The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-07-15

!.
Men to Agriculture Within the
Last % Years.
There are no pages in American
history OF achievements that stand
out more brilliantly than those that
record the contributions of our
SCIENTIFIC men within the last thirty
wears to our agriculture, and yet
those men are today pointed to as
being Impractical. Visionary, and
peculiar, and science itself referred
to as being something beyond the
understanding OF the average man.
and as you know and I know .that
the very meaning Of the word lssthe
application Of common sense. The
tremendous advancement Of Amer
lean agriculture is largely due to
the unse1hsh service Of the men Of
the laboratories and experiment
fields. let me call to your mind
4. few Of the results Of. their labor
that come into the daily life of
every successful farmer. They de-.
veioped BY plant breeding. new va
rieties of practically all crops
grown on the. farms. especially
adapted to specific eond ditions. They
developed by plant breeding crops
that can be grown successfully on
disease-infested lands. They have
explored all parts Of the world and
as result Of their explorations
they have introduced new crops,
that have proved of tremendous
value The reduction Of DuTs
ham wheat from Siberia has made
it possible for us TO ma nufacture
our maccaroni. heretofore import.
ed from Italy They, have. intro
duced aatfr corn, Milo and Fee:
iderita, and by SO doing have made
farming. possible on millions Of,
acres of land In the semi-arid west,
where, without these new introduce
'tions, the country would be unin-
habited. How many Of our farms;
.ers in South Carolina realize that,
many Of the c1oyers and alfaifas
that they annually seed we're intro:
gduced from France, Germany and
Russia That Sudan grass. that IS
growing with US IN popular favor
is Is q foreign imp portation? Our idea
OF soil fertility has been entirely
revolutionized by the intro duction,.
practically OF All our 1eguminous
crops except cowpeas. Such for in !. !.
stance as soy beans, velvet beans,
the cIovers, the vetc11es, etc. The
discovery OF the little bacteria that
gathers nitrogen from the air con-
sfitutes new source Of wealth
that will last as Iong. as the world
stands. How many Of us when en-
JoyIng our morning juicy grape.
fruit give a thought to the scientific
men who patiently 1abored to bring
forth this delicious appetizer !? How,
many of us realize that the man
who introduced the improved va.
,riety Of figs, prunes and dates rode
on the back of a camel hundreds
Of miles in the deserts OF the Far
East. Take your mind back for
twenty years and recall the scharac-
ter OF fruit then offered you, es-
peciany the peach and the apple.
They were small, wortny, knotty,
and compare them with the peach
and the apple OF today and you
will naturally ask wny the differ
ence. Easily answered because the
scientific man has made it possible
to control certain diseases of the
peach and the; apple, by the use of
a spray worked out by many
years of experimentation. The plant
pathoIogist of today is making as
much progress in controlling the
disease Of our plants as the ply
sician is making progress in con-
trolling and preventing the disease
with the human family.
Let US pass on and briefly state
what has been accomplished in the
development of our animal hus-
bandry. Twenty years ago the
annual death rate in hogs from
hog. cholera in the United States
was from 6. to 25 per cent-tIe
financial loss for the United States
in certain years amounted to hum
dred millions of dollars. The scien-
tific man perfected a serum and
virus that has practically made it
possible to control this disease.
Likewise tick fever and black Teg
can be controlled. The invention
of the refrigerating car has done
more to increase the production
and demand for meat than any
other agency, Associations for the
registry Of purebred livestock have
been. organized and maintained
throughout the length and breadth
of the country. In the matter of
our dairy industry the Babcock
test has been invented, a simple
method by means of which the
amount of butter fat in milk is de-
termined. The, invention of the
cream separator. which in few
minutes separates the cream from
milk which in the old days requlr-
ed hours OF time for such an op-
Grafton No country in the world
has made the progress that we
have in the control OF insect pests.
In cooperation with engineers the
development of spray and busting
machinery in the. last quarter Of
century is distinctly a great Amer
ican achievement. The orchardist
would be at the mercy of the San
Jose scale but for the modern spray
pump and insecticides. The trucker
would be at the mercy of various
leaf eating caterpillars and the va
rious underground pests. Our field