The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-30
COUNTY CROP IMPROVEMENT AND
FARM BUREAU ORGANIZATION

the race generally. can be of any benefit
to him. We must teach more desire
for the perfection of attainment in the
perfect thing rather than the desire for
the thing itself. We must teach that to
be and not simply to have is the goal of
our earthly pilgrimage. That doing for
hcmanity and not having humanity do for
us ought to inspire us to effort. That
accomplishment through development and
effort, for the common good and not for
mere self-aggrandizement ought to be our
ambition.
Too frequently farming has been con-
sidered a thing that anybody can do. A
calling for which little intelligence and
less education are needed. To correct this
wrong idea our youth must be taught.
This great business that has given birth
to more great characters than has any
other in our country must be better un-
derstood both from within and from with
out, that its proper place may be accorded
and it's productiveness preserved.
Realizing the prime necessity of begin
ming with this fundamental business in
which the greatest number of our people
are now engaged, the United States gov
ernment Is now spending millions on ag-
ricultural education. The purpose of this
organization of which 1 am speaking Is
to bring together first. the farmers of
furnished them, from time to time. such
helpful knowledge as can be brought to
them through the efforts of the United
States department of agriculture in its
printed matter and through the> experts
sent over the country and maintained at
the expense of that great department.
Agriculture is to be given the place 1t
ought to have alongside of and on equal
ity with If not superior to any other
calling to which man may devote his en-
ergies. If we are to judge, and how else
are we to judge, the usefulness to hu-
manity of any calling by the results it
gives in character, then the farm must
in our civilization, be accorded first place.
The young men and women upon our
farms are to be given a new interest in
farm life through a greater knowledge of
the farm; how to till it, how to grow and
harvest crops and through cooperative
selling, how to reap the profits now
going to middlemen who would serve no
useful purpose under a proper marketing
system. Each organized neighborhood,
through representative sent to a central
council created from representatives of
the different neighborhoods in the coun-
try, could then keep in intimate touch
with every other neighborhood and in
that way their respective needs and wants
could be learned and locally dealt with.
In addition to these representatives
from the farming communities there is to
be a representative from each business
in the city or cities of the country, when
such business is one that deals directly
with the farmer and which through ii
mutual understanding and helpfulness the
one or the other will lead to the better
ment of conditions generally, in that
country; the purpose being to unity the
Of xra1o oraI ,.,,ftn
the community in work for the common
good.
By the proper handling of this organi-
zation every need of a community can be
met without misunderstanding, without
friction, without loss or misapplication of
human energy, for the conservation of
which it is designed. Under this system
better farmers. educated for their pro-
fession in the best colleges and universi-
ties of the land, can bring from the soil
rich harvests at less expense and can
thereby be enabled to establish in the
country, with all it's other advantages, the
comforts of the city, that can be used to
make them more efficient units of society
and the farm a still more useful instru-
ment in the creation of manhood and
womanhood. The city on the other hand
will have it's population restricted to that
which is useful; its environs freed of the
pauper and to a large extent of its Grim
inal element, and the free and systematic
| adjustment of the supply of human en-
erSy in accordance with the demand for
| it in useful industry will be made.
A committee on highways will keep in
touch with the need of the country in the
matter of roads, the best material to be
used, the best method for building and
the ability of the community to build
them.
A committee on schools will attend to
practical needs of the schools in the city
as well as in the country with a view to
having such instructions given as best
meets the requirements of the children
OF the respective communities-looking to
the creation of a more useful and hence
better satisfied population. 1t may be
said in passing that the country school
children can be and are now in Mobile
county, being made of practical service to
the farmers, by the testing of seeds to as
certain the percentage of termination
A grain committee will look into the
matter of growing and handling the grain
crops of the county; inqufring into the
Kinds that can be profitably grown, as
well as the improvement of the seed and
the culture of that now grown there
The committee on dairying will learn
the cost of milk and butter production, in
quiring into the minimum of production
at profit, caring for sanitary regula-
tions. stock Improvement and the culture
of forage crops.
That on horticulture giving special care
to the production of vegetables for the
home and it's beautfying by the use of
flowers and shrubs.
The one on marketing attending to the
organization of the county as a unit. in
order that farmers In the selling of their
crops will be co-operators, not competi-
tors, and may under cooperation follow
the Tive and let live'' plan
The committee on "home economics,
will give attention, among other things
to the placing of such comforts and con-
veniences in the farmers home as will
lift the burden of drudgery from his wife,s
back and make the conditions of her life
more and more pleasant, making her a
more satisfied and more useful member
of society.
Other committees, such as those on
poultry. live stock landlord and tenant
the press and whatever others for which
there will from time to time be found n
need, will be formed for the carrying out
of this systematic undertaking to give
every member of a community an equal
opportunity to enjoy life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
That there can ever be a perfect CO.
ordination of enterprises no one need ex-
pect. Imperfect human agencies must be
relied upon to carry out even the most
perfect ideals, but some system Of eouit
able and fit distribution of human energy.