The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-04-21

MWX1W highest figures known in this coun-
sNA@A try in a generation, it is interesting
SHSS&1EA to consider the efforts of those who
MS$8SeM have labored long and increasingly
-ZA&nsN A to so improve our agricultural re-
XMI sources that this very condition
u a should be avoided. Among these I'M
~ selfish workers for the common
good the figure of one man stands
out conspicuously. This man is Professor Perry
G.. Holden, undoubtedly the most noted agricul-
tural expert of our time.
A few years ago Professor Holden trebled the
value of the corn crop in Iowa. A little later he
put millions of dollars into the pockets of the
farmers of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. AS a
final achievement, he induced the farmers of
Arkansas to adopt a system of crop diversifcation
which resulted in an increase of the wealth of the
state of more than S30,O00,O00 in a single year.
And Professor Holden says he has only started
that 1t is his ambition to do as much, or more. for
every state in the Union, and the chances are he
VIII accomplish his purpose, for he is today the
leader in a movement for agricultural revival
and rural uplift, which in its scope and signifi-
canoe, is without parallel in this or any other
country. What is of equal Importance, he is ut
the head of an organization with practically I'M
limited facilities for carrying on the work. Dur
ing the last three years he and his assistants have
co-operated in organizing and conducting ~ffty-fve
campaigns for agricultural education, have spoken
at nearly 10000 meetings, and in order to meet
these engagements have Travelled approximately
100000 miles by railroad and over 100000 miles
by automobile, while their activities have reached
the enormous total OF 100000 people.
Professor Holden has been described as the
Burbank of the soil--the man who set King Corn
upon its throne and crowned alfalfa queen. He
has been called a missionary, a preacher, a philoso-
pher, a prophet and a teacher-a professor in the
university of the great outdoors. More than any
other man he has set agricultural America to
moving, and to moving in the right direction.
1t was while professor of agronomy at the Uni
versity of Illinois, from 1897 to 1901, that Pro-
fessor Holden's work first attracted attention.
Other men have allowed their energies and activi-
ties to be bounded by the four walls of the school
room, but to Holden such a thing was impossible.
He looked upon corn culture as a source of pros
perity and happiness to humanity. He had a vi
sion of more generous fields, more golden harvests.
He pictured big red barns, fine dairy cattle, hap
py homes.
But he beheld these things as possible only
through the united efforts and intelligent CO.
operation of the people and organized the Corn
Growers association. He recognized the agricul-
tural possibilities of the sugar beet, and the Sugar
Beet Growers association. came into being.
Already he had done much for the farmers Of
Illinois, but he was not content. Men Of achieve
ment have little time for retrospection. He saw
the need of improving the quality of the corn and
organized both the Corn Growers association and
Americas first corn-judging school. He placed
corn upon n nlSner euuCaIlOn pldue JIluu LuIlu
and Greek, organized the Illinois club for the
dissemination of agricultural knowledge among
young men, and revived and broadened the farm
ers' institutes of the state.
Then the Iowa State college beckoned him. AS
professor of agronomy and as director of the agri-
cultural extension department of that institution
he continued the work he began in Illinois. He
did more. He "beat his own record" which is a
motto he has held before him since he was a boy
in n little country school house in the backwoods
of Michigan.
He inaugurated a better-corn campaign that is
UNIQUE and majestic in the history of agriculture.
He shattered all traditions of extension work by
refusing to rely upon bulletins and other printed
matter to carry his message to the people. He
went in person to the farmers at their homes and
taught them by word of mouth. He inoculated
commerce and transportation with the bacteria
of more and better corn and set a precedent for
every state of the Union by conducting the first
railway train ever run for the purpose of spread
ing the gospel of profitable farming.
add what would equal a three-ounce nubbin
TO n hill" ne said, land the gain will be ten BUSH
els to the acre. About nine million acres are
planted to corn in Iowa each year. That little
pubbin more In each hill will mean an increase OF
ninety million bushels"
In 1912, after Professor Holden had talked and
demonstrated and labored for ten years, the 'nub-
bin was added to the hill. The total increase in
the WELD that year was 9S,914,557 bushels, which
ut 36 cents a bushel, the average price of corn
that year, meant that the market value of this
WELD increase was $35,6O9,24O.
All Iowa was proud of Holden, but Holdeu's
fame spread far beyond the borders of the state.
He became a prominent figure in national
progress.
There were those who refused to believe that
Holden's activities should be confined to even one
uation. so he was placed ut the head of a mighty