The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-24

Grafton in which we now live the
farmer has never known what he was
doing and why he did it,
He has done his work according 10
signs and omens, largely by guess and
faith.
From the beginning until our own
day he has never been, in any sense,
master of his craft.
Make Field Demonstrations.
1.-THE best and only real practical
way to reach the great mass of farm
ers, and make them masters of their
craft is by the field demonstration
PLAINTIFF sending of qualified dem
onstrators right to the farmer on his
farm, to work out with him and show
him right there on the average farm,
how to get better results.
Seven years of such work in the
South has produced marvellous results,
with over 600 demonstrators at work,
one or more in every county in some
states-but it remained for us to
draw and present to congress the first
bill to do such work in the North and
West.
Our pioneering work as a bankers
association in the public welfare has
interested other state bankers associa-
tons ali over the country, and gained
their support. At our call, bankers and
farmers of "a states met at New Or
in getting the great American Bankers
association to appoint a permanent
committee on agriculture and financial
development and education.
I'm February all of these banking
interests appeared before the senate
and house committees on agriculture,
in support of these bills.
I'VE presented the unusual and nov
Ell spectacle (where apparently moth
ing is novel in lobbyists) of a commit
foo of h0 I<nr ri 20 bn 20
ers.
I'VE are quite hopeful of the out
come of this hearing, for we know,
and men like Congressman Underwood
larger return on farm demonstration
work than on any money it spends.
Then, too, Democratic house can
hardly refuse to do for the north and
west what a Republican congress I'M
der President Roosevelt started and
continued for seven years in the south.
THE department of agriculture has
just been given about $3.50, 900 for
this work, all over the country, aside
from the bills referred to, so our work
bears fruit
when we contemplate that despite
the tremendous influences of many
agencies working on thetwo blades of
grass problem, the average yield of
our two greatest cereals, corn and
wheat, is actually less than it was 30
years ago, it is evident that something
is wrong.
An Educated Citizenship.
I'VE are fond of saying that a sue
cessful agriculture is at the basis of
all future prosperity, yet below and
underlying it all, and primarily funda- |
mental, is an educated citizenship, ed |
ucated for life's work and its pur-
poses.
'fWhile few of our primary and e!e-
schools either in town or |
country are doing the real work in |
tended, yet, the country school has
suffered much the most.
1.-THE school course is rarely adapted |
to the needs Of rural life and makes |
little or no attempt to train its pu-
pills for life and its work. If it at
tempts anything it is scholarship rath- /
er than efficiency, training for exami- /
nation and routine rather than for |
power. !
And now the fourth great help to /
agriculture, and therefore to com
merce and the whole nation, is the
matter of good roads.
Good roads, good in all seasons
are second only in Importance to rail-
roads and are even more necessary in
the social life and local inter-com- |
munication in rural communities
1.-THE farmers and we complain |
about freight rates and railroad trans
portation, when the worst roads and
the highest freight rates, and the |
poorest opportunities and the high
country dirt road, past our own doors.
Good roads are an economical ne
cessity and there is no occasion to Ia
Dor the argumen t- The roads are an !
index of the character of any COM
determining it's Importance
and limiting or aiding it's advance,
and a country that isn't worth a good |
road isn't worth what it sells for and |
soon won't be worth living in.
"a few progressive states alone are
giving upwards of 100000 600 state
road aid.
Make Rural Life Attractive.
"And now, to sum up: Rural life
has not been as attractive as it should |
be, its social life is frequently barren,
for the city has been developed to the
neglect of the country, until 1t is dan
one-sided.
THE recall to the farm is what we
want, not simply back to the farm,
but back up the farm, for the real
slogan should be Forward to the
farm, and make our rural pride at
least equal our civic pride.
''Fhe farm is the best place God
ever planned in which to live broad,