The Whitefish pilot. [volume] (Whitefish, Mont.) 1904-current, 1911-02-09
Agricultural College
and The Farmer.
BY President J. M. Hamilton.
Montana Agricultural Col.
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The purpose of the agricultural col
lege, exclusive Of the elementary and
! special courses, is to train agricultural?
experts. Not more than one cut O.
every hundred adults ever take a CO.
lege course OF any kind and recessari
ly but few prospective farmers erta,
an agricultural college. The agricul.
tural college cannot directly reach tins
great mass of farmers. 1t is the mis-
sion of these institutions to train the
leaders, who in turn can reach large
numbers OF tillers of the soil through
| lectures, agricultural papers, te:t
I books, farmers institutes and the va.
rious kinds of extension work 1t is
conceded that the surest and shortest
route to success for the engineer is
through technical school and for the
doctor by way of a medical college.
Likewise the time is here when the fu-
ture leader in stock raising, orchard,
ing, dairying and farm crops must con.
slider some time spent in an agricul.
tural college as indispensable.
To prove that the agricultural col.
leges have been successful in training
specialists, one needs but to point to
the splendid body of technical men
who are engaged in commercial work
as managers Of large orchards, stock
ranches and other kinds of agricul.
tural activities; who man the great
United States department of agricul.
ture and fill prominent positions in
the state experiment stations.
The agricultural practice of this
country is crude when compared with
that of Europe Our farmers yet be-
lieve that soil necessarily wears out
| with use. The most progressive Euro
pean farmers have cultivated their
lands for more than 1000 years and
are today getting larger yields than
ever before. During the past 100
years Germany has doubled her crop
yields. Denmark now averages forty.
one bushels of wheat per acre. Eng.
land thirty-two and Germany twenty
eight, as compared with fourteen in
the United States. The entire output
OF agricultural products in this coun-
try can be doubled by making our
farm practice as efficient as that of
Germany. The bureau of entomology
estimates that the loss to growing
crops and fruit each year from insects
is $659,OOo,0O0 and to live stock $751;
100000. The annual loss from such
plant diseases as blight and rusts is
more than $100,000,00O and the dam.
age to live stock from diseases which
are controllable reaches an equa,
amount The bureau of soils claims
that the yearly loss from soil erosion
is $500,000.00 much of which might
be prevented with right methods of
cultivation.
The statement has been made and
1t seems to have been accepted that
there is a diminution constantly go.
ing on in the average yield of crops
in the United States This is not
true OF single staple crop. On the
contrary. steady increase has beer
made during eacn five year period OF
the past two decades. Corn has in.
creased from twenty-four to twenty.
five ard one-half bushels per acre,
wheat from twelve and three-auarte
to fourteen. oats from twenty-five and
one-half to thirty. This advance
which is undoubtedly due to the re.
search work of the experiment sta.
tons and department of agriculture
and the instruction of the agricultural
colleges, will continue until the Ameri
can farmer will reach the high level
of efficiency attained by his European
brother.
The best progress will result from
close cooperation between the agricul
tural teachers and the practical farm.
err The attitude of distrust which
the average farmer has had for the
book farmer from the college is rapid.
ly passing away. The feeling of con.
tempt which at times the agricultural
college professor has shown toward
the practical farmer is also disappear.
ing Mutual sympathy and trust now
marks the relations between the col.
lege man and the ti!ler of the soil
Each is necessary to the other The
teacher needs the broad experience OF
the man on the farm to check his
theories and test his instruction. The
farmer must get his science from the
laboratories OF the colleges. The two
working together, each completing the
work of the other, will create a new
agriculture. scientific farm practice
FOR the American farmer.