Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-12-10
Farmers as Students
ILLINOIS FARMERS INSTITUTE
BULLETIN.

II il a wei known fact that moth
irg stands still for any great length
of tine: things either go forward and
improve or go backward and deterior-
ate
If a lawyer has ambition to become
a better lawyer, he does not diminish
his study of the law, but rather in
creases it. If a doctor would attain
to the highest pinnacle of his profess
sion, he does not practice medicine as
i; was taught and practiced 100 years
ago. but he reads and studies the new
ideas as advanced by known leaders
and eXperimenters of today. Carpen-
ters, printers. stone masons, miners,
merchants have discarded old and
out OF date methods for newer and
more economical ways in which to do
their work.
Have we as farmers kept up with
the procession? Let us investigate.
Do men who wish to become farmers,
in the great majority of cases, think
it necessary to go through prescrib-
ed course of study? They do not. Do
they read up on the newest and best
methods of agricultural practices
as studied out by the experimenter
and the best up-to-date farmers OF
their state and nation? No. How do
they learn the art and science of ag-
riculture? Through the reading of ag-
ricultural literature? No. Well how?
Why, by observing the way father did
it; in this way they learn the art, not
the science, for in most cases there
is no science, and what art they
/ learn, unless the greatgrandfather,
grandfather and father were men
above the average of their day, is 100
years behind the times, if We except
the use of improved machinery, which
| is. in most cases, the result of deep
| thinking, not on the part OF farmers,
| but on the part of machinery or the
men of the shops.
We maintain that in order for a
man to be successful tiller of the soil
| he must be a student; he must keep
up with the procession and he must
not depend upon his ancestors for his
.ducation. Father and grandfather
may have been successful in their
| crude ways and in their time, but ii
| they were, that is not saying that We
will be successful by using the same
methods They had soil that was
virgin, We have not; they wore home
/ spun garments, we do not; they de
pended upon oxen to do their burden
some work and transport them from
| place to place, We do not; they ate
| the simplest and plainest food, We dc
/ not; they lived in an age when luxur
les were few and far between, when
privation was the rule and not the eX-
/ ception as it is now, We do not; theirs
was an age Of subjugation, ours is ar
| age of progression and enlightenment;
| why not keep up with the procession
! We do not necessarily have to take
an agricultural course al a college to
be good farmers, but we do have &c
| be students. The knowledge is al
hand; We have only to look about US
lead, study and wake up.
The average farm lands OF New En-
[ gland, New York, Virginia and other
eastern states have markedly decreas
ed in productive power and value
l ! thousands of acres within 100 miles
/ OF Washington, ID. C, once worth s5C
To SlT5 an acre. are now abandoned
for agriculture.
Russia's wheat yield for 20 Year,
has averaged only eight and one-fourtt
bushes per acre, with the land falloW