The Washington herald., 1912-08-25
'~< Jn..aAasE 80 W.

| Flying schoolhouses on wheels, capable
| CT Jumping 500 miles a day, travelling
schools set up for a week at a time In
small towns for a brief course under the
direction of an agricultural department
expert in the best methods to be applied
to the growing of the principal crops OF
the surrounding farm territory. demon
stration farms on which the doubling
Thomas Of the rural community is shown
the superior results obtained by scien-
tifc methods, and the employment OF
agricultural experts in every county for
the instruction Of farmers in the best
methods OF handling their soils and cul-
tivating their crops, are the up-to-date
methods by which the national and State
governments. the railways. and other
interests are cooperating in the EFFORT
to swell the farm output Of the country
and at the same time to reduce the high
cost OF living.
All this has involved a radical change
of methods. For years the Federal gov
eminent has been conducting important
researches looking to the Improvement
of agricultural methods and has been
embodying the results in pamphlets sell
dom seen and still more rarely read by
the actual tillers OF the soil. Now, in
stead Of a pamphlet worded in abstruse
terms that the farmer could not un-
derstand IL he tried, the Department of
Agriculture sends out a practical man
who puts the facts about improved
methods into understandable form. The
railroad president. instead Of lecturing
the farmer on his wastefulness and
10 ok of enterprise, employees a man who
knows modern agriculture and sends out
a special train fitted up with lecture
rcoras and exhibits where the farmers
can gather and can learn just what the
new farming may be made to mean to
their particular locality.
Million Hear Lectures.
Last year the attendance at such lee
lures and demonstrations was over l.ooo,-
600. Successful business men who want
to do something for the solution of the
country's greatest economic problem are
contributing funds to aid in the employ
ment OF practical demonstrators to show
by actual results the advantages of scien-
tific methods Of crop rotation and culture
In many localities the farmers them
selves. realizing the value of this work
are putting up their own money to carry
1t on.
In the minds Of those who have studied
the subject there is no question as to
the superiority of these modern methods
which amount to taking the school to the
farmer instead Of trying to persuade the
farmer to go to school and which, teach
by practical demonstration rather than by
theory. Nor is there any question as
to the urgent necessity Of greatly In
crossing the output OF American farms
This is shown by the tremendous increase
in price of all farm products, by the
rapid decrease in food exports and the
steady rise of food imports. and by the
act that while the acreage yield Of Amer
ican farms has remained practically sta
tionary, there has been a marked advance
In the rate of yield in the principal
countries of Europe.
The average yield per acre last year in
the United States was l25 bushels of
wheat, 15.6 bushels of rye, and pa bush
els of oats. The latest available figures
giving the average for five years in these
crops for various European countries are
as follows: ----