The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-01-24

structing 10000 farmers boys ant
| 5000 farmers girls.
| g. More than 200, 600 demonstra
ton farms are maintained. These ar
portions of individual farms aloni
public roads, worked strictly in ac
cordance with instructions of the gov
eminent field agents. 1t is CAREFUL.
estimated that a million farmers visi
these demonstration farms every year
4. AS an outgrowth of this work
boys corn clubs have been organized
| with results that 1 think are unparal'
| leled anywhere, every boy individual.
working one or more acres, under
definite instruction. Prizes have beer
given locally by public spirited oiti'
| zens. In 1909 in Holmes county
| Miss, the boys in the corn cflfns aver
aged rs bushels per acre. The aver
age yield of their fathers and neigh
bors was 16 bushels. This aroused
the whole south and southwest, and
the 1909 enrolment of 10,543 boys
jumped in 1910 to 46,225. and in 1911
to 5000. The average acre yield OF
the best 100 boys plots was 1873
bushels! In Holmes county, Miss,
146 boys averaged 80 bushels PEI
acre. The boy that took the prize
in Louisiana last year and won the
Brush automobile at the Omaha Fair,
produced 1879 bushels on an acre at
a cost of 1870 per bushel. The state
average for corn in Louisiana was
20 bushels per acre.
Value of Crop Rotation
In this valley of big yields, which
we know to be true, these statements
stagger belief, but / have verified
some of them and know they are not
typographical errors, but taken from
official statements. 1 might add these
splendid results have been obtained
by rotation of crops, fertilizing and
the use of legumes, clovers, peas, etc.
eve are going to find here in the
Yakima valley that scientific fertiliz-
ing and the use of clovers, alfalfa and
other legumes will be necessary to
keep up our big yields of splendid
quality.)
What are the results in the south ?
The property Of the southern farmer
is increasing by leaps and bounds. In
1910 the southern farmer produced
158,000,000 bushels more corn than
in 1909, or As per cent of the total
increase in the United States, Missis-
sippi increased it's corn crop by so
per cent. For ten years it's average
production had been 10 bushels In
1910 it was 2oh bushels. A mer-
chant in Lincoln county, Miss, makes
the statement that his firm had been
sending 100000 year out of the
state to get corn to advance to the
cotton planters. In 1910 they did not
send any.
Do you wonder then that the bank
ers and business men want this work
extended to their own states?
Hon. Jas. J. Hill is quoted as say
ing 'the annual product of the soil
in the U. s. amounts to 10 billion
dollars. 1t can be doubled without
any extra cost for labor, and possibly
four times that amount could be pro-
duced as easily.
while much praise is due to what
is now being done by the agricultural
colleges, and by the Department of
them n
when we set out to educate the
children in the public schools, we do
not establish one or two large ones
in each state and expect them to go
there. The soil tiller Is as numerous
and as much in need of instruction
and as unable to leave home in
O. pah Of ~ adj
tion must be taken to him"
Carrying Education to the Farmer
For this purpose of carrying the
education to the farmer, Congress
man Mckinley, of the 10th district of
Illinois. in behalf of the Bankers AS
sociaton of that state, introduced at
the last session Bill II. r. 134S9,
which provides an appropriation to
each state for the more complete
endowment of the Land Grant Col
leges a sum equal to one mill per
each acre of farm lands in the re-
spective states for the year ending
June so, 1913, and an annual increase
of such appropriation thereafter for
nine years of an additional mill per
year, and the annual amount to be
paid thereafter to each state shall be
equal to ten mills for each acre OF
farm land in the respective state as
reported by the last decennial census.
Provided that no state shall be paid
larger sum than is otherwise pro-
vided for the same year for agricul
tural instruction, investigation and
extension by the land grant colleges
and agricultural experiment stations
in the respective states.
Sec. q That the sums hereby APP
propriated shall be used solely to en-
ploy and send out successful farmers
and practical field demonstrators
properly instructed and qualified,
teaching, encouraging and helping
farmers and land owners, to adopt
and put into regular practice the i'm
proved and scientific methods of ag-
riculture as discovered and practiced
by the various said land grant coll
leges.'
law would be greater benefaction
than the Homestead Act or Reclama-
ton Act, and would result in doubling
or quadrupling our production, max
ing farm life profitable, endurabIe
and attractive.
The expense would be slight as
with the $3.50, 900, 900 we are