Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-03-05


lege could help. For the farmers he
offered Farmers Week and six-weeks'
winter courses in agronomy, animal
husbandry, horticulture and dairying.
For farmers wives and village and
city housekeepers, a siX-weeks course
in domestic science and art For the
better handling, harvesting and pres
ervation of Oregon's thirty billion feet
of standing timber-one-siXth Of the
total of the United States--a six
weeks course for forest rangers To
mitigate disease and prevent conta-
gion among the millions Of Oregon's
domestic animals, instruction in vet
erinary science for farmers and other
would-be farmers. To search out the
best local materials for road-building
and decrease waste from incompetent
supervision, testing Of Oregon rocks
by experts, and course in highway
construction. To meet the extensive
call for trained instructors along ag-
ricultural and other vocational lines
and better to adapt the common
schools to their true function Of pre-
pairing for life, a siX-weeks' summer
course in industrial pedagogy. To all
who ask, free examination or analysis
at the experiment station of soils, wa
ters, oils, clay, insecticides, feeding
stuffs, phosphates, lime, gypsum, and !
so on; and tests for animal diseases,
such as tuberculosis. In these and |
other matters Of vital moment to the
health and prosperity Of 0regon's !
population, nearly forty thousand let
ters of inquiry were answered in one
year. Wherever there is an outbreak |
of contagion among animals, or pests |
threaten the fruit industry, experts |
are sent to the disturbed locality |
where they search out the causes, ap-
ply known remedies, or possibly dis
cover new, as they did in the case of
peach spot, which they practically
eliminated from Oregon.
Comparatively few farmers or far
mers' wives can pursue even the short
courses in residence at the college.
Besides, these new truths are con-
stantly being discovered and new ap-
plications made of known principles.
These are only of practical value as
utilized on the farm. To bring the
college closer to the people, President
Kerr has introduced into Oregon the
movable school, itinerant expert in
structors, and demonstration trains
the latter furnished and equipped by
unsentimental railroads that appre-
cate the tremendous practical value
Of his work for Oregon Where the
demonstration trains go, the lectures
are delivered on board; in other
places halls are secured The experts
address farmers institutes, women's
clubs, Christian associations, boys
poultry clubs-to whomsoever will
listen, useful information is freely
given. Men get their farm animals
together and are shown the best
points in horses, dairy and beef ami
mails, pigs and poultry. Or the eX-
perts go on the farm ITSELF size up
the farmers stock, let him prune
trees under their direction show him
how to use sprays for pests such as
the San Jose scale or codling moth,
give him formulas for the sprays, and
so on. His wife receives in the lee
ture room or her own home hints on
cooking, home sanitation, house fur
nishing and decoration, or she may
be instructed in poultry husbandry or
in the uses OF churns and separators
Thus is carried on a system Of dis
seminatiOn that aims ultimately to
take information to the individual in
any industry and see that It Is in
corporated into his everyday practice
This matter of taking the college to
the people is very near President
Kerr's heart, for he believes that the
knowledge most worth while is a
working knowledge, where brain, eye,
and hand work in unison,
President Kerr has not been idle
along the line Of original research
work. He has secured added support
for the Oregon Agricultural and Union
branch stations and succeeded in hay
ing two new stations established.
one to investigate irrigation and
drainage problems on the government
irrigation project at Umatilla; the
other a dry farm experiment station
to work out systems Of crop rotation
suited to various non-lrrigated sec
tions Of Oregon. In much Of this re-
search work he has solicited and re-
ceived the cooperation OF experts
from the bureau Of plant industry and
the reclamation service.
"Dr. Kerr Is pre-eminontly a man
living in the present doing todays
work today and fitting others to 20
and do likewise. The significant word
most often In his mouth Is the word
practical" And in this word we have