The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-10
FARMERS HEAR PRACTICAL TALKS By Farm Experts Now At
 Meeting in Auburn CORN POOR HOG FEED Tt Will Starve Them To Death" De- Clares Gray, Member of Auburn
 Faculty-Reports From
 County Agents Heard
CORN POOR HOG FEED

County Agents Heard Auburn, November 9.-Farm demonstra ticn work is not the dry, technical oper alton that the layman conceives; an en thusiast talked of demonstration worl here today, and the work assumed TO mantle hue. He was O.. H. Benson, 2 field agent of the department of agricul ture, in charge of cooperative demonstra- tion wort
 For more than two hours MT. Bensor spoke of the sanctity of the earth,' and of ~ nobility of productive toll. Meth ods of keeping boys and girls on the farm ana contented, and of teaching them use full work he revealed. He discussed the emblem oI the boys and girls co-opera- tive work, and its four HIS" for the training of the head, the heart, the hand and the health. The four are co-ordi- nalad, ha said, and got together in the plan of all demonstration work. Farmers cooperative demonstration work, as planned by pr. S. A. Knapp, Is not in tended primarily to increase profits, he said it is to increase every standard os living, of the home, the school the farm and social life.
 The second days of the farmers meet. ing nas been occupied with practical talks from practical farmers and experimenters in regard to problems which are alive The first talk was that of D. T. Gray. professor of animal industry at Auburn. and an experimenter who has been re- markablv successful in his work with live stocks. He spoke of raising hogs, an in dustry which the government demonstra tors endeavor to establish and popularize. MT. Gray startled the farmers when he told them:
 with pasturage, pork can be made for less than . cents a pound" He proved It by his figures and experiments results.
 "The bi sis of successful live stock l.; pasturage," he said. T hope the .in'e will come when the farmers of Alabama will pay as much attention to their pas tures and fertilize them as they do :o their cotton crops"
 Most of the lecture dealt with the foods best adapted to fattening hogs.
 Corn alone is the poorest feed in the world for hogs,' he said. Tt will starve them to death There is not much differ ence between men and hogs in some TO- spocts. Man cannot live by corn or corn breaG alcne. Corn lacks muscle making substances" A number of combination foods Mr. Gray suggested, and discussed their comparative methods. Skim milk and corn. rice products and corn, tankage and corn, he recommended, especially the milk and tankage combinations. In the ccmrination, he said, tankage could be made to take the place of nearly six times the amount of corn, and great saving thus can be effected.
 "But hogs cannot be made by dry lot methods. A pasturage is necessary" he ceclared With a pasturage of rape, he said, pork can be made at cents, with soy beans, at less than 8 cents. But pea nuts, he said. made the best pasturage. Sorghum does more harm than good, ana chllfas. while fattening. is bad crop from the farmers standpoint.
 Clarendon Davis, a prominent farmer of Huntsville, talked of permanent pas turages. The best, he said, Is, Bermuda as the only grass which does not sour with frost. The best place to start pasture. he said, is after a clean cotton crop. For pastures Mir. Davis recommended a cont tination Of the following tame" grasses. Red top, orchard grass alsite. red clover
 J. B. Isbell of DeKalb county, recom- mended a combination of burr clover, cut iii with disk harrow. and Bermuda.
 '.Dry feeding is mighty poor farming, said MT. 1sbell. Permanent pastures are best.
 ]. T. Watts, district agent of Talladega. declared that the only way to improve soil practically was the establishment of forage crops.
 The rerorts of county agents were re- stunned, ana about six told of the work In their counties. One, H. C. Davis of Macon county, took occasion to denounce the system which prevails throughout the only The shiftlessness, the lack of car, and thrift. and the poverty wrought by this method he denounced. 'The bot u ueevii will cure us." he said.
 The destruction of the soil, the loss ot prosperity and many other evils he ascribed to the system. All along the talk of every agent had something to dn with soil conservation and soil rehabilita- tion H E. Savely, general field agent of .he government, earlier had spoken ol soil building and of crop rotation as 2 mears
 ..You've got plant feed in your soil, he said. Put humus in it. Cow peas are good; there is cheap source of nitrogen. No country, either has ever maintained the fertility of it's soil without the use of live stock"
 Corn was a big factor in the discussion of Thursday. J. c. Phelps of Auburn district agent in the demonstration, work led in the discussion. MT. Phelps became angry when he saw mention of s''the average farmer in government report
 I've been laying for this average far ,ner' for long time,' he said. "All thf depreciation of the soil all the low yields all the evils of farmers are due to this man known in the government reports and elsewhere as the average farmer. who brings down the standard of produc. ton, and who really is the careless, shift less farmer. Mediocrity in farming Is ,r furious: be a good farmer or none at all'
 Mir. Phelps went into details in consider irg means of corn production. He was op ti-nietic i'm regard to southern corn pro