The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-07-07
ASToR AS EXPERT FARMER.

Vincent Astor, the young man who
came into the heirship Of the vast prop
erty of his father, Colonel Astor, has
apparently chosen for his life-work a
line Of activity which will be of i'm.
mense value to the people Of this coun-
try if he pursues that line as he has
begun. 1t is said that he applied to
Governor Sulzer Of New York for adj
vice as to what he ought to do with his
time and money, and Governor Suizer
is credited with advising him to devote
his energies and means to the advance
ment of scientific farming in the
United States. Accordingly, young AS
tor agreed and ordered agricultural ex-
perimentation on an extensive scale on
his big farm at Fernchffe, New York.
He has employed agricultural experts
of the highest character, and has added
hundreds Of acres to his original Fern
cliffe farm. On his land there he is
trying experiments in farming, in all
lines of agricultural activities, in
growing alfalfa, clover, hay, oats, rye,
wheat, corn, barley, and other grains,
and also in efforts to improve live
stock, principally cattle and horses.
There is no doubt but that an I'M
mense field opens to young Astor in
his experimental activities along this
line He will be able to direct ex-
periments for sufficient number of
years without interruption from poll
tics or any other source to get definite
and in many cases satisfactory results
from his experiments. The trouble with
our public efforts in this line through
the U. S. Department Of Agriculture has
been that we are not able to continue
the experiments long enough to get
definite information or results as to
what will or might be developed along
the various lines of experimentation.
It is true that Ex-Secretary Wilson, re
Gently at the head of the u. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture, was IN office for
a long time; the longest time, IN fact,
that any Cabinet officer has ever
served as SUCH but. after ALL the fre"
quent changes that had to be made in
bureau officials interrupted the work.
expert in any field developed a special
talent and obtained repute and fame,
he was induced to leave the public
service by offers from foreign govern
ments and from corporations that paid
far larger salaries than the Govern
ment ever offered, far larger, indeed,
than the Government could afford to
pay SO the work of the Agricultural
Department has suffered for lack of
continuity Of effort and of definite and
continuous aim to any one purpose
Whenever a bureau official or expert
left the Department, the successor,
either because he aid not know really
what his predecessor was trying to do
or because he did not wish to develop
the work of his predecessor, but pre-
ferred to strike out on new lines of his
own, the continuity was broken and the
definiteness Of the experiments or the
line Of work indicated in any direction
was made uncertain and unsatisfactory.
But with Mr.. Astor there will be moth
ing of this kind nobody will be able
to buy his experts away from him, and
where definite and well-planned ex-
periments are undertaken they will be
pursued to the end, to see what the re-
suit will be.
The experiments, therefore, that will
be conducted upon Mr.. Astor's farm
ought to show better results than any
thing we have ever had before in this
country, because of the fact that they
will be continuous, and that Mr.. Astor
has ample means to put through any
line of work that he undertakes. There
is no doubt but that Mr.. Astor, in
taking up this line OF work, has point
ed out in a new direction the public
benefit which millionaires can work to-
and which Will be of more immediate
practical profit to the whole people Of
the United States than has been the
work of any other millionaire philan-
thropist, no matter in what direction
that philanthropy has taken. Mr. Astor
is to be commended for his originality
in taking up this new work, which of
fers such splendid and broad oppor~
tunities of public benefit, as we'll as of
satisfactory results to himself and to
the experts whom he will employ.