria are killed by the
lenkosite, if we live, but the soil bac-
terra must be aided by manures which
destroy their enemy, the lenkosite.
Last September, many farmers met
at our asylum to learn from an expert
who told US how each kernel of corn
had one silk which vas fortified by
pollen from the tassel, and, to prevent
inbreeding, the pollen should not fall
from stalk on an ear of that stalk
but from the next row, the germinat-
ing quality being the same for each Of
the 100 grains in an ear. We were ID
TO where 100 rows Of corn were planted
from SEED furnished BY various farmers,
some Of which showed IS per cent.
terminating power. The farmer ] rode
out with was anxious that should see
his row until it showed up marked ''17
per cent. sprouted, ''and 30 have be-
come a convert for an agricultural
school.
In this connection, / quote a few