The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-09-18
Or, HUME TALKS

. torNc{Gi clt1TcaShF "a our rural com
m'aaitisS. depends very largely upon
the integrity ana strenRth ~ oar Amer.
lean system 81 agricultural expert.
i1oat stations" said A y Name. aaron.
njst % The stare CSlleke AZ the rural
life conference st Mitchell Aud he
added The corollsyy: "Whe$o shall
weaken these stations IN she carrying
cat ~ tAejc essential purposes is m
enemy 10 the very foundation ~ Amer.
lean ~asritaltare and and whose works
within one or iAem without sincerely
irving 10 advance the science Of real
farming, NlaSpAes,pS against the ideals
Of American Institutions
Dr hume'S address was upon the
sah5ect The Advancement OF the
South Dakota Farmer Through the APP
ploatEon Of Scientific Agriculture"
He maintains, however, that this sub
5ect deserved a wider Interpretation
and might be we'll taken 10 mean the
as'"1NS""SAs VI StNNA lhahoNa hlouSu
the application Of science TO agricul-
ture For. said he. 1T must remain
true that the state at large will not
advance very much beyond the farmer
and the farmer will not advance very
much beyond the state. If knowledge
is 10 be applied 10 farming, it will
come about through the people who
dwell on land. If we ever have a
scientific agriculture, as We ordinarily
understand it, it will be because the
people of the farms are people who
know things"
Where is the farmer to get the know
ledge upon which he is to base his
scientific agriculture? DR.. Hume en-
Swered the question by saying that the
state experiment stations should be so
equipped that they can decide what
ever problems of agriculture may need
10 be solved within the state. The
soil he said, lis the material basis of
life, therefore the state, through its
agricultural experiment station, is
under obligation TO furnish to it's peo-
pie the facts concerning the proper
use Of the soil upon which we live"
The problems Of how to use the soil
are not simple, and hundreds of farm
ers are confessing their %perplexities
by writing the experiment station at
Bookings for information-four thous-
and letters to the agronomy depart
ment alone last year. In order to full
I'LL its mission, the experiment station
should have an accumulated fund of
knowledge for reference-knowledge
based upon state experiments in soil
and soil needs.
After showing how a scientific use
of soil knowledge had increased the
average crop yield at Brookings 81
per cent during a five year period, DR..
Hume suggested that Gin all probable
ity hundreds of farmers of Dawson
county and surrounding territory will
want to know how to increase their
crop yields ove thirty per cent at a
profit, and that permanently, without
raining the soil" Had the recent legis-
lature needed the request Of the ex-
Priment station for an appropriation !
to study the soils of the state, these
farmers could have had very soon re-
liable information concerning their
own soils, which would show how these
soils should be treated to get the in
creased crop production.
"The matter of permanently profit.
able agriculture is nc matter for pea
nut politics. Some day some states.
man in the South Dakota legislature,
mayhap from Dawson county, will in
troduce a bill for permanent soil and
crop improvement in South Dakota.
When that statesman appears, ne will
be tenfold more a blessing to his COM
munity than IL he carried home a little
'swag.' He will be the means not only
of increasing crop production and con-
seQuently land values; he will also
let the fact be known throughout the
land that South Dakota is and always
expects to be a most intelligent state
in our s%isterhood Of states. Will you
not see to it that such a man goes to
The lepis1afuro?"
DR.. Hume further. advanced the idea
that another agency can supercede the
station in solving farm
problems. The task cannot be left to
corporations ven If any could be per-
suaded to relieve the state of its re-
s~ponsibility. mo corporation is con-
Quoted on a scientific basis so that it
could reliably solve farm problems"
1t should not be left to federal cooper
alton, for ut is the business Of the
to educate the citizens of the
AS to federal aid. Federal aid
means federal control. No federal
Is in a position to intimately
the problems OF the states.
It is not q sound proposition that the
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