The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-03-05
The Evolution of Agriculture


as rapidly as industrial development;
and logically the first attempts at
agricultural education were as crude
as the implements of our grand
fathers.
Students OF economic conditions
realized the folly and danger of a,
system of farming that made no pro-
vision for maintaining the fertility
of the soil. Any of their suggestions
were scoffed at as theories" Boo
farming" became a bywoId.. The
whole country was money mad"
Our forests, mines and the fertil-
ity of the fields were coined into dol
lars and found their way rapidly to
the cities. The men on the land
would heed warning only when they
were in trouble. The beef to feed
the steadily increasing population
was being grown on the Western
ranges sometimes going direct from
the range to the slaughter house.
sometimes being distributed through
the corn states and finished for mar
ket on cheap corn. Cold storage and
refrigerator cars enabled the large
packing houses to place this meat on
the markets of the country at
price that put the small grower and
butcher out Of business.
Intensive Cultivation Needed.
The range stock business has come
and gone. The future beef supply of
the country must come from fenced
in fields and cultivated crops. This
means a radical readjustment Of the
business. Increasing land values nec-
essitated more intensive methods and
larger returns per acre. The main
tenance or increasing of the produc-
tive capacity is recognized today as
one of the most important factors in
successful farming.
This evolution of agriculture has
influenced the moral, social and re-
ligious as well as the material con-
dition OF the people. The CONNER
cialization of the business OF farm
ing has largely obliterated its benefit
cent influence on the home life OF
the people. The concentration of the
effort and ambition to mere money
getting has left an evil impress on
the social, moral and religious life
of the people. 1t has been truly said
that:
The fault Of the age is mad endeavor
To leap TO heights that were made to
climb
Ry hurst nf strength by a thought
most clever,
We plan to forestall and outwit time.
Dairying Changes.
To summarize some of the import
ant changes both In methods and
practice, dairying illustrates how rad
ical those changes have been. Old
Brindle dropped a calf at about the
time the grass began to grow on the
hillsides.
She gave milk to feed the calf and
slight surplus for domestic use. 1t
was not uncommon when the calf had
reached the age of three or four
weeks to put 1t on separate pasture
and a diet OF skinned milk. While
the grass continued rich and green,
Old Brindle. gave varying flow of
milk carrying normal percentage
of butter fat. The housewife. with
out theorizing or reasoning why,
learned at an early date that the
heifer calf that was made family
pet, receiving numerous extras in
the way Of vegetables, green corn and
later on, the nubbins at husking time,
developed greater capacity for
turning food into milk, than either
her mother or grandmother, frequent
ly making twice as much milk as was
necessary to feed her calf. Such an
exceptional mixer became the family
cow and lived to good old age and
all of her female offspring were made
family pets Butter and cheese were
manufactured by the housewife to
supply the family table, and If there
was any surplus during the days of
rich pasture in midsummer, it was
packed in jars or tubs for Winter
use.
The next step in the evolution of
dairying came when the herd had in
creased in numbers so that this sur
plus became an important factor in
the farm products, which found its
way to market as cured cheese and
packed butter.
Cooperative Dairying.
The labor OF the dairy fell largely
to the women folks, who did the
milking, SKINNED the milk and
a, aH tha hnttor pno1o bo