The mirror., 1915-04-08

living from the soil as well as a
deep-rooted respect for nature.
Until few years ago he was rather
hard to convince. due, no doubt, to
his isolation; but with advent of
the RID. and the telephone, the
progressive spirit of the country has
been inculcated into his being so
that now, instead of waiting for pro-
gress to come, be reads his paper
and goes after progress, and the
next generation will not be one of
farmers, but of agriculturist.
This new spirit of progressive
ness that is sweeping the farming
districts is the result of the Govern
ment, ably assisted by the press, uni
versities, and railroads, promulgat-
ing the study of scientific farming.
Geo. Washington was not only
one of the most extensive farmers Of
his time but was perhaps the first to
farm along scientific lines. While
president of the United States he
tried to make farming national
issue, but failed; and it was not till
one-huudred years later that an ag-
ricultural Dept. was added to the
US service
Hundreds of millions of dollars
are annually appropriated to this
Dept. for research, experimental,
extension, and educational work, but
the wonderful results obtained show
that the expenditures are profitable.
The department has much to con-
tend with and many barriers to
overcome before some farmers will
take up modern methods. For in
stance, an interest had to be arous-
ed in farmers of certain mountain
locality of the southeast. One man
on returning from that district said,
apropos to the shiftlessness found
among the ruralites, The way to
tell whether a distant object is a
stump or a native-Watch it, if it
moves, it's stump"
One of the heads of the depart
ment in trying to find way of
bringing fertility back to the soil of
the run down farms in this section
discovered, after experimenting for
seven years, that by inoculating
seed with bacteria, blue grass could
be grown in abundance; and it is
known fact that where bluegrass
will grow, nearly everything will
grow. That was his easiest task for
he then had to get the farmers to
inoculate. Most of them had no
money; some of them wouldn't buy
government treated seed if they had
had money, and the conservatism of
others held back the work. He per-
severed, however, and now that Sec
ton is thriving. That is but one of
the many ways the national depart
ment does it's work. Their bulletins
which they send to any farmer free
gratis. give the results of EXPERT
ments, and explanations on every
subject pertaining to the farm. Nor
is the house wife forgotten, for there
is the bulletin on the care of babies,
ways to plan and serve meals and
how to prepare them, and how to
regulate the house work.
The railroads have followed out
the same line on smaller scale
which is proving a mutual benefit
to themselves and the farmers who
ship on their roads.
The state universities have added
agricultural courses to their curric-
ulum which are, perhaps, the pre-
dominating influence in the new
movement and even high schools
are teaching scientific farming while
the Carlisle Indian School has one
of the best three-year courses in the
country.
People of to-day realize that the
trained man is the successful man:
and though. until recently, farming
has beensan occupation, it Is now