The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1912-02-09
WHAT IS FARM MANAGEMENT
Address by Mr.. Byron Hunter Before
the Wheat Growers Convention.

HAoo'SSo w WI' oyIOu I1uIltCI 0eIOTS
the Wheat Growers Convention.
Farm management is compare
lively new phase OF agricultural sci.
encc To treat the subj ct fully in a
single address is entirely out of the
question. Hence it will be possible
here to consider only a few of the
more fundamental points. 1t must be
remembered also that what is said
here pertains only to farm manage
ment as it is being developed in the
U. S. Department of Agriculture.
The Office of farm management
grew out of the old division of Agros-
tology, now known as the Office of
Grass and Forage crop investigation
The aim at the very outset was to
study farm methods and farm exper-
fence. 1t was believed then that many
farm problems have been solved in a
satisfactory and practical way by the
more progressive farmers themselves.
This study early proved very fruit
full source of information and it was
soon learned that the farmer has many
other problems in addition to those
of growing crops and handling live
stock, problems which are difficult to
solve and which are not being dis
cussed by the agricultural papers or
in the bulletins of the State Expert
ment Stations or the U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture.
The Office of farm management has
undergone considerable modification
and evolution since its organization
some six years ago. AS the various
lines of work develop and farm prob
lens present themselves, the view
point and methods of investigation
change. The process by which this
line of investigation has developed is
concisely set forth by Mr.. Slillman
in The Country Gentleman of Nov.
18th as follows:
Agricultural science had its incep-
ton in the work of the chemist, the
botanist and the devotees of other fun
damental or primary sciences. These
men viewed agriculture from their la
boratories, and hence looked at the
farm from the outside. They saw
only that agriculture involved certain
elements of their particular sciences,
and became interested in farming only
in SO far as it had to do with these
sciences. First, the botanist discov-
cred that plants draw part n their
sustenance from the soil. Then the
chemist said: If plants draw food
from the soil, we, by Analysing the
plant and the soil, can prescribe fer
tilizers for the farmer to use.' Upon
this assumption, which we now know
to be true only within extremely mar
row limits, half century of soil
chemistry was based.
with the advent of agricultural
experiment stations came a new type
of agricultural scientist. The Older
type were followers of the more fun
damental sciences; the new develop
ed series of secondary sciences, each
OF which was in a certain sense an
application of the principles of such
sciences as chemistry, physics, me.
chanics. botany, zoology and physiol
ogy to some branch of agriculture
We now have the agronomist, who
deals with the problem of growing
crops; the animal husbandry man
who studies animal production; plan,
and animal breeders, who apply the
principles of breeding and selection
to the improvement of farm crop:
and farm animals; and a long list
of other specialists, all of whom are
trying to answer the question Howl
in some branch of agricultural indus.
try. Splendid results have followed