The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1911. TRAINING THE FARMER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1911. TRAINING THE FARMER.

The United States of America is n living far-reaching efforts in the lavuui.iig of fanners, having realised tiie iiei ■■> necessity of so doing. Whatever , may have been the reason it is apparent from statistics and investigations recently made that the Ameri-j ("Hi agriculturist really gets less out ! hi' the soil than the farmer in almost auy other part of the world. Hi's yield of wheat', for example, .averages less than that of European countries. To him intensive farming is unknown. Of course it is unnecessary to remark that the population of the United States was smaller than it is to-day, and there was always a great surplus of farm products for export, and as Europe must have American whea,t arid corn and cattle the farmer gave himself no worry. He fanned on a large scale, and he trusted to the richness of the soil to reward him with a large crop. When his expectations were realised lie sold what he raised at a profit and was well ? ff, when too much or two little rain, too much heal or an unduly prolonged winter running into the late springretarded the growth of his corn or parched his wheat, he was hard up and had to mortgage his farm to tide him over the next season, The

American farmer was never as well off as he ought to have been considering his exceptional advantages. Few American farmers had any attachment to the soil. Many of them ;

were farmers in the United States because they had been failures as farmers in Europe. They had emigrated to America, they drifted to the West, they took up farm lands, and they worked them in a halthearted way. They were hampered by want of capital, and they were without scientific knowledge or long familiarity with the soil and its peculiarities, and they trusted very much to luck. When the small farmer was succeeded by the great landowner, whose acres were, numbered b\ the thousands, and whose hands were counted by the hundreds, methods changed but not the results. American inventive genius evolved steam reaping machines, ploughs, and othei agricultural machinery, which all the world now uses because new conditions made it necessery for steam to displace hand labor- in the field as it had already done in the factory. But while steam reaped it did not now sow. A machine could do the work that hitherto had required the labor of a hundred men, but it did noi increase the yield by a single kernel. The great wheat .plains of the West were the pride of "the American ana the envy and admiration of the ivsl of the world, but they were onlj half efficient. In the aggregate the crop was enormous, but it ought to have been twice as large. So long as there was a surplus it was utterly useless to try and make the farmei understand that he was losing money with every crop he gathered, but with the great increase of population I —not only in America but throughout | the world—the American . farmer. ! knowing his surplus was decreasing | was compelled to bestir himself. Soim alarmists have said that the world faces famine, hut this .need not be ye; awhile, or until we have levied on the 'great resources which nature holds |in her prolific bosom. Realising the I necessity of making the American | farmer more scientific the United j States Department of Agriculture, i during the last few years has spent I a great deal of money to bring about the desired result, and is trying hard to make up for lost time and wasted years'. Under the influence of the Department of Agriculture nineteen States now require that teaching of agriculture shall he part of the curriculum in the common schools. In the two years ending March, 1912. ,the. f uumber of ; institutions giving ; courses in .'agriculture increased at the rate of mora than 76 "a month, and whereas twoiyears"agO'the-rc were only" - 863 institutions where agrk-id-ture was-taught, now there are 83/0. This requiremtmt of tlieSStates that agriculture shall he taught in the schools lias created a demand fn' teachers, and the demand ;is. greater than the supply. To meet this normal schools are introducing" course.': in agriculture, and many of the agricultural colleges are offering opportunities to teachers to equip themfor their ; work,"'"hut'wi'lili all" this there are nofy enough teachers for the secondary schools and the special schools : of agriculture.' l " ! Th'* Department of Agriculture has made an investigation to discover how teachers already employed may acquire the training to enable them to teach the elementary phases of agriculture. To the thoughtful farmer in this. Dominion there is much to dwell upon in all this because, to some extent, the experience of America has been our own experience, and the New 'Zealand farmer has been inclined I to trust too much to luck. .