The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-08-05
Making Vermont Richer.


cational education bill which Senator
Page has introduced in the Senate.
In his speech delivered in favor of
the measure during the present SEES
sion he brought out certain facts
showing the direct benefit received
from the application of modern farm
ing methods that ought to be of great
interest and material benefit to the
people OF this state.
The Senator quotes from President
Soule of the State Agricultural Col
lege OF Georgia to show what can be
accomplished under wise direction.
In the demonstration work of the
college a field was taken for expert
mental purposes that without fertil-
izer produced a third of a bale of cot
ton per acre. In four years the same
land produced three bales of cotton
per acre. This result was secured by
deep blowing. proper cultivation,
blowing under a crop of cowpeas
which gathers nitrogen from the air,
light application of manure and the
use of 1000 pounds of commercial
fertilizer. 1t may be claimed by some
that this treatment was so costly that
it was not profitable, but President
Soule shows that profit of $3.50 an
acre was made.
A few years ago Georgia was rails
| ing about 100000 bushels of corn
every year. Last year the corn crop
of that state was 100000 bushels
and in spite of the severity of the
drouth, the average yield per acre
| increased nearly two bushels. Part
of this increase is due to the extern
sive work which has been carried on
there by means of corn growing con-
tests for boys and girls. The object
lesson which the young people have
afforded in their profitable expert
ments has recommended the newer
methods to their elders.
The Georgia extension department
has in it's employ fifteen men who are
called agricultural drummers" Their
business is to 90 about the state
helping farmers to study the needs of
their soils. giving advice as to the
proper seed to select, and helping
every man who is seeking for aid in
working out his particular farm prob
lens.
Doctor Hopkins of Illinois, is one
of the greatest soil chemists int he
United States. In the southern part
of that state demonstration farm
was sarted where the soil was poor
An analysis by DR.. Hopkins showed
that the soil was lacking in phos-
phate and that an application of s1.5U
worth of phosphate an acre would
change the yield of Il to 13 bushels
per acre to yield of from so to 60
bushels.
Senator Page says:
'The question of profitable farming
today is coming to be largely a mat
ter of rotation of crops, of fertiliza-
ton, of better seeds. and of better
breeds of stock. We have no more
land to exploit, unless il be and the
cultivation of which will have to be
made profitable by the clearing of
needed forests or by irrigation or
drainage. We must increase the pro-
ductivity of the acres we have or be-
come a food-importing nation
MIR. President we have for more
than a century been deceivng our
selves. From the platform and the
stump we have been wont to boast
about our boundless natural re.
sources, but students are now coming
to see that unless we change our
present process these resources will
be largely exhausted within a period
that to the farsighted statesman is
but day.
1--WE have been exporting millions
upon millions of bushels of wheat
and corn supposedly at a profit. but
our scholars who have been making
the question of soil fertility a study
for the past decade are now able to
say TO us, as the result of their re-
search, that every bushel of wheat
carries with ii q cents worth of
phosphorus, and our friends from the
South now know. as they did not
know 20 years ago, that every pound
OF cotton takes from the soil cents
worth of phosphorus. When we
consider the hundreds of millions of
bushels of wheat and corn and the
millions upon millions of pounds of
cotton which We have been exporting
the extent of soil depletion is some.
thing fearful to contemplate.
II quotes one well known writer
on agricultural topics as saying that
the nineteenth century farmer was a
miner, mining the fertility of the soil
and selling IL for the bare cost of
mining"
He quotes the well known writer
Pages bill may pass and that the Uni
ted States may help us in solving
some OF our agricultural problems,
but We must not depend altogether
upon Uncle Sam. The State ought to
do more along these lines. We have
IN excellent Agricultural College, and
its dean is Prof Joseph l.. Hills. one
OF the most expert and famous agri.
cultural scientists in the whole coun-
try. We ought TO enable that college
TO broaden its work, to establish dem
onstration farms, to bring its work
TO the farms of Vermont. II is said
that only two other staes in the Uni
on. Nevada and Wyoming, do so little
as Vermont to aid the agricultural
college work established by our own
Senator Morrill, and Supported by the
Government.
The Vermont Republican platform
this year declares that Vermont
should spare no effort to make the
most OF her opportunity as an agri.
cultural state. In every reasonable
and practical way. the state should
encourage the uplift of agriculture at
this time. BY special instruction and
by the establishment of model farms
in convenient locations. the best
methods Of farming should be taught
and demonstrated. that the largest
output per acre or animal may be at
tanned. A liberal appropriation in
/ fhacn ifra,ffaVa -