The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-07-07
AS TO FARMERS
DAY

AAo
DAY
For a number of years this county
has had a demonstration farm con-
Quoted by state and federal expense.
We have received little or no bene-
at from it and it has been partly our
own fault. If we do not receive the
benefits prepared for us next Friday
it will be entirely our own fault, not
the fault of the government, for ar
rangements have been made not only
to show us and teach us for the day
but to feed us besides. All w have
to do Is to go there and do what we
are invited to do. There will be
speakers and field teachers. Farmer
teachers from the capital, the univer-
sity, men who farmed and then went
to the schools and learned the why
of everything that brings better re-
suits. and are now back in the work
ready to teach the rest of us all they
can for the day and furnish the proof
of what they teach. 1t will be stand
ing before the visitors in rows and
beds, the visible proof of just what
results r secured by certain meth
DDS.
The people of this county raised
q large amount of money to secure
this experimental farm and then act
ed like they thought that a all
they had to do to receive its bene-
fts. 1t is as unreasonable as to buy
a set of books and set them on the
shelf and expect to become well in
R4w~onl hwy h x,tvo ham 3o tho hntIco
They have to be studied. We have
to use the experimental farm If we
are to receive any good of it. Every
dollar we put into it is a dead loss
unless we put ourselves in a position
to receive information and apply it
after we get 1t.
The farmer and his boys who go
to the experiment station next Friday
and look and listen will come away
interested in some one thing they can
do successfully; perhaps many things
and if they find a new interest and
enthusiasm aroused by the days visit,
it may be the day from which they
will always date their greater sue
cess in farming. The day their plans
took form for better things; the day
they began planning and operating
for actual and pronounced success;
the day they began to take courage;
to feel a real hope; to act upon new
desires and new ambitions.
The day of poor stock and poor
crops is passing; the day Of driving
to town with a cayuse team hauling
a light load over a poor road has
already begun to disappear; better
roads, good teams, good vehicles,
shorter hauls to nearer loading sta
tions-these things have enabled
men to make money where once they
could not. The day of automobiles
has come to many farmers, and it is
coming for most of them. The motor
truck will soon come for those living
along the well-kept roads, and then
they will have a decided advantage
over their neighbors who haul by
the old methods. Then men will do
some thinking on two things. they
will consider how expensive it is to
have a piece of bad road between
them and the station; what a good
investment it is to make it as good
as the rest of the road, and to have
that as good as the best of it. Then
they can use the motor truck for the
heavy hauling, and use the horses
in the fields and as helpers to get
the heavy truck loaded after 1t
reaches the hard road. Farmers will
be able to move tremendous tonnage
of crops quickly under the new order
of things, and the fall blowing can
then be done as it has never been
done under the old system, because
of the great saving of time doing the
fall hauling.
When you look ver the expert
mental farm next Friday, consider
what big values can be raised on
an acre of ground If handled on the
pans suggested and shown there in
connection with the light crops such
as seed alfalfa and other cereals not
generally raised here now. Consider
what a great lift good roads and
motor trucks will give to the farmer
who is marketing those crops that
run into heavy tonnage. A couple
of years ago when men were haul
ing seventeen to twenty dollars
worth of potatoes to town with a
span of horses, a man at Springfield
loaded his two-horse wagon with ST.
700 worth of agricultural products
-Grimm's alfalfa seed. He could
better afford to haul his crop to Oma-
ha by wagon than the potato grower
could haul his to the nearest switch,
and yet while the one is raising
Grimm's alfalfa seed, many others
are raising potatoes and diseased po-
tatoes at that.
Go to the experimental farm next
Friday and try to learn some n
thing that will be helpful in your
business of farming. 1t may not seem
that you have learned much, but If
you can apply that it may mean a
start in the right direction.
Tho raiIroad ia the %neon1e's sub-