The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-08-31

ceiving federal funds are in operation
today in every state of the union.
There were ten per cen more students
in agriculture in these Institutions In
1910 than in 1903. and more than
eight times as many students taking
the teachers course in agriculture,
Since then the work has grown rapid
ly. Extension work. short courses
farm institutes. and the running of in.
struction trains by the railroads al
their W expense are now familiar
and popular features. The movement
to educate has acquired much head
way.
Our experiment stations, schools and
colleges r doing good work, but II
falls short of our Immediate needs
They are mainly engaged in educating
teachers. Meantime the farm itself
languishes. Only a small percentage
of the children of farmers become
students in these institutions. Only d
small percentage of those go back to
the farm. The soil Is titled, the crops
are raised, for the most part by mer
who cannot attend college, high school
or extension course. In a generation
or two the educational process going
on may learn h whole lump. Blu,
the country annot afford to wait fol-
that.
The condition of the farm and the
statistics of production cry out for in
struction, and at once, fox. the whole
body of farmers. Soils that once pro-
duced from twenty-five to forty bush
els of wheat to the acre now give from
ten to twenty. England and Germany,
once as reckless of impoverished soil
as we. have raised their average yield
to more than twice ours. under far
less favorable circumstances. We can
do the same with greater ease.
What are the steps? am referring
now only to what the uneducated mar
can do. 1t a man Is sick he must have
a doctor to diagnose the disease and
prescribe the right remedy. So with
the soil. The evidence of it's sickness
is inadequate yield. 1t needs medical
treatment. Send a sample of it to the
nearest experiment station for analy-
sis. The anayst car determine what
dement's have been exhausted by care
ess cultivation; what particular form
of fertilization will restore that sol,
to higher productivity. This will give
the farmer the exact practical infor.
nation for the first step. 1t is almost
the only purely technical question tina,
he has to face.
The next step is seed selection. This
is strictly farm work. Every farme,
Snould TEST ms SEED for termination
before planting. This he can do quick.
ly in a small wooden box with a few
inches of earth in it, covered with a
white cloth marked out in squares
Place fifty or a hundred seeds in each
square, moisten the earth. keep it ir
a moderately even temperature, and
count the number of seeds that sprou.1
An expert can do no more.
Soil examination. fertilization, seed
selection. rotation of crops, and thor
ough and repeated cultivation. these
are the essentials. The last mentioned
means deep blowing. frequent har-
rowing. bringing and keeping the soil
in condition to favor growth.
There is nothing here requiring
technical education. Put the best
qualified specialist in the country on
$50 acres of land. and he could do
no more, and every Industrious farm
er can do this on his own land. and
he will get as good results. BY moth
ing more complex than the general
adoption of these methods eight or
/ billion dollars might be added
yearly to the national wealth, and the
farmers of the country be elevated to
comparative %offluence.
Agricultural education for today.
then. resolves itself into the extremely
practical question of how to get. not
students. but the man actually on the
farm. to do these few simple things
that transform farming from a labor
ious occupation of many hazards into
a a t and profitable industry,