The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-08-02
SUGGESTIONS BY
PETER G. JOHNSTON


For a few weeks last winter you
published series of short articles
showing what you would do with the
Blackfoot fairgrounds if you were a
capitalist, that is, If you had all the
money you wanted, for developing a
tract as an addition to the city for
residential purposes, and / wish to
pay tribute to the clean-cut pur-
poses and the modern ideas and
marks of efficiency brought out in
the series. I take it that you have
no intention of carrying such a plan
into effect, and that it was written
to incite others to higher ideals and
to try to interest moneyed men to do
things that make for better city.
commend he effort and the spirit
back of it, and I wish to offer some
suggestions of my own for making
still different use of the fairgrounds;
use which seems to me should ap-
peal to every citizen. The idea has
= been developing in my mind for a
good many years, and it seems to me
the time has come for action.
Southern Idaho is very much in
need Of agricultural schools operated
In a practical way in connection with
our high schools with their manual
training and domestic science depart
ments. When this county developed
its fairgrounds and erected substan-
tial buildings and started trees on
a good tract of agricultural land at
the edge of the city it laid the foun-
dations for an agricultural school
, without having such plan actually
in mind. 1t was teaching agriculture
by teaching the possibilities of the
country, as fore-runner of the
greater agriculture that was and is
to follow.
The Snake river valley has proven
its resources for agrarian pursuits,
and the greatest need now is live
stock to turn the farm products into
what may be called meat, dairy and
poultry products and to return to
the soil those elements which we are
now robbing it without securing SUBJ
stantial advantages to justify the
sacrifice.
Raising livestock on the range is
meeting with very serious handicaps,
and raising it on the farm has OBJ
stacles which the average farmer
has not found the means of overcOm-
ing, or has not adopted and made
practical. For instance, the man
who tries summer pasturage for his
dairy cows and young stock Is dis
appointed in the amount of the yield
of forage from the pasture lands,
but he has not yet realized the tre-
mendOus returns that can be secured
by raising fodder and preserving it
in the silo. Only a few men have
awakened to the wonderful possibilit-
les of preserving sugar beet tops for
winter use for stock, and the use of
beet pulp and chopped grains, with
vegetables and preserved green stuff, I
keeping stock up to the greatest pos
sibilities every month in the year.
Fewer still have made any consistent
effort to operate their farms on such
plan, and the average school boy
and school girl know little or moth
ing of how to go about it to make
themselves masters of any such pro-
ductive industry.
Here, then, is where the need of our
agricultural school comes in, and we
have at the fairgrounds, land and
buildings suitable for conducting this
practical work in the form of object
lessons for students and adults alike.
We have near at hand the asylum
farm where hundreds of acres are
lying idle and afford as much lands
as may be needed for the school in
addition to that within the fair
grounds, and half mile away is the
sugar factory with its abundance of
beet pulp. Stretching for miles in
every direction are the fertile beet
farms, where beet tops may be Sc
cured for the silo, and where all
manner Of forage products are going
to waste that could be successfully
preserved in silo If only somebody
would harvest them.
My recommendation is that the
state be asked to purchase the fair
grounds for the purpose of making
an agricultural school, and to operate |
it under the joint expense Of the
county, state and federal provisions
for such institutions, and proceed to
teach our youth how to rear and fat
ten livestock and thereby make avail
able much of our resources that are
now going to waste or are being
handled in a way that brings little |
profit. The tremendous advantage it
would give our county to specialize