Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-02-23
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OPEN FORUM
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THE COUNTY AGR1cULTUK1sT

To the Editor: Mr.. James, of Beauty
Valley, for several years had been rails.
ing more bushels of wheat to the acre
than any other farmer around the coun-
try. Many of his neighbors tried hard
to do as well, hut they never could come
up with him. His wheat always looked
so uniform all over the field and stayed
so free from mixture with other kinds
of wheat. 1t never entered their minds
that the reason for it was other than
better methods of handling the soil. One
year smut was bad all over the country,
but Mr.. James wheat showed very few
signs Of it, Then his neighbors began
to get little superstitious about it, anG
said it was providence. The next year
Mr. James sold his wheat to his neigh
bOrs for seed at a hign figure. They
all raised L bumper crop the coming
summer, and laid the cOuse TO the sea
son.
One day the county agriculturist
called on Mr.. James and asked him how
he managed to grow such wheat Mr..
James took him out into the field and
pointing to several different heads of
wheat said, do you see any differ
ence in them?" "Sure do, ~ replied
the agriculturist. "Tnis head and this
one are great deal longer and plumper
than the rest of them. There will be as
much again wheat in this head as in
that little one there. That is the
secret of my success, replied Mr..
James "Every year I go through my
field just before cut it and spend
half a day selecting the best heads /
can find. l gather enough to make me
peck of grain when it is shelter. /
sow that on a quarter acre of ground
and raise my next years seed from
that. Now that is all there is to it. My,
place is small, and / only raise five
acres of wheat year. But two years
ago when the smut was so bad I raised
twelve bushels more to the acre than
any of my neighbors. | never sold
busnel for less than a dollar. | call
sixty dollars pretty good pay for a half
a day S work -
% tell you, Mr.. James, / am going to
spread the gospel of your success all
over the cOuntry,' remarked the coun-
ty agrieulturist.
Yes l would like to have you tell
every farmer in Marion county about
it, if it would do them any good - re-
piled Mr.. James. eff every farmer in
Marion county would practice my meth
Od of seed selection Marion county
wheat would become famous the worll
over. We coludn t begin to supply the
demand for seed wheat at double the
market price.
"I'll 90 one better than give YOU my
blessing on your efforts, | II give oyu
dollar for every farmer you succeed
in getting to undertake it this coming
summer. Then, Mr. James continued !
with chuclle, 81 II bet you five doll
ars you don t earn five dollars off of
me next year. ~
81 tell you," Mr.. James went on,
''the farmers have been following so
long the same old grooves their fore
fathers taught them to follow; they
have worn them so deep; Travelled them
so automatically; glide along with so
liatle friction, that it is almost impos-
sible to pry them out and get them to
follow any other course. They would
follow the old ways if they starved to
death.
''Why, ! have known Lane over here
for years He is fine intelligent fell
low, and well read. Every once in
while we get together, and he speals off
to me whole lot of new ways and
practical methods for doing things, and
goes on to tell how much better off the
farmers would be if they only would
practice them. But Lane is still plod-
ding along in the same old grooves his
grandfather used He has worn them
so deep he can't even jump up and
catch holl at the surface let alone pull
ing himself out.
Why the average farmer is scared
to death at the idea of trying some
thing new for fear he will rail. They
always want the other fellow to try it
first to see whether it will work Then
they watch him succeed at it for years
iustl ike they have watched me succeed
with this wheat; each year declaring