Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-11-25
IB|G OPPORTUNITY
FOR AGRICULTURE
Pennsylvania Farmer Points Out
What This State Can Do in
Way of Raising Food
EDUCATION THE FIRST STEP
Shows How the Food Supply Can
Be Varied and Vacant Land
Be Put to Working
EDUCATION THE FIRST STEP

! sources and to make the loaflng hill
sides and the barren tracts productive
once more is pointed out in an inter
view given to the Telegraph to-day by
one of the foremost agricultural scien-
! lists of the country. This man, whose
name is household word in Pennsyl-
vania, has given the best part of life
| time to the study of the problems at
| tending agriculture in the Keystone
State. lie started out with the idea
that the production of food could be
immensely increased in this state and
that with the western states serving
as a granery Pennsylvanians could turn
to intensive agriculture and market
gardening and raise great part of
the food which they now bring from
other parts of the country.
The opinion of this PENNSYLVANIA
farmer Is well worth reading and con-
sidering, especially in view of the fact
that one of the cardinal principles OF
Governor-elect M. G. Brumbaugh is
| the conservation of agriculture. This
is what he says:
In these days when we hear so
much of industrial welfare and con-
servational progress, it is fitting that
we should look to the great art and
occupation from which comes all our
strength, viz, agriculture. Well has it
been said that agriculture is the foun-
dation of all other occupations. We
must expect to prosper or decline with
the prosperity or decrease of welfare
OF our agricultural people. Their in
dustry began first of all, and may con-
tinue after all others are gone, but
their profits and comforts are not pro-
portionate to their importance. Many
man, attracted by reports of great
agricultural achievements, has been
caught in the back to the land"
movement, and has found that for
divers reasons the work is harder and
profits much less than he anticipated.
The fact is that these unsatisfactory
conditions of rural people are increas-
ing and growing worse instead of bet !
ter. Why is this so? Why should I'll
be so in view of the fact that in the /
Federal Government an agricultural
department is maintained, with annual
expenditures of millions of dollars.
and, OF course, the employment of
tens of thousands of persons to bene- |
fit the farmers? Each State maintains
its agricultural department with diff |
ferent specializing bureaus: also, its
State college and State experiment
station. Different counties now have
county farm managers or directors |
Many public and private schools are
introducing agriculture in the currIcu- |
lum. Our State Department of Public |
instruction has an agricultural section.
There is no doubt of the many efforts I
to place agricultural education some |
where, and in some way. Has this |
been done? II So by whom, and es-
pecially by what correlation of these |
various powerful forces?
As we look over the great State of |
oil H. -
OF soil to be found anywhere in Amer
lea. There are certainly, then, soil I
possibilities for any kind of crop, the
production of which is limited only by
climatic restrictions.
THE. forests in this State are grad
ually becoming extended. Persons
have for a short time cultivated lands
that later have been neglected and
promptly reverted to a wild or natural
condition, allowed to grow up with
underbrush, which in turn is burned
by forest fires and again left barren.
were once well-cultivated fields Their
fertility has been carried to the soils
banking the streams below them.
What master hand has taught the
people how to conserve the soil which
God placed upon the hillsides, appar-
emily for purpose? Where has there
been demonstration in the methods
OF preventing soil erosion or in soil
conservation? Who among us is really
taking hold of such barren fields and
teaching how to restore their fertility
by natural, efficient and economic
means?
IF the hill tops are to go back to
forest and fire, and the hillsides to
erosion, the valleyc must do double
duty, resulting in double production.
Instead of this, statistics show grad
ual decreased yields in America, but
y q a ri n raI AVNa
rope. Noted European travellers in
America claim that this is a land of
waste. and are impressed more than 4
all else OF the wastefulness of Amer
leans. Who has demonstrated how to
save this tremendous waste, and in
crease the production and fertility of
the soil?
1T must be remembered that the
farmer is a man who can no longer
revert to his schools and books. Ills
schooling is the practical school of
experience. and his lessons come from
the soil titled by himself and his
1t is true that new pests.
in the way of both plant diseases and
insects, are occasionally introduced |,
but he has proven that he is able TO
meet these as they come, due chiefly to
the practical demonstrations in this
line having been given in every county.
and in almost every township in the |,
State. His greater problems are those
of broad agricultural advancement, Il
needed business facilities and oppor- b
tunities for social and moral improve
ment. All of these should be con-
strained in the great modern idea of
education. It is evident that the de-
sired ends cannot be reached without
a very definite cooperation of all of h
the factors supposed to be operating
for his welfare. II the representative
of one institution, organization, office
or department works on one line, and
another person on another entirely
different, and third still in a different
and especially If one finds
different advisers at are variance in
their instructions, how can the poor
farmer know what to do? 1t is to be
hoped that the agricultural high
brows will agree upon Some things in
% general plans, and (2) specific de-
tails, and will then present them, not
in the method to which they are ac-
customed, but by the one method bv /
which all the agricultural people arc {
sure to learn. Seeing is believing {
why would 1t not be doubly profit I
able in Pennsylvania for some one I
from the Department of Agriculture ]
to take in hand some of the rundown
or abandoned fields of each county and {
make a demonstration through a short ]
period of a year, showing how to run /
and improve them by economy and n
then sell them at enough gain to paw
the pXDenSa Of fhe recforafiop7 Tba