State of Connecticut 
PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 18 


THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 


OF THE 


SECRETARY 


PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 


Partford Press 
The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company 
1905 


State of Connecticut 
PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 18 


THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 


OF THE 


SECRETARY. 


OF THE 


Connecticut Board of Agriculture 


1904 


PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 


Partford Press 
The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company 
1905 


To His ExXcCELLENCY 


ABIRAM CHAMBERLAIN 
Governor of Connecticut : 


In accordance with the provisions of an act creating the State 
Board of Agriculture, | have the honor to submit herewith the Report 


for the year ending December 31, 1904. 
JAMES F. BROWN, Secretary. 


NORTH STONINGTON, December 31, 1904. 


STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


His Excettency ABIRAM CHAMBERLAIN, ex officio. 


1903-1904. 


APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR AND SENATE. 


CHARLES L. TuTTLe, 
James F. Brown, 
CHARLES E. CHAPMAN, 
IvERSON C, FANToN, 


Term Expires 


Hartford, 

North Stonington,” . 
Westbrook, 
Westport, . 


APPOINTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 


Hartford County, . 
New Haven County, 
New London County, 
Fairfield County, . 
Windham County, 
Litchfield County, . 
Middlesex County, 
Tolland County, 


GOVERNOR ABIRAM CHAMBERLAIN, President ex officio. 


EpwIin G. SEELEY, 
JAMes F. Brown, 
Cuas. A. THOMPSON, 
Dr. E. H. JENKINS, 
Dr. G. P. CLintron, 
Dr. W. E. BriTTOon, 
INES PEA Nac 


SEAMAN MEAD 


EpmunpD HAa.taDAy, Suffield, . 

D. WALTER PatrTeNn, North Haven, 
James B. Parmer, Jewett City, 
SEAMAN MEap, Greenwich, 

N. G. Wiv.iams, Brooklyn, 
Epwin G. SEeELEy, Roxbury, . 

W. L. Davis, Durham Center, 
CHARLES A, THOMPSON, Melrose, . 


OFFICERS OF THE BOARD. 


1905 
1905 
1907 
1907 


1905 
1905 
1g05 
1905 
1907 
1907 
1907 
1907 


Roxbury, Vice-Prestdent. 
North Stonington, Secretary. 
Melrose, Treasurer. 
New Haven, Chemist. 
New Haven, Botanist. 
New Haven, Entomologist. 
New Haven, Pomologist. 


Auditors. 


D. WALTER PATTEN 


Cuas. E. CHAPMAN. 


- 


Ret ORT: 


AGRICULTURAL FAIRS IN CONNECTICUT, 1904. 


Delegate. 


| Name. 


C. E. Chapman 
Seaman Mead 
J. C. Fanton 
¢. L. Tuttle 
C. A. Thompson 
W. L. Davis 
J. F. Brown 
FE. G. Seeley 
D. W. Patten 
E. Halladay 
Seaman Mead 
C, E. Chapman 
I. C. Fanton 


J. F. Brown 
E. G. Seeley 

. A. Thompson 
. Williams 
. Palmer 
. Tuttle 
. Davis 
. Williams 
AS “B. Palmer 
C. A. Thompson 


D. W. Patten 


=Zgouzor 
Porn a: 


Seaman Mead 
J. F. Brown 
N. G. Williams 
D. W. Patten 
W, L. Davis 


E. Halladay 


New London County 
Windham County 
Beacon Valley 
Berlin 

Branford 

Chester 

Colchester Grange 
Danbury 
Farmington Valley 
Granby 


Guilford 
Harwinton 


New Milford 
Newtown 
Orange 


Simsbury 

Stafford Springs 
Suffield 

Union (Monroe, etc.) 


Union (Somers, etc.) 


Woodstock 
Wolcott 


Conn. Pom. Society 


Greenfield Country Club 


New Haven Co. Hort. So. 


Putnam Park Association 
Rockville Fair Associat’n 


Waterbury Driving Co. 


The Horseshoe Park Ag- 
ricultural Association 


Place. Date. Secretary. 
Norwich Sept. 13-15 |T. W. Yerrington 
Brooklyn Sept. 6-8 J. B. Stetson 
Naugatuck Oct. 13 Wm. L. Lloyd 
Berlin Sept. 21, 22 |W. W. Christian 
Branford Sept. 27-30 |J. P. Callahan 
Chester Sept. 27 Edgar W. Lewis 
Colchester Oct. 6 C. E. Staples 
Danbury Oct. 3-8 G. M. Rundle 
Collinsville Sept. 7, 8 E. A. Hough 

Granby Sept. 28, 29 |C. H. Deming 
Greenfield Hill/Sept. 20-22 |Mrs. D. B. Adams 
Guilford Sept. 28 Robert De F. Bristol 
Harwinton Octy4 Lewis O. Catlin 

Torrington 
New Haven _|Nov. 8, 9, 10 |Patrick Keane 
New Milford |Sept. 13-16 |J. E. Hungerford 
Newtown Sept. 27-29 |R. C. Mitchell 
Orange Sept. 5, 6, 7 |A. D. Clark 
Putnam Aug.30, Sep.1/A. D. McIntyre 
Rockville Sept. 27-29 |H. D. Noble 
Simsbury Oct. George C. Eno 
Stafford Spr’gs|Oct. 4-6 C. F. Beckwith 
Suffield Oct. 4,5 A. F. Warner 
Huntington |Sept. 21, 22 |S. T. Palmer 
Shelton 
Somers Sept. 21 M. Hamilton 
Ellington 
Waterbury Sept. 20-22 |N. W. Heater 
Pequabuck 
Willimantic |Sept. 20-22 |T.R. Sadd 
So. Woodstock|Sept. r2-14_ |L. H. Healey, N. W. 
Wolcott Oct. 12 . E. M. Upson 


Conn. Dairymen’s Asso’n| Hartford 


Rockville 


Jan. 3d week|J. B. Noble 


Sept. 27, 29 


Hartford 
H. C. C. Miles 
Milford 


8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


FARMERS’ INSTITUTES IN 1904. 


The following extract is from the last annual report of the 
Board: 


“The plan of conducting Farmers’ Institutes which was 
early adopted by the Board of Agriculture, and has long been 
followed, was to submit a list of speakers and subjects to the 
Granges, Farmers’ Clubs, Agricultural Societies, and others 
interested in rural pursuits throughout the State, and invite 
these local organizations to select the date and the speaker best 
suited to the convenience and supposed needs of the locality. 
The expense of speakers and advertising under this plan was 
borne by the Board of Agriculture, and Institutes were held as 
far as practicable wherever desired. 

“ Following established custom at the opening of the year 
under review an attractive list of speakers and subjects, which 
appears in the last annual report, was widely distributed, and in 
response to invitations Institutes were held in various parts of 
the State, with results that were helpful and stimulating. 

“In the meantime the Dairymen’s Association and Pomo- 
logical Society, representing the two leading agricultural inter- 
ests of the State, were each conducting Institutes along its 
special line of work, and these lines frequently overlapped each 
other and even more frequently were found to blend with the 
more general agricultural interests of the State. 

“ While this independent action has been entirely free from 
even the suspicion of any friction, it has been attended with 
what Dr. Jenkins well characterizes as ‘a good deal of lost 
motion,’ and it has long been felt that some more economical 
plan should be adopted. 

“Accordingly, at the opening of the Institute season of 1903- 
04, a conference was held at Hartford by the Committee of 
the Board of Agriculture on Farmers’ Institutes, with similar 
committees from the Dairymen’s Association and Pomological 


J 
1905. | FARMERS’ INSTITUTES IN 1904. 9 


Society, and after a full and free interchange of views the sec- 
retaries of the three organizations were elected a committee to 
cooperate in the conduct of Institutes for the coming year. 

“This committee has entered upon its duties in the confident 
expectation that the results will fully justify the change that 
has been made. 

“Tt must never be forgotten, however, that no system of 
Institute work can be successful that does not include the codp- 
eration and hearty support of the local community in* which 
and for which it is held. We, therefore, invite all who are 
interested in up-to-date methods to lend a hand in promoting 
the work of Farmers’ Institutes throughout the State.” 

Pursuant to the plan above outlined an average of at least 
three Institutes was held in each county in the State, with 
results that seemed to fully justify the new method which had 
been adopted. 

In order further to promote the work of Farmers’ Institutes 
the Board of Agriculture, at a meeting held in New Haven 
May 11th, elected Prof. L. A. Clinton, Director of Storrs Ex- 
periment Station, a delegate to represent the Board at the 
annual meeting of the American Association of Farmers’ Insti- 
tute Workers to be held at St. Louis, Oct. 18-20, 1904. Prof. 
Clinton attended the convention, and the following report and 
suggestions have been received from him. So far as applica- 
ble to our conditions I trust these suggestions may prove help- 
ful in promoting this important work. 


Storrs AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Storrs, Conn., November 4, 1904. 
Cot. JAMEs F. Brown, 
North Stonington, Conn. 
My Dear Col. Brown: 
I wrote you a few days ago and promised to report to you 
concerning the convention of Farmers’ Institute workers held 


at St. Louis, and in accordance with that promise I submit the 
following report. 


fo) BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


The convention was attended by Farmers’ Institute workers 
representing every section of the country. The most marked 
feature of the convention was the reports upon the way Insti- 
tutes are organized in some of the States. In the reports from 
Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan, and some of the other States 
as well, and especially Canada, we find that they are thoroughly 
organized, and that in each county they have their standing 
Farmers’ Institute committee. This committee has charge of 
securing the hall for the Institute, of advertising the Institute, 
and in, seeing that all the local arrangements are made. ‘This 
local committee is a permanent one and holds over from year 
to year, and care is taken that this committee is selected from 
the most prosperous farmers in the county; men whose word 
carries weight, and whose connection with the Institute would 
impress the other farmers of the county of the quality of: the 
work which would probably be done by the Institute. It was 
made evident that in order to carry out a campaign of Farmers’ 
Institute work as it should be carried out there should be one 
man who should make it a special duty to arrange for the Inst1- 
tutes, to arrange for the speakers, who can, even during the 
summer, be on the lookout for men who are making a success 
of their work on the farm and get these men to come to the 
Institute the next winter and tell other farmers how they do it. 
The most successful Farmers’ Institute worker is, probably, the 
one who has made a success on his own farm, and a man in 
whom the farmers of his county have confidence. 

One feature of the Farmers’ Institute work which I find has 
been developed in many of the States, and one which has been 
almost entirely neglected in Connecticut, is the special educa- 
tional work for the women of the farm. In Ontario and Ilhi- 
nois as well as in Minnesota this side of the work has been thor- 
oughly developed. The women have their special lecturers, or 
one session of the Institute is given over to work which has to 
do with the household, such as improvements in cooking, the 
proper ration to feed children, etc. It is found that not only 
the farmers’ wives and daughters eagerly embrace the oppor- 
tunity afforded for this instruction, but the women of the city 
are coming to attend these Institutes, and both realize that they 
can get great good from the meetings. Thus there is being a 
bond established between the women of the city and the women 
of the country, and an opportunity is given to them to exchange 
ideas, and both are improved thereby. 


1905. | FARMERS’ INSTITUTES IN 1904. II 


One of the most remarkable examples of the good results 
from Farmers’ Institute work is found in Ontario. A few 
years ago the farmers there were engaged in growing products 
for shipment to the American markets. When the American 
tariff wall was raised the agricultural interests were completely 
stunned for a time. The attention of the farmers was, how- 
ever, called to the profits in the production of bacon, and they 
were given information as to the foreign demand for this prod- 
uct and a new industry has been built up. This has largely 
resulted from the general dissemination of information through 
Farmers’ Institute methods. 

The agricultural college of the State has a work to do which 
no other institution can do, and yet in the dissemination of 
popular agricultural information the Farmers’ Institute does 
a work which the agricultural college cannot do. 

I should like to see Canaeettri one of the leading states 
in Farmers’ Institute work. It is not at present. With our 
limited area and the facilities for reaching various points in 
the State, I can see no good reason why we should not have 
this State thoroughly organized in Farmers’ Institute work. 
As the great western States have organized by counties we 
might organize by townships; or, if it seems wiser at first to 
organize by counties, I believe that we could find three or five 
wide-awake farmers in every county who would be willing to 
serve as an Institute committee. These farmers are well 
acquainted with the needs of the locality, and would be able 
to secure an attendance at the Institute which could not be 
secured in any other way. 

I recommend to you and through you to the Board that an 
effort be made to place the Farmers’ Institute work in this 
State on a little more systematic basis than it has been in the 
past. The needs of the various localities of the state should 
be carefully studied, and then speakers should be brought to 
these localities who can give special information along the lines 
where information is needed! 

Yours very truly, 


eA CLIN LON. 


AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION AT HARTFORD. 


The annual midwinter meeting of the Board of Agriculture 
was held in Unity Hall, Hartford, Dec. 14, 15, and 16, 1904, 
in accordance with the following programme. Owing to a 
severe blizzard which prevailed at the time, the attendance was 
less than usual, but the stenographer has preserved a full record 
of the addresses and discussions, and it is hoped that these will 
not be lost by the thousands of our farmers all over the State 
to whom copies of this report will be sent. 

A part of the fine agricultural exhibit of the State at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition was returned in time to be 
shown at the convention and was highly commended. 

The Connecticut Agricultural College, as well as both the 
Experiment Stations, presented valuable exhibits along the 
lines of instruction and investigation in which they are engaged. 

Prof. Gully of the Agricultural College made an extensive 
exhibit of fruit from the cold storage plant of the college, 
which attracted much attention. A full list of exhibits, pre- 
pared by Mr. N. S. Platt, Pomologist of the Board, will be 
found at the close of the report of the convention. 


PROGRAM ME. 


Wednesday, December 14th. 
10.30 A.M. INVOCATION. 
Rev. Rockwell Harmon Potter. 


ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
His Honor Wm. F. Henney, 
Mayor of Hartford. 
RESPONSE BY 
His Excellency Abiram Chamberlain, 


Governor of Connecticut. 


14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


11.00 A.M. AppRESS —‘‘ The Country Boy.” 


By President F. S. Luther, 
Trinity College. 


1.30 P.M. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CONNECTICUT SHEEP BREEDERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 


2.00 P.M. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
By Mr. F. H. Stadtmueller, 


President Connecticut Sheep Breeders’ Association. 


2.15 P.M. ADDRESS — “ Sheep.” 
By Mr. L. B. Harriss, 


Lyndonville, Vermont. 


3.00 P.M. AppRESS — “ Money in Lambs.” 
By Mr. Joseph E. Wing, 
Mechanicsburg, Ohio. 


DISCUSSION. 


7.30 P.M. AppRESS — “ Observations in the Orient.” Illustrated with 
Stereopticon. 
By Hon. E. J. Hill, 


Norwalk. 


Thursday, December 15th. 


10.00 A.M. AppRESS —“ Reserve Power in Housekeeping.” 


By Miss Martha Van Rensselaer, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 


II.00 A.M. ADDRESS —“ Diseases of the Potato in Connecticut.” 
By Dr. G. P. Clinton, 


Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven 


2.00 P.M. ApprEsSs—“ Thoroughbreds versus Mongrels, from the 
Farmer’s Standpoint.” 
By Mr. Maurice F. Delano, 
Millville, New Jersey. 


.M. Appress -—“ The Geology of Connecticut as Related to its 
Water Supply.” Illustrated with Stereopticon. 
By Professor Herbert E. Gregory, 


Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. 


Ni 
Go 
fo) 
ia] 


1905.] | AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION AT HARTFORD. 15 


Friday, December 16th. 


10.00 A. M. Appress — ‘“‘ The Care and Cultivation of Tobacco in the 
Connecticut Valley.” 
By Mr. W. F. Andross, 


East Hartford, Connecticut. 


DISCUSSION. 


2.00 P.M. ApprRESS—“ Agriculture in the Public Schools.” 
By Mr. Fred Mutchler, 


Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs. 


DISCUSSION. 
Led by Mr. Henry T. Burr, 


Principal Normal School, Willimantic. 


7.30 P.M. ApprEss—‘“ The Louisiana Purchase Exhibition.’ 
By Hon. Charles Phelps, 


Rockville, Connecticut. 


Music will be provided at intervals. 

A Question Drawer will furnish ample opportunity for presentation 
and discussion of any subject of interest to the practical farmer. 

To make this feature of the meeting profitable, bring in your ques- 
tions and take part in the discussions. 

Ample facilities will be afforded for the exhibition of Fruits and 
- Flowers, Grain and Vegetables, Butter and Cheese; and the bounti- 
ful harvest just gathered warrants the hope that there will be a 
generous exhibit. Mr. N. S. Platt, Pomologist of the Board, will 
give his personal attention to this feature of the programme. 

Articles for exhibition may be sent, properly labeled, by express, 
at the expense of the Board, to the Secretary at Hartford, to arrive 
on Tuesday, December 13th. 


RAILROAD ARRANGEMENTS. 


The N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co. has provided certificates which, 
when countersigned by the Secretary, will entitle the holder to return 
over any of its lines at half rates. These certificates must be shown 
when purchasing tickets at railroad stations in Hartford. 


16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan., 


HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS. 


The headquarters of the Board will be at the Allyn House. 
A committee of the Board will be at the Allyn House to furnish 
delegates and others such information as may be required. 


Gov. ABIRAM CHAMBERLAIN, 
EDWIN G. SEELEY, 
GHARLES Li. BUD EEE, iB 
JAMES F. BROWN, 

Committee. 


NortH STONINGTON, Nov. 25, 1904. 


REPORT 


OF THE 


EROCEEDINGS OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE 
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 


AT 


HARTFORD, CONN., DECEMBER 14, 15, AND 16, 1904. 


MORNING SESSION. 


HartTForD, Conn., December 14, 1904. 


Convention called to order at 10.45 A. M. in Unity Hall, 
Hartford, by Secretary James F. Brown. 

Secretary Brown. The hour having arrived, the conven- 
tion will be opened with an invocation by the Reverend Rock- 
well Harmon Potter of this city. 

Revs RR. H. -Porrer. Let us pray. Almighty God, our 
Heavenly Father, Thou returnest the seasons unto the children 
of men. It is Thy covenant that summer and winter, seed time 
and harvest, shall not cease from the face of the earth. We 
give Thee thanks that Thou hast given unto men the fulfillment 
of this Thy pledge through the generations that are gone, and 
we can gather before Thee in trust that Thou wilt keep that 
faith with Thy children. Bless, we beseech Thee, those who 
cultivate the soil. Give unto them rich fruitage from their 
labors. Bless them in their homes and in their toil. 

Remember, we beseech Thee, with favor this common- 
wealth. Let Thy grace be given unto those who are in author- 
ity, and grant, we beseech Thee, that in the hearts of the people 
righteousness may be found, and in the homes of the people 
purity and truth may abide, and that unto all men may be 

AGR. —2 


18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jane 


given a desire for upbuilding Thy kingdom in the earth, and for 
the coming of justice and brotherly love among all men. 

Hear us in this our prayer; guide, we beseech Thee, Thy 
servants as they deliberate together; and keep us all in Thy 
keeping, and lead us all in Thy way, unto the glory of Thy 
holy name. Amen. 

Secretary Brown. You are now invited to listen to an 
address of welcome by his Honor William F. Henney, Mayor 
of Hartford. 

Mayor Henney. Mr. President, members of the Connecti- 
cut State Board of Agriculture, and friends: I esteem myself 
very highly honored and privileged today in being permitted to 
be here, at the invitation of your Secretary, to say a word or 
two of welcome to you on behalf of the City of Hartford. I 
do it with the greater pleasure when I recall that this Connecti- 
cut State Board of Agriculture is a highly representative body. 
That it is designed to be such is clearly indicated in the statutes, 
for, as I understand it, it is made up of twelve men, selected 
one from each Congressional district and one from each county 
in the State. Territorially, certainly, nothing could be more 
representative than a board made up in that way. The State 
of Connecticut is indebted to the agricultural interests, to the 
farmers of the State, for a great many things, and the city of 
Hartford is indebted to the farmers of the State for a great 
many things. The State of Connecticut has for its Governor 
today the Honorable Abiram Chamberlain, who has told me 
over and over again that he began life as a farmer’s boy. Here 
in the city of Hartford we have very many of our most promi- 
nent men who are fond of talking of the days of their boyhood, 
when they were brought up on the farm, and we are particu- 
larly fortunate in that one of our most representative and dis- 
tinguished citizens was himself a farmer boy, and is now the 
able and distinguished president of Trinity College. If I had 
no other inducement to bring me here today, officially, to say 
a word of welcome to you, that fact would be amply sufficient. 


1905. | INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 19 


There must be something, it seems to me, about this business 
of farming, that is uplifting, pure, noble, and good, because I 
find that wherever a boy has been bred upon a farm, no matter 
what position in life he afterwards occupies, no matter how 
wealthy he may become, no matter what his affiliations and 
associations and occupation may be, he always reverts, with a 
sort of feeling akin to homesickness, to his early life spent upon 
the farm; and today you will find in the metropolis of our coun- 
try, down in New York, in every great railroad corporation, 
in every great banking institution, in every great law office, in 
every great doctor’s office, a boy who in his leisure moments 
is constantly referring, with almost inexpressible longing, to 
the days he spent upon the farm. And I have often thought 
that whatever other assets these men may acquire in their dis- 
tinguished careers, they feel that there is one asset which they 
had as farmer boys which has been of very much more impor- 
tance to them than most anything else, and that is, the asset 
of strong bodies and the vigor which comes from the strong, 
manly life that they lived in the open in their boyhood days. 
I remember when I was a boy in the high school that there 
was a poem published which appealed to the whole country 
and created a great sensation. It was a poem by a well-known 
New England poet, and it was entitled “ Snow-bound.” You 
all remember it. It was a story of a country farm, a New 
England farm, and the poem told the story of the incidents that 
happened on that farm on a single winter’s day. It depicted 
a very, very tremendous snow storm, a snow storm that we do 
not have in these days, and depicted the howling winds and the 
drifting snow. It depicted the scene within the farmhouse 
_ and the family gathered there waiting for the storm to abate. 
It depicted the work of the men and boys after the storm had 
ceased, and it depicted the gathering around a great fireplace 
in the farmhouse in the evening, and showed completely the 
home life of the country boy (Whittier), when he was em- 
ployed upon his father’s farm. I remember how that poem 


20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


appealed to the people of this whole nation. And it appealed 
to them because high up in all the great positions of the coun- 
try were men who knew that he had told the story correctly. 

Now, it is the business, as it seems to me, of this Board of 
Agriculture, under the statute creating it, to stimulate and 
encourage these young men to stay upon the farms, not to go 
out into the cities, not to go to New York or to come to Hart- 
ford, but to stay right at home and develop the farms, which, 
in many instances, are a family heritage for many generations 
back. In order to do that you have got to do a great deal of 
practical work, because a man’s first business in this life is to 
earn his bread and butter. In order to retain the boys upon the 
farms we have got to teach them how to make farming pay. 
In other words, you have got to teach farming intelligently, 
and until that can be done, until the business of farming is a 
paying proposition, your boys will go away from the farm to 
the cities, simply because it is a question of earning a liveli- 
hood. Now, this State Board of Agriculture is endowed with 
a great many powers, and I hope in the future it will be en- 
-dowed with a great many more. It has an appropriation 
annually, and I hope that that appropriation will be largely 
increased, because I can see that with the intelligent work that 
this Board is doing we are going to have a different impression 
put upon this question of farming in Connecticut. No one can 
tell the amount of good work you have done in improving 
Connecticut farming. You have relieved the farms of Con- 
necticut of numberless pests. You have provided for lectures 
showing the best methods of farming, you have organized 
farmers’ clubs and farmers’ organizations, and you have given 
to the social life of our country communities a stimulus which 
we cannot but feel must redound in great good and prove very 
helpful in making the life of the farmer attractive. 

Now these powers that are given to you by the State of 
course bring corresponding responsibility. I understand by the 
statute you are required to hold at least one meeting here in the 


a 


1905. | INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 21 


City of Hartford, and I assure you that you could come to no 
community where your presence will be more welcome. I bid 
you welcome today to Hartford, not only because of what you 
represent, but because of what you are individually, and be- 
cause of the vital interests which you are trying to stimulate 
and cultivate, that of this great industry upon which the wel- 
fare of so many of the human race depends. I bid you a 
general welcome, thrice welcome, to the City of Hartford. 
May your stay here be not only pleasant but highly profitable, 
and may you be abundantly blessed in all your intelligent 
efforts to obtain the ends at which you aim. I thank you, 
gentlemen, for your attention. (Applause.) 

Secretary Brown. Mr. Mayor and ladies and gentlemen: 
On behalf of the State Board of Agriculture I desire to return 
to his Honor the thanks of the Board for this cordial welcome 
which he has extended to us. I am sure that no one in this 
audience regrets more than I do the absence of the genial Gov- 
ernor of the State, who was assigned upon the programme to 
respond to this address of welcome, but. for some reason he is 
not present. I don’t know whether to consider myself a sub- 
stitute or a drafted man. I know that forty years ago, when 
they sent substitutes and drafted men down to the front, we 
paid very little regard to them, for they were very little account 
as a rule, but I do want to say that this Board highly appreciates 
the welcome which his Honor the Mayor has extended to us, 
and I want to say, further, that there is no antagonism between 
the country and the cities in the State of Connecticut. It is the 
growth of the cities of the State that has made farming in Con- 
necticut possible and prosperous, and the more numerous such 
cities as Hartford become the more prosperous will the agri- 
culture of the State become. 7 

Now, I know you do not wish to have me keep you from 
the rare treat which awaits you in the next speaker. I have 
great pleasure in introducing to you President F. S. Luther of 
Trinity College, Hartford, who will address you on “ The 
Country Boy.” 


22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [fan 


THE COUNGRYV BOY: 


’ 
By PresipENT F. S. Lutruer, of Trinity College, 
Hartford, Conn. 


Mr. Mayor, Mr. Secretary, and ladies and gentlemen: I 
think the last speech that I heard on this subject of “ The 
Country Boy ” was one that was delivered some years ago, and 
not very many years ago either, on grounds then leased, but 
now belonging to the Windham County Agricultural Associa- 
tion. It was at their annual fair and cattle show, held in 
Brooklyn. I do not mean Brooklyn, New York, but Brooklyn, 
Connecticut. The fair was held there at that time, as it has 
been held, I believe, every year but one since somewhere about 
1850. That speech was delivered by the Honorable Lafayette 
Foster, a distinguished citizen of our commonwealth, and after- 
wards, if not then, a Senator of the United States. I wish I 
could remember the whole of that speech. If I could, and could 
repeat it to you here, you would have a good one this morning. 
But I do remember one sentence that appealed to me very 
powerfully. He said, and I had to be lifted up to see him over 
the crowd, “I know what it is to drive the cows to pasture on 
a cold morning.” And I recall, with a feeling which I know 
many of you here will share with me, how my mother looked 
up into my face and said, “ There, do you hear that?” One 
thing more he said, that also appealed to me, and to which 
neither my mother nor my father did call very special attention. 
Speaking of the goings on of the farm day in that time, and 
telling how, after dinner, the men loafed awhile under the trees 
in the yard, if it was summer, having their nooning, he spoke 
of how somehow the boy upon the farm never got any nooning. 
I wish I had had nerve enough to turn to my mother and say 
then, “ There, did you hear that?”’ But after all, nooning or 
no nooning, the boy upon the farm usually managed somehow 
to have a good deal of fun in the old days on the Connecticut 
farm. And asa distinguished Hartford citizen, who died about 
four years ago, said in what has always seemed to me the very 
best of his writings (and I refer to Charles D. Warner), in his 
little volume “ Being a Boy,” it is undoubtedly the case that 
any farm would come to grief pretty quick that did not have the 
boy on it, for he is the one that does everything that nobody 
else is willing to do. How many of the things that the boy 


1905. | THE COUNTRY BOY. 23 


used to do are not done at all any more in these days. Turn- 
ing the grindstone for grinding scythes during haying. There 
are no more scythes. Are there any grindstones? If so, who 
is to turn them? And it has been pointed out, I think by 
Mr. Charles D. Warner, in the same book, that it is an inevita- 
ble indication that an old man has reached his second childhood 
when he is asked to turn the grindstone. There are a few 
things, and only two or three, in my life, of which I am proud, 
and I think the proudest experience of my life was this one, 
when as a boy I developed a precocious ability to grind the 
scythe, and especially when my father said to me “I believe 
you can grind a scythe better than I can do it.” From that 
day he turned the grindstone and I ground the scythes. I 
am quite sure that I have never since done anything quite as 
well as I used to grind scythes, and nothing ever gave me such 
sincere and unalloyed pleasure as to bear hard upon the stone 
and see my father wonder what made that stone go with such 
difficulty. (Laughter.) But that old farm life, and that old 
village life in the Connecticut country towns, and in the New 
England country towns, what a splendid thing it was. I do 
not know whether there have ever been any finer people than 
the farmers of Connecticut, of the generation that has gone or 
that is about disappearing, unless it be the farmers who are 
gathered here today. The life that the old-fashioned farmers 
lived was full of hardships, and how on earth some of the work 
was done I cannot see! There was not very much money in 
it, and the farmers seldom had any considerable amount, even 
for them, except once or twice a year, and especially in the fall, 
when the farmers sold their pork. I do not know how many 
hundreds of dollars in actual cash passed through the old 
leather pocketbooks, those old worn leather pocketbooks with 
a strap around them, that everybody used to carry in those 
days, but there is one thing that I am sure of, and that is, that 
in the houses there was culture— books and reading, an 
appreciation of the high things of life; an understanding of the 
intellectual life ; an interest that the schools should be the best 
possible, though I must say if we take the glory of reminiscence 
from them they were not very good schools, but in the interest — 
that the schools should be the best that they could be under the 
conditions, an interest in the support of the churches, and an 
ardent desire that if there was, here and there, a bright boy or 


24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


girl, he or she should not lose the chance that belonged to them. 
But somehow things were done and accomplished. There were 
pleasant days, easy days, amid culture, refinement, and edu- 
cation. Books were few, too few, compared to our day, but 
there was the Old Farmers’ Almanac, with the string through 
the corner, which always hung up by the chimney, and out in 
my section of the country, at that time, that was always found 
until you passed over the dividing line, which lay somewhere 
between Brooklyn and New London, south of which you 
always found Daboll’s Almanac. In these old farmhouses you 
always found the American Agriculturist, the New York Trib- 
une, or, as we always.used to call it, Greeley’s paper ; possibly 
a magazine or two, Rollin’s “Ancient History,” and two or 
three religious books, depending upon the religious convictions 
which your father happened to entertain, and that was about 
all, except Godey’s or Peterson’s, which were dear to the hearts 
of the women folks in determining the character and archi- 
tecture of their Sunday bonnets and various other things. That 
was about the ordinary run of reading in the farmhouses, but, 
oh, my, how everybody did read it! How you knew every- 
thing, from the first advertisement on the paper cover, even in 
the corners of the first page, clear through to the very last 
thing. 

I spoke or alluded just now to the religious convictions of 
our fathers. And I tell you they had them for keeps. A man 
was a Congregationalist or Baptist or Methodist, or in my sec- 
tion, in rather rare cases, an Episcopalian, and, whatever he 
was, he was pretty sure to say so. There was no hiding of 
his convictions. And they used to condemn each other with 
an enthusiasm and perversity that was worthy of all admiration 
for its intensity, if not worthy of imitation in its results in the 
community. People in those days studied theological ques- 
tions, and the boys listened to them and braced themselves up 
to fight with each other in behalf of their fathers’ convictions. 
It was a great thing for a boy to have an excuse for a fight. 
He always wanted one. I am bound to say, however, that I 
have heard more sincere and able discussions of theological 
questions in a certain red wheelwright shop which used to stand 
in the town of Brooklyn, Conn., and the building is there yet, 
though the red paint has long since disappeared, than I have 
heard since, and I have had quite as much to do with theologi- 


1905. | THE COUNTRY BOY. 25 


cal discussions as anybody ought to be allowed to have. The 
reason why was that the people really cared. They thought 
that their life hereafter was somehow dependent upon their 
conclusions in these great, tremendous questions. If they 
were mistaken, as, personally, I think they were, for after all 
the great thing in life is to live correctly, rather than to believe 
in any certain philosophical belief or principle, nevertheless it 
was a fine thing for those old fathers and grandfathers of ours 
that they cared about the great things of life; that it was a 
matter of importance to them whether certain philosophical 
propositions, having to do with the advance of the human soul, 
were or were not true. It helped them to bear the trials, sor- 
rows, and prejudices of life. It kept their eyes open and their 
faces towards the morning. It helped them to see things if 
not in their reality, to see at least and understand some of the 
affairs of every day life, yet deserving of their high energy and 
calling for the best there was in them. Now, in such an intense 
civilization as that, in a society made up of people that did 
care, there grew up the country boy of fifty years ago and more. 
Those were the days before the advent of the Village Improve- 
ment Society, when the grass on the village green grew un- 
vexed by the lawn mower, when it was tumbled and pitched 
aside by a pair of boys and girls hurrying to and fro from 
their schools, and perhaps mown after haying was done by 
some thrifty soul, who, if he could get a few tumbles of hay 
despite the boys, thought himself well off. There is a beauty 
in that as we look back at it, | am sure there is a beauty in it, 
and a glamour of beautiful reminiscences over it, if we could 
see it again as it used to exist, see the grass on the green and in 
the village fields, where we, as boys, used to lie and dream; in 
those fields that were open to everybody in the old New Eng- 
land village, adjoining and surrounding the principal New Eng- 
land village church. What a flood of tender recollections 
comes to us when we endeavor to think of those happy days. 
What a pleasant thing it was, when you and I Were little, to lie 
down in that tall grass and to study with the exquisite eye of 
youth the red top, so like an oak tree if you got it near enough 
to your eye. How many air castles have been built by you and 
me as we have lain there in the grass watching through the 
stalks for some stray, mysterious message from fairy land, 
and thinking of great days to come. Ah, those were glorious 


26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


castles that we built on those old days, lying there in the grass. 
Do you remember that old game, when, with a little girl or a 
playmate, you sat in the grass and you and she each pulled the 
stalks over and put a thumb and finger at the bottom and ran 
it up towards the end until there came one little drop of sap 
upon the end of the grass, and then you and your friend touched 
the two ends together, and the one that got both drops won? 
What a foolish little game, and yet how pleasant it was, 
especially when you won, if you had nerve enough to under- 
stand and take what you were entitled to afterwards. You 
cannot play that any more, now that the lawn mower has come. 

We have in almost every village a fine gymnasium. Was 
there ever a gymnasium like a barn floor? Is there any ap- 
paratus that can compare in effectiveness with that which we 
had there? We have now, in gymnasiums, carefully knotted 
ropes, or ropes with pegs put into them, at convenient intervals, 
up which the youth may climb. There were no knots or pegs 
in our ropes. If we needed anything like that we had a tight 
rope, or a rope extending from a beam, and the climber had 
no such assistance in going up, and if he fell, in case of acci- 
dent, he always fell upon the hard barn floor, and not in some 
friendly net. But now, gentlemen, those days are gone, not 
only for you and me, but for everybody. That particular kind 
of village life, that particular kind of country life, that special 
form of farm life, is not coming back. It is idle to think of 
recalling it. It has passed away. We see nothing today but 
the beauty and the glory. We think of the poetical side of it. 
We read with a lump in our throats and moisture in our eyes 
that beautiful poem already alluded to, that sweet song of 
Whittier’s, for we can realize its beauty, for many of us have 
had that same experience when we were “ Snow Bound ” in the 
long ago. 

But there was something beside beauty. There was a lot 
of hard work in those days. It was hard to get up in the morn- 
ing, and hard to go out into the fields on frosty days and not 
fall. Machinery did not do so much for man in those days 
as it does now. Good or bad, sweet or bitter, easy or difficult, 
it has gone and gone forever. The best kind of New England 
life disappeared, as it always seemed to me, with the civil war. 
There are not many of us here who can remember that, except 
as boys, and I imagine that there are but few here who were 


1905. | THE COUNTRY BOY. 27, 


even boys at that time. But those who were children, when the 
trumpets were sounded, can remember when our young men 
and youth marched away and so few of whom came back, and 
some of you can remember the women going up and down our 
streets with tense set faces, waiting for the tidings of loved 
ones, which too often, in sad form, came too quickly. That is 
what the war was to us. When it was over and our young 
men, those who served, came back, there was a change in the 
whole spirit of our civilization and of our life. The spirit of 
adventure began to awake. The spirit of travel came on. A 
desire to break away from the narrow confines of our New 
England farms came over our young men. Knowledge of vast 
prairies of the west, and remembrances of the riches of the 
gold fields of California, discovered shortly before the war, 
and an understanding of the greatness of our country, which 
had been increased during their absence, was borne in upon 
them, and gave rise to a spirit of restlessness and discontent 
with the life that they had been living. All of these things af- 
fected the youth of our country at that time, and it has always 
seemed to me that that was the beginning of the deserting of 
New England farms. It was that which started that series of 
events which has resulted in that long list of unoccupied farm- 
houses that so many of us know where to find in the old districts 
which once were the homes of sturdy farmers a generation ago. 
And again, also, the enormous development of agricultural ma- 
chinery has made farm life a very different thing. The trolley 
car later came, followed by the lawn mower, so that the villages 
have changed, and though the differences of theological opinion, 
to which I alluded, have disappeared, yet there has not been left 
any intensity of conviction about anything that would make 
the strong, sturdy characters that we had a generation ago. 
Those strong, sturdy characters are coming again, and will be 
once more around us and be found among these rock-bound 
hills of New England. I feel confident of that. 

One thing more, it seems to me, must comé back, if New 
England country life is to be what it was before, and that is, a 
sincere respect for, and a sincere, earnest desire to engage in 
real hard work. Now, gentlemen, you and I can remember 
that to do a job of work well, and to do it faster and better than 
anybody else, was, in our time, a thing to be boasted of. I 
recall very well how the farmers of the hamlet where I lived 


28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


broke the Sabbath one day by spending Sunday noon talking 
about a remarkable feat of a certain fellow, a large, husky, 
powerful farmer, who husked and put into the wagon a remark- 
able number of bushels of corn the day before. Now, today, 
I am afraid that farm hands would rather tell how few bushels 
of corn they have managed to husk and get into the wagon, 
rather than how many. Now, is not that so, gentlemen? Is 
not the spirit of pride in work, to a very large extent, gone out 
of our people? Is not that one trouble with the New England 
farmer? I admit freely, and I am glad of it, that nobody on 
the farm needs to work with his hands as hard as we had to do 
a generation ago. We are using now the powers of the lower 
animals, and more and more, also, the material forces of nature. 
The electric battery, and the power of electricity, the power of 
the winds and the streams, and the power that is in our wood 
piles and our coal bins, to do the work of life, and less and less 
are the big body and strong muscles of man necessary for the 
accomplishment of daily tasks. But, gentlemen, farmers, men, 
just so sure as there goes out from the hearts of men a respect 
for the accomplishment of tasks in the best way that they can 
be done, just so sure as men cease to take pride in doing their 
work well, just so sure as we cease to admire successful achieve- 
ment, just so certain as man comes to think that the opportunity 
of his life will be found in avoiding work, rather than in doing 
work, just so sure will the civilization of the country and the 
State go down and not up. I have no faith whatever in the 
man who leaves the farm because he feels he will find an easier 
life somewhere else. I do not think he will. I hope he will 
not. It seems to me that we must develop more and more that 
ideal spirit in man which rejoices in accomplishing things for 
their own sake. I have a deep respect, a high feeling, for the 
chap that husked that tremendous lot of corn on that Saturday 
so many years ago in Brooklyn, Conn. He is a better man 
than anybody who dodges work and who leaves the farm 
because he desires to look for some easier task. That is also 
one of the great troubles with our schools, that so many go there 
feeling that if they are taught a little bookkeeping, a little type- 
writing, a little more mathematics perhaps than somebody else 
knows, that somewhere and somehow they are going to escape 
the serious responsibilities of life, and are going to be able to 
make an easy living. It is a mistake. They are not going to. 


1905. | THE COUNTRY BOY. 29 


In fact they are going to lead less worthy lives and actually 
take away from the human race something for what they were 
put into this world to give it. No, gentlemen, farming in New 
England will regain something of its old pre-eminence, some- 
thing of its old joyousness, when there comes into the minds of 
our young men an increased respect for work and a greater 
love for the actual doing of things. Any man who has four 
or five big marks on his hands, which show that he has done 
hard work, if he has the idea in his mind that those marks are 
not a badge of honor, he is not a good American. I do not mean 
to discredit the head-work of the world. I do not mean to say 
that. I do not mean to say that the responsibility of oversee- 
ing, and the government and mastering of industry, is not a 
mighty task, but I do say that the trouble with the farm, if 
there is any trouble, is that which exists today in our factories ; 
is the trouble that exists today in every avenue of human effort, 
and that is, that the American boy has lost his enthusiasm for 
work. If there was anything in the country boy of a genera- 
tion ago, about which I have tried to say a few words to you; 
if there was anything that was truly worthy of admiration, it 
was his general notion that it was a fine thing to be able to do 
a good deal; a fine thing to be strong, a fine thing to see to it 
that nobody cut his corners when he was mowing, a fine thing 
to be proud that he could spread hay as fast, or faster than 
five men could mow, a fine thing to pitch as large a tumble of 
hay upon a wagon as his father, a fine thing to be able to mow 
away hay as fast as anybody could pitch it to him. That was 
the great characteristic, which meant something to a country 
boy if he was worth anything. If that has gone out today, if 
the boy of today, whether in the country or in the city, has lost 
that feeling which should make him proud of being able to 
accomplish work, then not only are there going to be deserted 
farms, but there are going to be deserted shops. I do not 
believe in anything of that sort. I believe that the spirit of our 
boys is all right; that their enthusiasm for work really exists 
as strong as ever, if we will only teach them something like 
that. There is the salvation that we need, the salvation of our 
country, the glory of our country, which we are going to have 
in its boys and in its girls, in those boys who are willing and 
intend to do whatever their generation calls upon them to do; 
who intend not to shirk the work, but to do it. 


30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. (Wamu 


Now there are a great many other things which I might say 
under this subject, which would be of possible interest to farm- 
ers, but I observe by the programme that I am down to occupy 
the time between eleven o’clock and half past one. I hardly 
think any of you will care to hear me talk that length of time. 
IT am not here to go into general details of the boy upon the 
farm, nor do I mean to tell you in detail exactly how to do the 
work about the farms. I will leave a little something for you 
other gentlemen. I do, however, want to say this, gentlemen, 
that the thing that is going to make the farms profitable is a lot 
of hard work. That is the great thing that we should seek to 
arouse and to cultivate. If our boys lose that they do not 
deserve to be on the farms; they do not deserve to dwell in this 
country. Somebody was introduced once by a speaker in this 
way. The president of the meeting said that Mr. So-and-so is 
here. “I have great pleasure in saying that we shall now lis- 
ten to a lecture on fools by one—of my best friends. 
(Laughter.) To which the lecturer responded, “I am’ not 
nearly as big a fool as the gentleman who just spoke — would 
have you believe.” 

Well, you have had a short talk on the country boy by one 
who is especially proud of the fact that he was a country boy, 
an old Windham county boy, and who values that experience 
as a country boy in a country village and on a country farm, 
beyond everything else in his life. It is the greatest advantage, 
it seems to me, that any boy can have. I would like to tell you 
something that President Elliot of Harvard said to me the 
other day. We happened to be together at a meeting. He 
was advocating what, to some, were rather objectionable feat- 
ures of our preparatory schools, and he said something like 
this: “‘ [ think the preparatory school may naturally be expected 
to give every boy at least a taste, a sip, of every kind of knowl- 
edge, so that when he comes to college he shall know what 
kind of studies he likes and what kind he does not like. There 
were some who seemed to think that was expecting a good 
deal of the school.” After thinking it over I said, “ Dr. Elliot, 
I am inclined to think you are right,” but as I look back to my 
days in the country school, in a country town, it seems to me, 
while I was by no means extraordinary, that I got a good deal 
more than a sip of various studies. I got something not to be 
had in the ordinary school. Beyond all that, in the country 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 31 


school I did get a taste for pretty much all kinds of knowledge. 
I know that I got a little of the sciences, I read a little history, 
and I imbibed something of philosophy, something of the com- 
mon branches and of other things, which created a taste for 
greater familiarity with human knowledge. Then said Dr. 
Elliot, with that beautiful smile of his, “ You were brought up 
on a farm. You had great good fortune. All the efforts of 
the schools today,” said Dr. Elliot, “all the manual training, 
and all this kind of scientific nature study, and all those kinds 
of observational studies, are directed towards the one end of 
trying to find some substitute for those things that came 
naturally, as a matter of course, into the life of the country 
boy on a New England farm. We may succeed in doing it, but 
so far I do not believe we have.” Certainly that was an 
opinion worth considering. 

Well, while it is a splendid thing to live in close connection 
with nature, and to work with her in the fields, as was our 
opportunity in the old days in the country life, it was a good 
thing, and it still is a good thing, for the boys and girls. 
Happy are they that grew up in those surroundings, and blessed 
was our lot, that we studied the mechanics of the wood-saw, 
the axe, and the crowbar, to say nothing of the toy mill and 
water wheel. Happy were we that we learned respect for the 
great beliefs of mankind in our fathers’ smithy or blacksmith 
shop. Happy were we that we breathed the fresh air of the 
country and took into ourselves the strong breath of the hills, 
and blessed were we because we had a chance to wander over 
the hills and under the skies. Blessed are we as we look back 
now to those days, all glory tinted, out of which has gone every 
recollection of everything that is hard or toilsome, or difficult 
to be borne. It is all splendid now. Heaven grant that it may 
be equally splendid as our children look back, fifty years hence, 
to their early days in this dear land of ours. (Applause.) 


Mr. Gotp. Mr. Chairman, may I be allowed to say a word 
at this time? 

Secretary Brown. With pleasure. 

Mr. Gotp. Mr. Chairman, I have listened with high appre- 
ciation to the address which we have had upon the country boy. 
I am glad to hear from Brooklyn, Conn. Particularly glad. 


32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


When I started upon my farm life I looked around the State 
hunting for somebody to help me in trying to advance the 
agriculture of the State, and I struck upon one of those Brook- 
lyn boys, or he was looking for me, I will not say which. He 
came from Rhode Island originally, but settled in Brooklyn. 
Henry A. Dwyer, the first secretary of the State Agricultural 
Society, was from Brooklyn. And just those conditions which 
we have heard discussed by the speaker, when they discussed 
great theological questions in the blacksmith shop, I found 
existing there in Brooklyn, when I spent a Sabbath day with 
my friend Mr. Dwyer. In his family there were two teams got 
ready every Sabbath day to go to church. One of them went 
to the Congregational church, and the other team went to the 
Episcopal church. While that was one point, here is another: 
There was this rivalry between these two institutions, and dis- 
cussion ran high, on which the members of these two societies 
came together as one. There was an old deacon there in the 
Congregational church who was a watchmaker by trade, but 
who was an ardent cultivator of flowers. A wonderful culti- 
vator of flowers. He was poor, but he managed to live. There 
was also an Episcopalian minister there, who had a small salary, 
and also a lover of flowers. He built a greenhouse with his own 
hands, and raised there the most beautiful flowers found any- 
where in that part of Connecticut. Those two men, while they 
were theologically apart, and often discussed these matters, were 
as one in their common admiration and their love of the culture 
of flowers and in the pleasing effects that flowers bring to the 
people where they had an opportunity to distribute them. 
Either one of them would hitch up his horse and drive three 
miles to carry a bunch of flowers to a sick lady, and they would 
often get together to show each other their choice productions. 
They were as happy in the enjoyment of that pleasant social 
intercourse that brought them together as they were in their 
works and achievements of life. The old deacon in his last 
days made a happy strike in agriculture, which relieved him of 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 33. 


all his debts and allowed him to die above board. He cultivated 
the gladiolus when it was first introduced here. He had a 
magnificent bed of them, and many thousands of plants were 
sold in advance of nurserymen, greatly to his advantage. 
About the same year the Early Rose potato was first brought 
into cultivation, and he cultivated several acres of that. And 
those Rose potatoes and the gladioli brought him out of debt, 
free and above board, so that he was enabled to pay his debts 
and die in comfortable circumstances. That was in Brooklyn. 

In my early correspondence with my friend at Brooklyn, 
our postmaster, when I sent a letter to Mr. Dwyer upon one 
occasion, held it back because he thought I had made a mistake 
in addressing it “ Brooklyn, Conn.” He said I had addressed 
it to Brooklyn, Conn., instead of addressing it, as I should, to 
Brooklyn, N. Y. He would not send it off until he had inquired 
to know whether I had not made a mistake. That was the 
knowledge of Brooklyn in our part of the State at that time. 

But I found in Brooklyn, through Mr. Dwyer and this old 
deacon and this Episcopalian clergyman, through their cultiva- 
tion of flowers, that it made, all through the town, a good deai 
of difference when you put conditions upon the general farms 
throughout the State. I want to bear this testimony at this 
time, to my appreciation of getting some information with 
regard to the early days of Brooklyn, Conn. 

Secretary Brown. lam sure, gentlemen, you all share with 
me the great surprise I have felt at having the country life of 
forty years ago so eloquently depicted by a college president. 
We did not expect that a college president would have so much 
early knowledge of farm life in Connecticut. 

Another thing, I have nowhere and at no time heard 
expressed so clearly and so conclusively the causes which have 
been at work to depopulate the rural towns of Connecticut, as 
it has been depicted here this morning by President Luther. 
We know of the changes that took place forty years ago, when 
so many of our young men went to the front never to return, 


AGR. —3 


34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


but those who did return had seen the larger life; had had a 
wider outlook, so that they became adventurous, and the farm 
life of Connecticut was too narrow to content them. There 
dated from that time the decline of the value of New England 
farms, and the decline in the population of our rural towns. 
And the other reason so clearly and forcibly expressed by 
President Luther was that at about the same time came the 
introduction, so largely, of improved machinery. Those two 
things, to my mind, have been most potent factors in reducing 
the population of our rural districts and causing the desertion 
of so many of our rural farms. 

That completes the programme for this morning, but I 
want to say that during the intermission there will be a meet- 
ing of the sheep breeders of Connecticut in this hall. 

This afternoon we shall be furnished with music at the 
opening of the convention. The convention will now stand 
adjourned until two o’clock. 


AFTERNOON SESSION. 


Convention called to order at 2.00 p. M., Secretary Brown 
in the Chair. 


Secretary Brown. We have prepared some music, and if 
you will come to order the first thing gn our programme this 
afternoon will be a song. 

(Song and music by quartette.) 

Secretary Brown. We are to have now an introductory 
address by Mr. F. H. Stadtmueller, president of the Connecti- 
cut Sheep Breeders’ Association. 


THE DECLINE OF THE SHEEP INDUSTRY Ty 
CONNECTICUG,. 
By PresmpENT F. H. STADTMUELLER, 
Of the Connecticut Sheep Breeders’ Association. 


Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen: I have felt that 
no more fitting theme as an introductory for this meeting, 


1905. | DECLINE OF SHEEP INDUSTRY IN CONNECTICUT. 35 


which seems to be devoted particularly to the sheep interests 
of the State, could be made than one which would briefly 
review the history of the decline of the sheep industry in the 
State of Connecticut, and it is to that subject I invite your 
attention. 

The decline of sheep husbandry in Connecticut affords a 
good illustration of the effect of economic influences upon an 
agricultural industry. The forces which produced this decline 
were so slow in their operation as to be practically impercepti- 
ble at the time of their fulfillment, requiring the lapse of con- 
siderable time to clearly define the primary causes, and few peo- 
ple have ever thoroughly understood them. A brief review of 
economic phases in the past century does not take long to dis- 
close the reasons of this decline. To facilitate the presenta- 
tion of these facts, I will not confine myself to exact dates, but 
will refer in a general way as to times and periods in the dis- 
cussion of the subject. 

In the fore part of the last century, up to about 1840 or 
1850, sheep were maintained upon the farms of New England 
primarily for the production of wool, the wool being needed for 
the production of clothing, blankets, etc., required by the 
farmers and others. At that time the common practice was to 
make the cloth at home, including, practically, every detail of 
the operation, from the growth of the wool to the finished 
clothing. Towards the end of this period, owing to the exten- 
sion of the law of division of labor, the manufacture of cloth 
and various preparations of the wool necessary to the manu- 
facture of cloth, was gradually diverted from the farm to the 
shop. Coincident, or closely following the period of the devel- 
opment of the manufacture of woolens in mills, the revolution 
of transportation facilities began by the use of locomotives and 
steamboats. This opened vast tracts of fertife land for the 
abundant production of staple agricultural products in our 
country, while large and extensive territories throughout the 
world were entered and opened by other civilized nations. 
Owing to the increased facilities of transportation, whereby 
both the markets for the disposal of products and acquisition of 
the raw material were greatly extended, particularly the last, 
the manufacture of woolens developed rapidly. That is a point 
that should be borne in mind. The market, by the acquisition 
of the raw material, was extended more rapidly; that is, the 


36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


field of acquisition was extended more rapidly, or was taken 
so generally, that it developed with greater rapidity than the 
field for the market for the disposal of the product. 

Farmers still continued, for a short time, to grow practically 
about the same quantity of wool, but it was not long before 
isolated instances developed where the husbandman found. 
that the maintenance of the few sheep that had formerly been 
necessary to produce the wool for his clothing, did not nick 
well with the economic administration of his affairs. More- 
over, the manufacturing enterprises of our State were practi- 
cally in their infancy, and the consuming population was not 
of such dimensions as to cause or lend any assistance of any 
importance to the phase of meat production as a source of 
revenue in sheep husbandry. The result of which was that 
within a decade or two following this movement, the whole 
progressive school of farmers soon realized that it had become 
more economical to relegate the manufacture of homespun 
material to the factories and buy cloths, thus utilizing the 
energy heretofore required in this production in further avenues 
affording greater remuneration. Thus the sheep industry of 
New England naturally decreased, and the keeping of sheep 
was gradually abandoned from farm to farm, until through- 
out Connecticut the industry practically declined into utter 
insignificance as an agricultural enterprise, compared with its 
importance at the opening of the century. 

During the next thirty years, from 1860 to 1890, two great 
economic changes took place, which restored the sheep hus- 
bandry again to the class of possibly profitable agricultural 
enterprises in Connecticut. One of the changes has been 
caused by the rapid increase of our consuming population, 
which has very materially stimulated the demand for meat, 
compared with that existing in the days of former prosperity 
in the sheep industry, while the other is the very great shrink- 
age which has taken place in land values throughout the greater 
portion of Connecticut. The latter condition was brought 
about largely by the extensive railroad development, and par- 
ticularly that in the western States. This has had a most 
depressing influence upon agricultural values in Connecticut, 
so that today thousands of acres are lying idle, and are nomi- 
nally of such insignificant value that it is hardly necessary to 
establish ownership and title thereto. 


1905. | DECLINE OF SHEEP INDUSTRY IN CONNECTICUT. 37 


Those of you who listened to the very fine explanation of 
the causes for the condition of agriculture during the past 
twenty or thirty years in our State, as made by President 
Luther in his exceedingly able address this morning, will dis- 
cern a possible disagreement between Dr. Luther and myself 
in regard to the causes of that decline in Connecticut. Dr. 
Luther disagrees with me in so far as the influence which he 
placed upon the war and the return of the troops from the 
south developed a spirit of restlessness, he dating the decline 
of agriculture in New England, or in Connecticut, at the time 
immediately following the civil war, His date and mine sub- 
stantially agree in time, but I believe man, ever since his exist- 
ence, has been restless, and has been prone to wander and seek 
new fields and new territories, and that is rather more due to 
the tremendous railroad development which ensued shortly 
after the war, and which, of course, greatly increased the facili- 
ties for getting away. I believe that distinction should be 
made. 

Hence, under these conditions, with cheap land and the best 
markets in the country at our doors, there can be no doubt but 
that the time has arrived when sheep industry can again be 
profitably undertaken in our State. 

It is exceedingly interesting to observe, in passing, that 
these two exciting causes of the decline of sheep husbandry, 
namely, the growth of manufacturing, of transportation, have 
eventually done much to produce conditions favorable to its 
reestablishment, although on a different basis. Formerly wool 
was the primary object, the meat having been of secondary 
importance. Now meat is the primary consideration, with 
wool as a by-product. 

One great obstacle is offered to this development, namely, 
dogs. As sheep husbandry declined, and sheep, relatively 
speaking, became extinct in this State, few years were required 
before the existing generation of dogs did not know what sheep 
were. This is a perfectly natural result, and not fraught with 
any particular element of danger, until such time when sheep 
husbandry might be renewed as at present. It is not difficult 
to imagine that under these circumstances, as soon as any 
given person would proceed to keep sheep, it would simply be 
a question of time ere he would be confronted with discourage- 
ment by the loss and damage following a visit from or an inva- 


38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


sion of dogs, for dogs are so common that it is inconceivable 
for anybody sustaining a flock of sheep in Connecticut for 
more than a week or so before being discovered by some dog 
or other. This dog, wherever or whoever it might be, upon 
beholding sheep would simply recognize therein the discovery 
of some new creature, and would proceed to exercise its abil1- 
ties to demonstrate whether sheep were to be classed as game 
and sport for it, or whether they were animals endowed with 
equal or superior qualities to those possessed by itself. We 
all know what the result has been, and invariably must be as 
long as two such opposing forces as exist in sheep and dogs 
are brought together. However, the importance of the dog 
question has obtained undue prominence by reason of the opin- 
ion that the decline in the sheep industry was occasioned by the 
ravages of dogs. This is perhaps a pardonable view for judg- 
ment, limited to and based upon present occurrences, but, as has 
been indicated, it is nevertheless erroneous. The most practi- 
cal solution of the dog phase of this problem rests upon proper 
fencing. Here again economical changes come to the shep- 
herd’s aid by the great reduction which has taken place within 
recent years in the cost of fencing material. Moreover, much 
assistance may be had to encourage the reestablishment of the 
sheep industry by the attitude assumed by town officials in the 
adjustment which has taken place over the question of damages 
occasioned by dogs. In the past the action of the average 
selectmen in settling damages, as required by our statutes, for 
losses occasioned by dogs, has been controlled by one motive 
only, namely, to adjust the damages upon as low a basis as pos- 
sible — upon as low a basis as he could possibly force the sheep 
owners to accept without seeking to obtain greater and more 
just compensation before the courts. The selectmen, as a rule, 
were perhaps justified in this attitude, because of the shrinkage 
of agricultural land values, and because the towns where this 
has been most extensive must have suffered materially from the 
diminishment of their grand lists, which, in turn, diminished 
the resources of the town. 

Moreover, the time has arrived when it appears that it would 
be better policy for town officials to assume as liberal a course 
as possible in the adjustment of these claims for damages to 
sheep, caused by dogs, for in so doing sheep husbandry will be 
encouraged, and that encouragement will result in the reéstab- 


1905. | SHEEP. 7 39 


lishment of the industry of sheep husbandry and afford one 
of the successful methods now before us of reestablishing land 
values on large areas throughout the State. This being done it 
will naturally enhance the prosperity of the towns. Thus the 
reéstablishment of the sheep husbandry in Connecticut must 
now be done primarily for meat, and secondarily for wool, and 
an incidental factor of the whole matter will be the reéstab- 
lishment of agricultural !and values in many portions of our 
State. 


DISCUSSION. 


Secretary Brown. Mr. Stadtmueller is ready to answer 
any questions which you may put to him. I certainly congratu- 
late him upon the way in which he has presented his case. It 
has been so clearly demonstrated that there is no room for 
argument against its acceptance. 

We will now listen to some music before we discuss the 
sheep question further. 

Music. 

Secretary Brown. We have with us this afternoon a gen- 
tleman from Vermont, which, as you know, has a great reputa- 
tion for its wool and its sheep. This gentleman has just been 
abroad for the purchase of thoroughbreds, and knows the sheep 
question from end to end. I have the pleasure of introducing 
to you Mr. L. B. Harris of Lyndonville, Vt. 


SHEEP: 
By L. B. Harris of Lyndonville, Vt. 


Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen: I am a little hard 
of hearing and so do not know what has been said heretofore. 
I wish I did, because the sheep question in Connecticut is a 
difficult one, and I would like to know what the other fellows 
have said about it. In human affairs I have found that usually 
the thing that is is for the best. We have seen a town meet- 
ing voting what you knew would ruin the whole community 
if carried out, and yet we have seen everything that the mob 
has done come out right in the end. They usually land on their 
feet and come out all right. 


40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Now, for the sake of argument, let us assume that it is best 
for Connecticut that it did get out of the sheep industry. I do 
not believe that, but it may be it was best, and may be it is best 
yet. I suppose there is one cow to every six sheep that has 
disappeared, and it may be there is a cow for every sheep that 
has disappeared. I hope there is. I should not be surprised 
if there are two cows in Connecticut for every sheep that has 
gone out of the State, so that agriculture has gone along; not 
on my line of agriculture — and it is distasteful to me that it has 
not done so if that be the fact — yet, on the whole, there has 
probably been an advance in some other line. 

Now, when you go home, if you live out of town, you look 
out over the fields and you will see, all over Connecticut, more 
so than in most of the States, weeds that are above the fifteen 
inches of snow which has fallen. Those weeds have gone to 
seed, and they have not done anybody any good. I believe 
that to be true of Connecticut, and any State in the Union where 
that is the case. It would have been better if the land had been 
cultivated with some useful plant, if something of that kind 
had been grown where those weeds grew. Of course, that is 
self-evident ; but that was not done, and it is not likely to be 
done nowadays as much as it ought to be done. Therefore, the 
weeds are there. Now, there is a time in the life of almost 
every weed that it is good food for sheep. If you will take a 
flock of sheep out of the barn, which is the worst place a flock 
ever was put in, by the way, and if you were to drive them out 
of the ordinary New England barn, and drive them onto one 
of these fields into the snow, you would find that they would 
immediately begin to eat these weeds until they got their 
stomachs full. And another thing about it, those weeds would 
make good mutton. There is hardly a weed in existence but 
what, at some time during its life, or at some time during the 
year, is not good food for sheep. So on the face of it, 
while there are many of them that are not good food for 
milch cows, as many of you know, yet there are a great 
many of them that are excellent food for sheep. So I think 
you will agree with me that it would be profitable to feed 
all the weeds that we can, especially in view of the fact 
that the weeds agree with the sheep, and the sheep take to the 
weeds. We could not quarrel about that. I believe, further- 
more, it will be profitable to feed all sorts of plants to sheep. 


1905. | SHEEP. 41 


There is hardly any edible plant that grows in our climate but 
they can use. In fact I would be willing to buy a farm in 
Connecticut today, and run in debt for it, and run in debt for 
my stock and my tools, and rely entirely, as a means of getting 
out of debt, on my prospects of what I could get out of it by 
farming the sheep. I know I could pay the mortgage, because 
I have done it. 

Now, I am not going to ask you to let me discuss mutton 
alone, though even that is more than I can handle, in the lim- 
ited time allowed me, as it ought to be. The Secretary wanted 
me to discuss. sheep. I suppose I shall have to. But I am 
going to talk a little about mutton too. He said I had got to 
discuss sheep, but I have got the advantage of him now. Now, 
for the next half hour, while I have got the advantage of the 
Secretary, I can say what I have a mind to. Iam going to try 
to tell you something interesting about sheep, but really my 
heart is in two things. I want to teach you that every man of 
you that raises sheep should raise rape. If I can make five of 
you put in a piece of rape another year I shall do as much good 
as a man usually does in this business, because it will be a step 
in the right direction. Another thing that I want to teach you, 
and I am sorry there are no more of the women folks here to 
hear it, and that is, how to kill a sheep, and how to take care of 
it after it is killed, and how to cook and how to eat mutton. If 
I could get three or four of you here to understand this matter, 
so that the next time you buy a piece of mutton, instead of put- 
ting it into a milk pan you will put it in the cellar and hang it 
up in the proper way, then I have accomplished one of my 
objects in coming here. If I can make you understand that 
mutton is not fit to eat until it has been killed at least six weeks, 
then I have made a great step towards bringing you up out of 
barbarism into the enlightenment of a better day. Mutton prop- 
erly aged, properly killed, and properly cooked, is the least harm- 
ful of any meat, and the cheapest. Now, before I take up these 
two questions, I want to lay down the financial proposition. 
And this is a good audience before which to do it. I do not 
know how it is going to be disseminated out among the poor, 
because they are not here. You gentlemen that are here are 
well-to-do, you do not have to work very hard, and I think you 
have considerable leisure on your hands. I think that state- 
ment covers this audience, as a rule, and in consequence of that 


42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


there is a good deal of responsibility resting on you to inform 
the other fellows that are not here. Really, they are the ones 
most in need of information and instruction. 

Now, we will assume a young man, twenty-one years of age, 
starting out as a farmer. Of course, he has got to have some 
capital, and if he takes another branch and divides his capital, 
of course, he will require more than if he devotes all of his 
funds to one branch. But if he will go to work and be diligent, 
in a few years he can have considerable capital by following, 
in the main, what I am going to tell you. Now, here is an 
important thing. I might talk here a month, and I could not 
make a good shepherd out of a man that is not a good shep- 
herd naturally... Shepherds are like poets, they are born, and 
unless you know when you see a sheep what is going on in that 
sheep’s head — and it has got the smallest head of any four- 
footed animal, and they know less — but unless you know what 
that sheep wants, do not go into the sheep business. Now, last 
year I wanted some ewes. I saw a farmer who said to me 
that he had some in his flock. I said to him, “I will be at your 
house at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, and I wish you would 
gather them up so I can run the flock over and see what you 
have got.” He said he would. When I got there I found that 
he had the flock shut up in a cow stable, had not ventilated it in 
any way, and it was packed with sheep. Now, that flock of 
sheep, if it had been good for anything in the first place, never 
would have been good for anything after that. In a moment 
of thoughtlessness he ruined his flock of sheep, if there had 
been any ruin to it. Iam afraid there was not much worth to 
it before he shut it up. Anyway, it was useless for me to pur- 
chase any of the flock, for they were not adapted to my pur- 
poses, and I do not buy that kind of sheep if I can help it. 
The simple fact was he did not know how. He had run behind 
every year. Now sheep will not stand a lack of air. They 
have got to have it. They have got to have it all the time. 
Neither will they stand a damp place. Now, I know you will 
say, “ I know of such and such a man, who is called as good a 
business man as you ever saw, and he keeps them in his barn 
cellar.” That simply goes to show, my friends, that that man 
is an excellent shepherd, except perhaps in that one particular. 
If he would use greater care with his flock I would wager he 
would have a great deal better flock of sheep. But we must 


1905. | SHEEP. 43 


get back to our young man. First of all, he must have some 
natural adaptability and love of sheep husbandry, and he must 
have some definite plan as to the way in which he proposes to 
carry on the sheep industry. There are many ways in which 
it can be done, but there is usually but one right way. It may 
be by selling his mutton and lambs, or the yearlings or two 
year olds, or by the wool alone. Now, the first and most impor- 
tant thing is for him to start right. He must choose his flock. 
Let him choose anything he likes, in the way of variety, but 
make sure to get good stock, and to get good stock he must 
know sheep. Of course, he must have a farm to put them on. 
Your Secretary tells me that there is lots of land in Connecticut, 
eight or nine miles away from the railroads, which can be 
bought very reasonably. Now, in starting a flock I should buy, 
perhaps, one hundred ewes. There, as I intimated to you a 
minute ago, is one of the most difficult things in sheep hus- 
bandry. It is no easy matter,-I can tell you, to pick up one- 
hundred ewes and not get some with some disease, or some- 
thing bad about them, to be carried into your flock from the 
purchasers. When you go out to pick them up be very careful 
of whom you buy your sheep. Be sure that the wool looks 
thrifty, and does not look dead. Most any disease that a sheep 
is apt to have shows itself in the wool, to a man who knows. 
You can see it in the wool quicker than any place else. Be 
sure the wool looks lively and bright, and make sure that the 
eyes have a good appearance, because if you happen to get a few 
sheep with some eye disease you may ruin the rest of your 
flock. I did worse than that once. I bought some sheep with 
tuberculosis and ruined my whole flock, and I am pretty cute, I 
think, in buying sheep, too. It is a serious thing to buy sheep 
and put them on your farm. A mistake at that time may mean 
a heavy loss, so be very careful of whom you buy. Buy of some 
man that is responsible, and on whose representations you can 
rely. So let us suppose that our young man starts out to buy 
one hundred ewes. He ought to get them for three twenty-five, 
that are good enough to start with. Then he ought to have 
two good bucks, that might cost three hundred dollars. He 
ought to get good enough at that price. Then he ought to have 
about four hundred dollars to invest in tools and matters of that 
kind. Altogether it would run up to, say, about two thousand 
dollars as the total necessary investment. Then on top of that 


44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan., 


he ought to have a wife that could do the work indoors, and he 
should never hire a day’s work. He should do it all. He 
should not hire a butcher when he wants to kill any of his lambs 
or some of the flock to take to market, nor should he hire a 
sheep shearer when shearing time comes. If he wants to 
make money he has got to work. He should build his own 
buildings and take care of his own flock. Do it all himself. 
Now, I am going into this more particularly because I am 
exactly describing what I know a young man to have done. 
Now, he must have a ram, and he should take more pains in the 
purchase of his ram than he did in the purchase of the ewes. 
The main thing is to get a strong masculine character. I do 
not know of a better way of judging a ram, of deciding whether 
a ram is good stock or not, unless you can have him for two or 
three years, than by putting your hand on the back of his head 
and giving him a sudden blow like that. If he resists your 
blow well and strongly, do not question at all but he is a good 
ram. That is the general rule. It has not always proven true, 
but, as a general rule, that can safely be depended upon. On 
the other hand, if he ducks his head or his back at the pressure 
of your hand, do not touch him. Do not get too big a ram. 
Also make sure to get one with a good chest development. I 
should advise, in sheep and in the ram, that both should have 
what is classed as “ metal wool,” because this young man has 
got to do his own haying, and his sheep have got to rough it a 
little. He has got to attend to his own crops, and do it all him- 
self. He cannot drive his flock up every time it may be a little 
wet. With very coarse wool it will lie down on the back, and 
the water gets in and under it and into the skin, and the effect 
is bad. é 
Now, as to the food on which to keep his sheep; first, I 
should put in at least six acres of oats. He can do it if he isa 
worker. He should, also, put in at least three acres of rape 
and three acres of turnips. That is the first thing. One man 
can do it. The oats he should cut up when they are dead 
ripe. Cut them when they are dead ripe, and feed them on the 
trough. A poor man cannot afford to purchase a threshing 
machine. 

Now, he has no shelter for his sheep, and he may have no 
fences that are good against sheep. Of course, barbed wire is 
the only thing he can use. There is more or less to be said 


1905. | SHEEP. 45 


about that as a good thing to use, but, on the whole, it is about 
the only thing that he can depend upon nowadays. There is a 
little trick in fencing against sheep that I would like to explain 
to you. I never have been able to account for it, but I know 
it is true. A sheep will sometimes work its way through a 
barbed wire fence, however thick it is, and especially lambs will, 
if it is rigid, but if it gives a little to pressure when the sheep 
rubs against it he will not touch it. So where your lands will 
admit of it, put your posts fifty feet apart, or even more, as far 
as you can. Treat your fences liberally with a lot of staples. 
You must use about eight wires. I use nine. It is better to 
have the wires set rather thickly, in order to feel that you have 
got your sheep and lambs all in your pasture, but use just as 
good fence posts as you possibly can. It will, of course, help 
to diminish the cost, and will hold the sheep better than where 
you erect a rigid fence. 

The question of shelter is exceedingly important. An open 
shed, one that opens to the southeast or south, or in some locali- 
ties even to the east, is, of course, an ideal place for sheep. 
But I would prefer a good tight board fence, that is constructed 
high enough to give them shelter when they need it. That 
will carry them through the winter better than any barn cellar, 
for, as I said before, it is highly essential that the flock should 
have plenty of air. Anything that will break the wind is 
enough. Now, a sheep is more susceptible to draughts than 
any other animal. No animal will take cold quicker than a 
sheep will, nor will any other animal stand as much weather, 
but they must have a dry place in which to live. Sheep will 
not thrive if you keep them in a low, damp place. They want 
a dry, airy place. I have given no attention to getting my 
sheep under cover for the last eighteen years. They run, sub- 
stantially, over the same place in the winter that they do in the 
summer. Some of you may not agree to that, but it is no new 
way, and I think experience shows it is the right way. So the 
question of buildings on this farm that our young man starts 
off on is of small moment. They need not cost much. A 
thatched roof is all right for the open shed. An ideal roof 
is the thatched roof. It is all that is necessary. Anything 
that will break the wind from the northwest, and also some 
sort of winds from the south. There are two or three days 
sometimes when the flock should be protected from the south; 


46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


kept out of the way of south winds. Sometimes they blow 
raw, chilly, and damp, and then the flock should be protected. 
So it is well to see that the sheep pen or the shelter is arranged 
with that in view. 

There is another thing we have got to take into considera- 
tion. There is but one breed of sheep in the world that will 
not pack itself into a great cluster and literally smother them- 
selves, and only one breed in the world that knows enough to 
get on the windward side of the hill. So we have got to fur- 
nish brains for our sheep. It takes less work and more good 
judgment to take care of sheep than any other animal. 

Now, if the lambs sell well, and the wethers are to sell well, 
you must have a good market. You must watch the prices 
and know how to sell to advantage. With one hundred ewes, 
if a man will be careful in marketing his sheep, or the wool, he 
can, in a few years, pay the mortgage on his farm. He cer- 
tainly can do it. And in a very short time he can double his 
flock. It is quite within the possibilities in Connecticut to carry 
six hundred sheep on one hundred acres of land. I do not 
advise that, although I do more than that, I should not advise 
a man to aim for that at first, but it is easy to’carry six sheep to 
the acre and do it without much trouble. I know men who 
carry nine. That shows simply what can be done. So, in a 
few years our farmer, if he is careful and frugal, can own his 
place and be fore-handed. 

Now, let us take up the question of procuring food for the 
flock. JI have been in this business thirty-two years, and my 
experience certainly ought to count for something. I know 
this, that up to the present time a farmer in Connecticut should 
not have fed his sheep anything in the way of artificial feed. 
Sheep today, in this snow, are getting their living, and can do it 
very readily. You cannot do that with cattle, and there are 
only two or three other things that you can do it with. But I 
want to talk with you a little about rape. I will confine myself 
at present to rape. Now, it does not hurt rape to eat part of the 
plant in August. That may surprise some of you, but it is a 
fact. Furthermore, it is fully as good today, after it has been 
frozen, as it was before. In fact, for edible use it is better after 
itis frozen. Itisa wonderful plant. You can raise thirty tons 
to the acre. You should not attempt to raise less than that. 
It never should be planted before the 22d of June, and from that 


1905. | SHEEP. 47 


time on to the roth of July. About the 2oth of June is right. 
That gives you all the spring to harrow your ground and get all 
the weeds killed. You should fit the land for rape, as well as 
you would for cabbages. Of course, rape is of the same 
family. It must be rich land, and your rape will enormously 
exhaust your land. But rape, if you properly handle your crop, 
will help, in a measure, to refertilize the land. Rape is usually 
fed on the ground. It can only be fed to good advantage on the 
ground, so that your sheep will enrich the ground again, and 
they will not trample it to injure it any. They work from 
the side and take the ground clean as they go. Many news- 
papers and many writers on the subject say you must exercise 
great care for fear of their eating too much. I do not think 
that is true, unless we depend on rape for part of the year and 
then deprive the flock of it for a few days and then turn them 
in. Possibly they may overeat under such circumstances, but 
I think if we turn them in in the natural way, after the grass 
begins to grow better in the fall, they will then go at it very 
lightly. I have never known sheep to eat too much under 
those circumstances. I presume later in the season, if you 
were to take your sheep away and deprive them of it for two or 
three days, and then turn them in, they would hurt themselves. 
Another thing: always keep a box of salt in the field where 
your rape is. Do that in the summer and in the fall, and I 
think it is a good plan. 

Now, as.to the cultivation of rape, it matters little how you 
cultivate it, whether broadcast or in drills, but unless you have 
cleaned your land free and clear of weeds it is better to sow it 
in drills, and then cultivate with a horse when the fourth leaf 
comes out. I often sow it broadcast. A very little seed is as 
good as more. A pound to an acre is as good as twenty 
pounds. Twenty pounds does no more. A pound to the acre, 
if you had a man who would sow it fine, would be just as good 
as a larger quantity. The crop should be ready for the sheep 
in the fall, when the fall feed gives out. There is no feed, 
artificial or otherwise, with which you can make such good 
mutton, in a given length of time, as you can on rape alone. I 
feel perfectly satisfied of that, although some of my friends 
dispute it, but I have tried it and I feel quite sure that is correct. 
Furthermore, I feel perfectly satisfied that there is no mixture 
of grain that will make such good mutton, in a given length 


48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. { Jane, 


of time, as will rape alone. I think the experiments which 
have been tried in shipping sheep long distances are in favor 
of the rape-fed sheep over grain-fed. I think the Ontario 
experiment station sent lambs —I will not be sure whether it 
was lambs or sheep — to London, and the rape-ied sheep stood 
the shipping the best. 

The leg of mutton which I have here I happened to have on 
hand, and I brought it along to illustrate this point. This was 
a yearling wether. That is a sample of some mutton that was 
made entirely on rape pasturage. While I do not exhibit that 
quarter as a model leg of mutton, yet I do suggest that you will 
not find many better. It was made entirely on rape, and with- 
out any grain whatever. Of course, the strong point, and one 
of the points in connection with the raising of rape which I 
wish to emphasize before you, is that it is a great saving in your 
grain feed from the time your pasturages begin to give out 
until now. ‘That is the first point, and another point is that it 
is a capital feed on which to make first-class mutton. In my 
opinion there is none better. 

Following rape, I should have plenty of turnips, because 
there is a time in our climate when rape goes back on us and 
it is about this time of year. Sometimes it holds on until the 
middle of the winter. My sheep are on rape today, but you 
should have turnips to follow the rape, if you can. Of course, 
corn ensilage is an excellent feed for sheep, but there is nothing, 
in my judgment, like the plain, old-fashioned, rutabaga turnip 
with which to follow up your rape. White turnips constitute 
one of the best feeds sheep can have. White turnips will feed 
very well up to a month from now — up to about the middle of 
January. You can raise white turnips if you want to plant 
them in August, but after the middle of January white turnips 
do not hold very good. I should feed always whole turnips to 
sheep with full mouths. Of course, with lambs you must have 
the turnips cut. I think an old ewe likes her turnips best 
whole. There is no harm in cutting them at all, but I think an 
old sheep likes them whole the best. 

Now, with the farm such as I have described, and equipped 
as I detailed before you, our young man is in pretty good 
shape to start off in the sheep business. I should not advise 
that he turn off all his lambs the first year. He should carry 
them until the second year to begin with. After a while per- 


1905. | SHEEP. 49 


haps he could afford to do that, but for the first year it is better 
for him to carry them over if he can. Of course, he wants to 
increase his flock, and he should save about twenty per cent. 
of his best ewes and lambs for that purpose. Then, of course, 
the following year he gets a good fleece, and that helps to equal- 
ize the cost of carrying them over. Unless he is in urgent 
need of the money, the first year I think he should be willing to 
deny himself and raise sufficient crops to carry the sheep 
through until the second ‘year. He will be better off for it in 
the end. However, that is a matter for him to determine at the 
time. You cannot lay down any hard and fast rule in regard 
to that. Every man must be governed according to his own 
circumstances to a large extent. 

Well, suppose that fall is coming on; our young man wants 
some meat for his family. There is no place where he can get 
such good meat as right in his own flock. Of course, mutton 
is a winter meat. It is not particularly a summer food. Lamb 
is more like a summer food. He can take a good wether, and 
if slaughtered and cared for properly, no better meat can be 
had. Just let me give you a few directions in regard to that. 
Do not feed it anything for twenty-four hours before slaughter- 
ing. You will forget what I say about that now unless I bring 
that out clearly before you. Let me tell you why that is. It 
is because the undigested food in the sheep’s stomach, when it 
is slaughtered, is apt to flavor the meat. That is why it is best 

to fast the sheep before killing. Whatever you feed the sheep 
that remains undigested in the first stomach is apt to flavor the 
flesh if you kill it while it is undigested, but if you wait until 
it is digested and gone into the other stomachs, you get no bad 
odors in the flesh. You can give the sheep water it you like. 
Dress the sheep in a perfectly plain way. Do not try to 
embellish it with any fancy ornamentations, such as you see 
upon some carcasses that are hung up. Of course, you should 
not kill in fly time, but wait until the flies are all gone, until 
well along in November. Now, if your house cellar will keep 
meat without mould appearing on it, you are all right. After 
you have slaughtered your sheep if you will then hang your 
carcass in a cellar and take decent care of it, it will be all right 
to hang there until the next April, if you wish to have it, and it 
will grow better every day. It is not fit to use at all until it has 
been there a month. I used to think that the reason that milk 


AGR. —4 


50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


soured in the pan was because it had to, but it does not. It 
is not a natural condition for milk to ever sour. I used to 
suppose that meat spoiled because it had to. But it was because 
I did not know anything about it. Investigations, however, 
have shown that milk need not ever sour, neither need meat ever 
spoil. Now, take this very quarter of mutton here, by way of 
illustrating. The first thing to do is to fasten back these loose 
pieces on the flank, so that the air can get in. Then if you 
were to hang it up in this room it never would spoil. There 
never would be any bad smell from it, but if you left it all 
night where I have left it here, it would spoil in twenty-four 
hours, or if you left two pieces of the flesh touching each other 
in a loose way, so that the air could not get in, it would afford 
a place where decay would commence. But if you hang it 
where the air can get at it, it will never spoil. Why? Because 
the air sears it over, dries it, and the microbes that are said to 
make all the trouble cannot get hold to do their work. It 
should never be kept moist. The moment it becomes moist it 
gives the microbes a chance to get a foothold. If it is dry it will 
never spoil. But suppose you leave it hanging up, and this 
blue mould that we sometimes hear about makes its appear- 
ance upon the meat. Do not let that frighten you. A small 
amount of it does not do any harm. You éat blue mould in 
other things and there is nothing unhealthy about it. If this 
blue mould gets started in some place on the quarter, where it 
has become a little moist, if you will carry the quarter out and 
lay it on a sawhorse, with the open space towards the sun, it 
will immediately kill it. Furthermore, a few drops of the oil 
of bergamot on the stone in the bottom of your cellar will kill 
anything of that kind which may be in the air. An ideal place 
in which to keep mutton would, of course, be in the back yard, 
where there is a free circulation of air, but, of course, in our 
climate we cannot do it, because of the extreme variability 
of the weather. Furthermore, I am afraid that some of our 
lady friends would not be able to bring themselves to think of 
doing such a thing as that. They think you must have some 
artificial place, but that is a mistake. A quarter of mutton 
hung up in the air would keep for a long time perfectly pure 
and sweet, whereas, if it was put in the refrigerator in a very 
short time it would not be fit to eat. I do not know why that 
is so, but I know it to be so. A little amount of mould may 


1905. | SHEEP. 51 

/ 
gather, but it does not amount to anything, and as I said a min- 
ute ago, it is nothing that you need be afraid of. You throw 
that away anyway. If it troubles you just take a dry cloth 
and wipe it out. It will never mould on the outside after the 
air has had an opportunity to sear over and harden the surface 
of the carcass of the sheep. Mutton is a little different from 
any other meat in that the air hermetically seals the flesh, and it 
cannot get in and bring’ about the bad results which some- 
times take place. It is only where it can gather moisture on the 
inside that we need fear danger. 

Now, after it has been hanging for a month or six weeks, 
then the housewife can begin to use it. First she should begin 
by sawing or cutting into the flanks here and cutting out these 
pieces for stews. Then, next, the neck should be sawed off 
and cut up into pot roasts, and then gradually work up into 
the body. If the carcass is ripe to hang, as I have indicated, 
within six weeks there will be a chemical change take place in 
the fat of the sheep, so that it will not cling to the knife; 
neither will it cling to the roof of the mouth, and it will be as 
wholesome and sweet as any butter. People. say they do not 
like mutton, but most folks say that simply because they eat 
mutton before it is fit to eat. 

I want to tell you how to cook a leg of mutton. One way 
to cook it is to put it in a boiler with salt and water, and keep 
an account of the amount of water you put in. Boil it until 
you think fifty minutes more will finish it, and then put in a little 
red pepper, and put in one cup of rice for every five cups of 
water that you have in it. Cover it up and let it boil sharply 
for fifty minutes. Do not take the cover off. The important 
thing is not to take the cover off, because if you do you may 
burn your rice. But you can cook it in a tin pail if you wish 
to, and as long as you keep the cover on and boil it fast I will 
guarantee you cannot burn your rice. You simply pour the 
rice in and cover it right up and boil it as fast as you can. If 
you will do that I will guarantee that you will have as delicate 
a dish as can be eaten. Of course, skim off all the fat before 
you put in the rice. And then you do not care how fat the 
mutton is. 

The limits of an ordinary cellar or front room used for 
storage purposes must always have a first-rate place in which 
to keep mutton. I do not think that the temperature amounts 


52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


to so much as people sometimes think in keeping meat. An 
ordinary front room is an excellent place in which to keep 
mutton as long as you keep it hung up and pay attention to 
these few points that I have been speaking of. So that every 
man must have about his house somewhere a suitable place in 
which to cure his mutton, if he wishes to enjoy some of the 
choicest meat ever made to eat. 

Now, after you have killed your mutton you will find that 
it will not stand you in over seven or eight cents a pound, 
whereas, if you went out into the open market you would have 
to pay eighteen or twenty cents, I suppose, in Connecticut. 
There is quite a difference. Quite a saving. But you see that 
a farmer can have some of the very best meat for his table at 
a very reasonable cost if he will only exercise good judgment 
and carry out these plain little practical points that it is neces- 
sary to observe. If he will do that he can enjoy at his table 
such meat as is seldom found. Corned mutton is most excel- 
lent, but it should be given age before you corn it. If you do 
not, the fat will taste bad, and the lean will have no flavor. } 

Now, I do not believe in carrying a small flock of sheep on 
a dairy farm. There is a point I want to discuss. Some of 
you will be very successful, perhaps, in doing that, but I want 
to say to you that the buildings of an ordinary dairy farm are 
very unlike what a sheep wants, and if you have the cows, giv- 
ing them your principal attention, you are taking away things 
from the sheep and giving them to the cows. The sheep get 
neglected. I believe if you are going to keep sheep it is best to 
keep a sheep farm and pay entire attention to it. Although 
for fancy purposes, if you want thirty or forty sheep around, 
that is another thing. Ordinarily, however, it is much better 
to pay particular attention to one particular line. But if you 
go into it do not be afraid to keep a lot of sheep. If you can 
do better with one hundred and twenty-five sheep than you 
can with a hundred, you can do better proportionately with a 
thousand than you can with a hundred. You must provide 
facilities, however, for properly taking care of a large flock. 
I believe myself that you can do better with five thousand sheep 
than you can with fifty, proportionately, and I will tell you 
why. Ifa man only has a few sheep they are apt to be neg- 
lected, and he will not take the care of them that he will where 
he has a substantial investment in his flock. If a man keeps 


1905. | SHEEP. 53 


about twenty-five sheep around his barnyard they will get 
kicked and knocked around by the other stock, and compara- 
tively little attention is paid to them. But even then there is 
usually a corner into which they can escape, and they will be 
fairly successful. If, however, he has a large flock he will pay 
more attention to them, proportionately, and he will make more 
money. There is this to remember, however. A man ought 
not to think that he can keep a hundred sheep in a space 
adapted for twenty-five. That, of course, is modified by the 
circumstances and care which may be bestowed on the flock. 
It is quite frequently the case that a large number of sheep can 
be kept upon a small area of land, and be kept there profitably. 
It is not an unusual thing at all, in places where intensive farm- 
ing is carried on, for twelve hundred ewes to be kept in one 
flock on a comparatively small area. And the fact is you can 
do better with them because you can afford to have a man with 
the flock all the time and have them carefully watched and 
taken care of. In fact the best sheep I have ever seen were in 
large flocks. Do not be afraid, therefore, if your circumstances 
are such that you want to go into extensive sheep breeding, do 
not be afraid of a big flock, but use your multiplication table 
when you provide quarters for them. If you have ten sheep 
to feed you should provide trough room for twenty sheep. 
They will do enough better to pay for it. As I said before, 
sheep do not know very much. While there may be room 
enough for the whole ten at a trough built for ten, yet one will 
persist in crowding others out, and some will get too much and 
others will not get enough. . They do not know any better. 
They will crowd into one corner, or into one particular place at 
the trough, and pretty soon some of the sheep will get discour- 
aged and will not get up to the trough to get their share. 
When you go into the sheep business you should have sufficient 
trough space, so that when a sheep is crowded out of one trough 
it can turn around and go into another. So, if you have room 
for twenty, while you do not have but ten sheep, you can make 
sure that all can get their share. I think, therefore, it is a good 
rule to lay down, that you should provide just about double the 
trough space. If you have ten sheep, provide room for twenty. 
If you have a thousand sheep you should provide trough room 
for two thousand. Keep up that ratio and you will be all right. 

There is another thing: I never would feed in a sheep rack. 


54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jamey 


I do not like it. It has been twenty years since I have used 
any kind of a sheep rack. I feed in winter on clean snow. 
I feed between times on the clean ground. In feeding grain 
I know a great many people use a trough ordinarily, but if you 
have a clean piece of ground, where it can be scattered, they 
will pick up every kernel of it. I should feed whole grain, if 
I had to buy grain. Now, it is a difficult thing for a man to 
handle, if he doesn’t know how to feed without a feed rack, 
but he soon gets onto it, and I believe after a man has 
become accustomed to using the other way he will like it 
better. Just let me illustrate that a little to you; we will 
say here is our sheep pen at the barnyard. It is simple enough. 
Commence near the pen and feed on the clean snow. Do not 
feed on the dirty snow, but shake it along the edge of the clean 
snow. Of course, they will gradually trample it down and the 
snow will become dirty, but all you have to do is to extend your 
circle. Just keep feeding along on the edge of the clean snow. 
Then when the next storm comes go back to the shed again. 
You can always feed on the clean snow, and there is no way in 
the world that you can get so much feed into sheep as by feeding 
over the clean snow and giving them an opportunity to gather 
it up. Never allow them to leave any. Do not feed them a 
lot of herd’s grass hay or timothy, or whatever you call it here. 
Do not feed them a lot of that kind of stuff that they cannot 
eat. If you do it will be wasted. Feed it to them gradually, 
and give it to them in such quantities that they will clean it all 
up. Make them eat it up clean. In feeding chopped corn- 
stalks and feeds of that character, apply the same principle. 
Do not allow them to leave a single piece. Make them eat it all 
up clean. It takes a little experience and judgment to start 
off with, but if you are careful you can soon gauge the amount 
of feed which they need, and by feeding on the clean snow, 
and on the ground, there need be no waste whatever, and in 
doing it you can make your sheep thrive much better than you 
can if you use a rack. I think that sheep ought to have some 
food of that kind, of course. I give them clover. Clover hay 
is the best hay, but any mixed hay is all right for hay. Also, 
any sort of weeds is all right for sheep, and they will make bet- 
ter mutton on it than they will on finer grades of feed. Sheep 
need water. That is, they require moisture. If they cannot 
get any moisture it affects them quicker than any other animal. 


1905. | SHEEP. - 55 


As I suggested in the opening, they must have some moisture 
once in forty-eight hours, and it should be left where they can 
get at it. I doubt, however, if the flock will ever touch water 
to any such extent as some of our friends think. I have rea- 
son to know that they do not. Still, without water, in a per- 
fectly dry place, where they could get neither dew nor water, 
they would die much quicker than the ox or horse. 

Another thing: it is important to keep salt before your sheep 
all the time. If I had a flock of sheep out on the mountains 
and could only get to them once a week, I should make it a point 
to salt them at least once a week. It is better, however, to 
have a box of salt in the field where they can get at it. If your 
sheep have not had any salt for some time, and it is then given 
them, they are apt to overeat it. But if you keep a box in the 
field, where they can get it when they want it, they will never 
overeat. 

Another thing, of course, which is a great element in the 

s success of sheep breeding, is to have a good market. You 

must have a good market. I apprehend that Hartford and 
New Haven are as good markets for sheep as exist anywhere. 
But you must have a good market, and then you want to deal 
with reliable dealers. I would not send a poor sheep to market. 
It pays to put only a first-class article into the market. Turn 
out a good_article and the people will soon find it out, and you 
will be getting good prices for your mutton. 
» There is a gentleman here who is to follow me, who will 
instruct you on the question of lamb raising. That is a branch 
of the business that I know very little about. Therefore, I 
have avoided that subject. I know of many men who have 
been very successful, and in Connecticut today I think an old- 
fashioned flock of sheep, from which you can turn off part of 
your wethers, and turn off an annual supply of wool, with some 
lambs, will abundantly repay you for your labor. 

Now, just a word or two in closing on the subject of 
diseases. You may think of all the ways you can to prevent it, 
and do everything you can to keep disease out of your flock, 
and yet sometimes it will strike you in spite of all you can do. 
That is quite true, however, of any live stock. I do not know 
that sheep are more likely to be stricken with disease, or are 
more susceptible to disease, and I am rather inclined to think 
perhaps they are not so much so as some other domestic ani- 


. 


56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


mals, yet the presence of disease is something which you must 
be eternally on the watch for. There are some diseases which 
it seems to be almost impossible to get rid of. In England they 
cannot get rid of the foot rot. They cannot get rid of the big 
liver. Neither of those diseases ever trouble you much in Con- 
necticut, but in all European countries they are more or less 
prevalent. It has been said that sheep could not be kept to 
advantage on damp, low lands, such as they have in Holland, 
but they have never given up the sheep industry in Holland. 
That is a country where they make every available piece of 
ground bear something. And, of course, water is all around 
it. And somehow or other they make the industry pay even 
there. So, too, in England. England has its fields that ten- 
ants are paying as high as seven fifty per annum rent per acre. 
They pay almost as much in the way of rent as your farm is 
going to cost you per acre. And yet, under such circumstances 
they raise sheep, raise splendid mutton, which they put upon 
the market and get fancy prices for. They have to get them 
in order to pay those enormous rents, but their method of sheep 
farming differs quite radically from ours, in that they keep a 
good many more sheep to the acre. There are a good many 
lessons which we can learn from the way they carry on the 
industry over there, and there is no reason why you cannot do 
well in the sheep industry and make it pay just as well as they 
do. It seems to me that you farmers in Connecticut have a 
good opportunity before you. As I understand it, you have 
plenty of land which can be used for sheep raising, and you 
have upon all sides of you plenty of good markets. It seems to 
me, also, that you are in no danger of very serious competition, 
so that you will most always be able to get good prices. It 
is not the sheep that are raised on the far western plains that are 
going to compete with you. You need have no fear of that. 
You can also sell your wool here and make a bigger profit on it 
than the farmers in the far west. It costs seven cents to get a 
pound of wool from Albuquerque to Boston, and you may be 
sure that the railroads will look out for their end of it and see 
that they charge enough, so that those farmers cannot compete 
with you, at any rate, seriously enough to crowd you out. 
There is room enough for all. 

So far, I have discussed the subject from the poor man’s 
standpoint, or from the standpoint of the man who has not the 


1905. | SHEEP. 57 


money to go into the raising of pure bred, high grade, sheep. 
But I want to say a word on that question, because some of you 
may have an inkling to do that. 

Now, in all of the great sheep raising countries of the world, 
where they run immense flocks, they cannot raise those flocks 
without constant infusion of new blood, because the climate is 
so dry that they cannot keep the quality in the wool. After a 
few generations the Colorado merino wool is as dry as a husk, 
and they have to use kerosene oil on their shears to keep them 
from sticking. So that every few years, and in fact all the time, 
those breeders have to draw on the eastern States, and on the 
middle States, for stock rams. So that in a dry place you do 
not want to go into merinos, neither would I advise the other 
extreme, the going into what is called one of the middle wools. 
There is no question, from a business standpoint, but what the 
business can be made profitable with that kind of sheep, but 
exactly as it is in other lines, you must know your business. 
You must know how, for the first few years especially, to han- 
dle the matter with a good deal of judgment. You must know 
how to build up your stock, you must know how to get 
good stock to sell, and to do that you must get good stock 
to begin with. Of course, the cheapest way, if you want 
to start off with fancy sheep, with English sheep, is to go to 
England and buy your sheep, and bring them over, and then 
you have got a foundation for the flock that is substantial, and 
which will give you a higher reputation in your community. 
I do not know of a more agreeable occupation, or one that is 
more likely to result well financially, than the breeding of pure 
bred sheep, but success in that depends entirely on the quality 
of your stock, on the output of the rams every year, and do 
not forget the important fact that among such kind of sheep 
fresh blood frequently is a necessity. 

Even in Australia, a country which is noted for the extent 
to which the sheep industry has been developed, they cannot 
raise their own foundation stock. For two or three genera- 
tions their rams are found to be all right, but they must have 
more new blood every little while, and in that way there is 
constantly being created a field for the introduction of pure 
bred stock. 

Now, gentlemen, I have taken up more time than I intended 
to take in the discussion of these questions. I do not pretend 


58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jane, 


to know all there is about the sheep business, but I have learned 
a lot in my experience, and I would like to have any questions 
asked and I will do my best to answer them. Do not expect 
too much of me, however, for I am getting old, and I sometimes 
forget to bring out points that I intended to. Now, I hope that 
you will fire anything in the wide world that you have in your 
minds at me, and I will try to discuss your questions fairly, and 
answer them if I can. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for your kind attention. 

Secretary Brown. I simply want to say that while Mr. 
Harris has had the advantage of me for the last hour, I am 
going to get back on him now. I told him that he could not 
discuss the question of mutton until we had sheep, and that, 
therefore, sheep should be the subject of his discourse. But, 
like the minister when he takes his text, it usually doesn’t mat- 
ter what the text is, he is bound to give us the same kind of a 
talk. And so it has been with Mr. Harris. He got back onto 
mutton, although his subject was sheep. 

Now, after this very practical talk that Mr. Harris has given 
us, I know that some of you must have questions that you 
would like to ask him, and I hope that you will. 


Mr. YALE. I would like to inquire about rape. What kind 
of rape is the best to raise? I have been raising the Dwarf 
Essex, and my sheep seem to like it very fairly well. I would 
like to inquire, however, if there is any better variety. 

Mr. Harris. The Dwarf Essex is grown the world over, 
and is regarded as a very good quality. 

Mr. Yate. Does that grow large enough? 

Mr. Harris. Yes, the Dwarf Essex is practically used the 
world over. I have just landed from England, and over there, 
this year, the farmers are raising more kale than they have ever 
done before. Still, I did not find any of them that said it was 
better than rape. So I laid considerable stress on rape. 

Mr. Hinman. The gentleman said that his sheep are eat- 
ing rape now. Does his rape stand high enough so as to stick 
out above this snow? 

Mr. Harris. Yes. If you cultivate your rape fields right 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 59 


i 
you can drive a Jersey cow into it and not be able to see her 


back in the field. 

Mr. Seetey. A few words before we take up the next 
topic. We have heard the favorable side of sheep raising. I 
want to know something about the unfavorable side. We 
have got today, in the State of Connecticut, thousands of acres 
of sheep land back on the hills. We have been putting it 
largely into dairy farming, but those backlands, away on the 
hills, will not make milk very much longer, of the standard 
quality demanded nowadays, and the consequence has been that 
there has been a gradual withdrawing of our dairy herds from 
those sparse lands. Consequently, as the years have gone by 
sheep have commenced to roam over those sparse lands to a 
large extent, but I do not think that the industry compares 
very favorably with what this gentleman has been telling us in 
regard to sheep raising. I fully concur with many of his 
remarks, and I agree fully with him when he spoke about a man 
running a farm with so many sheep and so many cows, and 
running it all himself. That is the only way to make any 
money. And I am glad he has been thinking of those old men 
that lived ’way back fifty years ago, that did lots of work and 
saved their money. That is where they got it. I do not know 
whether the boys will ever do as their fathers did or not. I 
do not imagine that they will. I expected to see a large crowd 
of young people here today, and I am sure it would have been a 
great benefit to them if they could have heard what our speaker 
has told us. It would also show them what our fathers did in 
years past. I myself have been through just that kind of ex- 
perience. I can remember about how we used to go out on a 
frosty morning, barefooted, and run and stand in place where 
an old cow had got up, so as to get our feet warm. I am 
afraid that the boys nowadays would not be willing to do as 
some of us have had to do. 

Now, my question is, how can we make these back hill lands, 
these poor cheap lands, available today? As I view it, one 


60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


method is to use them for sheep culture, but there are some 
very serious drawbacks to sheep culture in Connecticut. We 
want to know how we can make sheep pay on these back hill 
lands, and particularly without interfering with our dairy inter- 
ests. I think there is just one thing we want to do. We have 
got to grapple with this question, and we have got to bring about 
conditions where we can raise sheep. We want to get back to 
sheep raising. There is no question about that. Why, I can 
remember when a farmer in my town used to have a large 
flock. I have known my father to have five hundred. They 
used to make money, and they saved money, and the boys 
today, I think, are spending it. I do not think there is any 
doubt about it. They used to make sheep farming pay, and I 
am sure we can do it again. It seems to me that the young 
men of today are not alive to their opportunities. I know, 
of course, it is some work to take care of a flock of sheep, but 
it can be done, and done profitably. You can turn off lambs 
and sell mutton, the old sheep, and sell the wool, and in fact 
everything that comes from sheep is most always cash, and 
there is everything about it to encourage sheep raising. I 
concur in about all that this gentleman has been telling us, but 
he has taken a very favorable outlook of the sheep industry. 
He spoke about the good land being devoted to that industry, 
where you could keep a large number of sheep to the acre. 
It has got to be pretty good land to do that, and, of course, our 
hill lots will not do it. But it seems to me if we can encourage 
the boys to see what can be done in this line that most any of 
us, even on our small New England farms, can keep from 
twenty-five to fifty, or one hundred sheep, right along, and with 
our general farming, and dairy farming, it will make a more 
diversified industry, which will interest the boys and help to 
keep them at home. 

Now, then, the great question is as to how we can improve 
our farming, so we can get sheep husbandry back in the State 
of Connecticut, and upon a paying basis. That is the question. 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 61 


In regard to that, I would like to say just one word. I have 
had some experience, and it seems to me that one of the first 
things we need is a little more strict legislation on the dog 
question. Back in the town where I live the selectmen have 
come to this conclusion, and have for about twenty-five years 
back, that they will simply pay for the sheep that are killed, 
and not those that have been bitten and injured, while the law 
says that a farmer shall be paid his damage. Now you can 
easily see where that has led to. Perhaps in a flock of fifty 
sheep there may not be but half a dozen killed, but it may be 
that the flock has been chased and worried and scared by dogs, 
and injured, so that it is a long time before it gets back to its 
normal status. May be they have been chased and they are 
scattered for miles, and perhaps you are obliged to spend one, 
two, three, four, five, and six days in a week in looking after 
them, and perhaps with a man or two, and perhaps never find 
them all then. That is the way things have been going on. 
It is wrong, and it is time it was stopped. The consequence 
has been that farmers in Connecticut have not cared to go into 
the sheep business. I do not blame them. Andi it has resulted 
from what I believe is an entirely mistaken policy upon the 
part of our selectmen. It seems to me that they ought to pay 
all the damages. I thoroughly believe in that, although I 
should have to help pay it myself. And there are a good many 
other things connected with it in regard to which it seems to 
me we ought to have a little more strict legislation and thereby 
encourage the reéstablishment of this important industry in the 
State of Connecticut. 

And then another thing I want to speak of. We have got 
to have a change in regard to this dog question. It is very 
often the case, as we pass along the roads, to see two or three 
dogs lying around a house, and in a good many cases the peo- 
ple who own the dogs are not able to pay for any damages that 
they do. What are we going to do about it? Why, the town 
has to pay it. There are lots of those dogs that do not pay a 


62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


cent into the treasury, and our town authorities do not follow 
the matter up, and consequently there are a lot of dogs on ~ 
which no taxes are paid whatever. And a good deal of that is 
due to the fact that lots of people think more of their dogs than 
they do of the development of the sheep industry. And that 
is one of the first things we have got to do. We have got to get 
the sentiment in the State of Connecticut on the side of the 
sheep breeding question stronger than it is on the dog side. 
The dog sentiment today stands first. In a case I know of 
there was a man that had three sheep killed by a dog. The 
man who owned the sheep shot the dog. The man who owned 
the dog appeared and he says, ‘“ Here, you shot my dog.” 
" Yes,” he said, “he had ‘been chasing my sheep.’; ); dato 
much do you call your sheep worth?” He told him the amount, 
and the owner of the dog pulled out the money and paid him. 
Then he turned around to him and he says, ‘““ Now I want you 
to pay me for my dog.” “But your dog killed my’ sheep.” 
“Well, that is all right, I admit that the dog killed your sheep, 
and I paid you for your sheep, but that dog is my property and 
I want you to pay me for him, because you shot him.” “ How 
much do you ask for your dog?” “One hundred dollars.” 
“T won’t pay it.’ What was the result? The result was he 
was forced to go to law and finally had to pay for the dog and 
the expenses for fighting the suit. Now, gentlemen, under 
such circumstances as that there is certainly no encouragement 
for a farmer in Connecticut to go into sheep raising. We have 
got to have a change in that situation. So long as the dog sen- 
timent stands first you are simply driving sheep husbandry 
right out of the State as fast as you can. We want to get the 
sentiment on the side of the sheep business. It seems to me 
if we can do that it will overcome a good deal of the difficulty 
we are at present laboring under, and will thereby help us 
immensely along that line. 

Mr. STADTMUELLER. Mr. President, I would just like to 
emphasize the remarks: of the previous speaker and point out 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 63 


briefly the necessity for the existence and organization of the 
Connecticut Sheep Breeders’ Association. The lack of senti- 
ment in favor of the sheep industry can be overcome only 
through some organization like that. It seems to me that such 
an organization is a paramount necessity if we are to develop 
in Connecticut the necessary sentiment to reéstablish sheep 
industry. Now, I think it is true that as farmers we are a lit- 
tle too lax in espousing organizations to protect our personal 
interests. Modern industries are built up along lines of such 
close connection that farmers must get together in their various 
interests just the same as any other, and especially be ready to 
protect themselves. Nobody is going to protect. them, and 
nobody is going to protect the sentiment in favor of the devel- 
opment of the sheep industry except the men that are interested 
in it. You are not going to have any dog fancier do it, and 
you are not going to have anybody who is not interested in 
sheep. That is not to be expected, and we might as well give 
up all thought of it to begin with. It has got to be done by the 
sheep men themselves. We are the ones that must develop 
that sentiment. And in my judgment it is all our own fault 
that such a low state of sentiment in favor of the sheep industry 
exists in Connecticut at present. We must not complain, but 
I certainly feel that we have had ourselves to blame, in a large 
measure, for the situation which exists, but let us remember 
that and try, through the Connecticut Sheep Breeders’ Associa- 
tion, to develop that sentiment again. 

Now, as to the matter of town officials adjusting damages. 
As was remarked in my address, I believe very much could be 
accomplished if we had a good strong organization of sheep 
breeders, which would keep the breeders in this State active 
and interested in the matter, and prompt them to approach the 
town officials in cases where damages are to be adjusted. If 
we had an active membership that would notify the officials 
of the Sheep Breeders’ Association of such cases, and let the 
officials of the association get into touch with the selectmen, 


64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan., 


or if such members would ask them to assist them in such cases, 
and go out and meet the selectmen and explain the matter to 
them, that there are more ways than one of looking at this 
question, I am qyite sure it would result in great good. You 
cannot blame the town officials for being anxious to keep down 
the expenses of the town. It may have been a short-sighted, 
or a long-sighted, policy, according to the point of view you 
take of it, but be that as it may, it is up to you, as sheep 
breeders, to show our selectmen the error and to bring about a 
better condition of affairs. Otherwise, do not complain if our 
selectmen keep on the way they have been doing. I believe 
and have faith that the average selectman of the State of Con- 
necticut, if this matter is properly unfolded to them, and it was 
disclosed to them that through the encouragement of the sheep 
industry will come one of the means, if not the only means, of 
reestablishing land values, and that through the reestablishment 
of land values will come the reéstablishment of the grand list, 
and thereby the income of the town increased ; and that the only 
feasible way, the most direct way and the most practical way, 
of putting the business of the town upon a good basis, will 
come, in part, by encouragement of the sheep industry, I 
believe, as I say, if that matter is fully explained to our select- 
men they will cooperate heartily in what we wish to accomplish. 

We want a liberal interpretation or allowance for damage 
to sheep. Every one has got to work for it. We cannot get 
it through legislation. All we need is faith in the work, and 
to put our shoulders to the wheel and go to work and get it. 
If we do not we never will get it. 

Mr. Hinman. I must disagree, Mr. President, in one 
respect, with what has just been said. It is not pay for the 
sheep which have been killed that we have got to look out for. 
The whole trouble about this matter is simply this: you can- 
not regulate the dogs until you can get the farmers to stand 
together and take united action; until you can get the farmers 
(and I am sorry there are not more here that are sheep men), 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 65 


until you can get the farmers of Connecticut, until you can get 
the farmers in the General Assembly that is to meet next month 
to fight for a law that shall take care of the dogs, as they do 
in some States. If you can get the farmers in the General 
Assembly to stand up for a law that will take care of the dogs, 
that will settle the question. But so long as three-fourths of 
them will vote right against their own interests on such a 
matter as this, there is nothing that can be done in Connecticut. 
The very last time there was a bill brought up, our president 
said if you can get the dog fanciers and the sheep breeders to 
agree, we can get it through, but there was no use in talking 
about that. And yet it was a bill that ought to have been 
passed. There was no objection to it from anybody, because 
it was so simple and square and honest a bill that nobody could 
do anything against it, but when it came up to the farmers of 
the General Assembly they fought it as squarely as they ever 
fought anything on earth. The farmer loves his dog. You 
can do what you please, and you can say what you please, but 
until you can get the farmers of Connecticut to allow the men 
that keep sheep the same privileges that they allow those who 
keep dogs, it is absolutely useless to talk. 

Good mutton we can raise in Connecticut. There is no 
question about it. We can raise the best in the world in Con- 
necticut. I was up at Mr. Gold’s, some years ago, and he 
asked me to dinner. He said to me, “ Will you have a little of 
the mutton, Mr. Hinman?” I said, “ Why, yes; I am fond 
of mutton myself.” After I had got rid of the first piece he 
said, “ Will you have a little more?” And I said, “ Mr. Gold, 
it seems to me you make a mistake in calling that mutton. It 
seems to me you should have asked me if I will have a little 
more lamb. ‘That tastes more like lamb to me than mutton. 
When it comes on winter, then, if you ask me if I will have a 
little more mutton, I should think that was appropriate.” He 
turned around, and he said, ‘‘ Charles, how old was that old 
ewe?” The fact was it was an old Southdown, which had been 


AGR. —5 


66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


fatted nicely, and it was nicer than any lamb I ever ate in Hart- 
ford. It was raised on the Litchfield county hills, and it had 
not been shipped all over the country before being prepared for 
eating. It was as nice mutton as I ever ate in my life, and if 
he had not inquired of Charles how old it was I never should 
have known but it was lamb. We have got the best land in the 
world to keep sheep on, because it is sheep land, and it is land 
exactly adapted for what sheep want. The only objection, and 
the only hindrance in the way of the development of that busi- 
ness is the dogs, and we cannot get rid of the dogs until the 
farmers of Connecticut say so. 

A Mempser. Mr. President, I would like to hear about the 
raising of lambs. I would like to hear the gentleman speak 
that was going to speak on lambs. 

President SEELEY. The gentleman is going to speak on 
lambs now. I was just about to introduce him to you. We 
have brought a gentleman from Ohio, who is now going to 
address us on the lamb question. His address will follow right 
in and supplement the one made by the gentleman from Ver- 
mont. It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Mr. 
Joseph E. Wing of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, who will speak to 
you on the subject of “ Money in Lambs.” 


MONEY IN LAMBS. 
By Mr. JosepH E. Winc of Mechanicsburg, Ohio. 


Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me a great 
fleal of pleasure to come here and speak to you today, even 
though I am somewhat unacquainted with the conditions pre- 
vailing in your country. Of course, I have read a great deal 
about your abandoned farms, and I did not know exactly just 
what condition New England agriculture was in, so I came 
down here today with a great deal of anticipation, thinking I 
would see something of the far-famed New England country 
towns, but I have not seen very much. I came down from 
Canada, and on the way down from Montreal, through Ver- 
mont and Massachusetts, I saw but very little of your land, but 
I have been charmed with what of New England I have seen. 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 107 

Now, about ‘ Money in Lambs,” and how to get it out of 
them. Iam very sorry there are not more young men here to 
hear me. It seems to me your New England farmers, in view 
of what I have been told, have a great opportunity before you, 
and perhaps some of these things that I will say may be of 
advantage in helping you to develop that opportunity. Of 
course, it is almost impossible, especially before a New England 
audience, to say anything new, and I do not know whether I 
can really do much good or not. But I am going to tell you 
how we carry on this branch of farming in Ohio, and if you 
can apply it to your conditions here in Connecticut I should be 
glad. If you cannot, I am only sorry that I have wasted my 
time and yours in coming here. 

Perhaps, to make what I shall say to you later a little clearer, 
I should say something first about the conditions that obtained 
on the farm where I first undertook the business of lamb rais- 
ing. Thirteen or fourteen years ago I came back to Ohio 
from the far west. I had a good position in the west. I was 
manager of a large cattle ranch, and I had a pretty good 
position; with a good outlook for the future. I came back to 
my old home in Ohio because my father had gotten old and 
wanted me to come home. When I had been there my father 
and I had been sort of partners on the farm. We had sort of 
grown up together, and when I was a little boy he made me 
his confidant, and I knew how to do all sorts of things. So 
when I went west I was pretty well equipped in the knowledge 
of farm work, as it was carried on in Ohio. It was certainly a 
great advantage to me. I became rather restless and left my 
home in Ohio and went out to the far west, and lived there for 
a number of years. Then I got a letter from my father telling 
me that he wanted to have me come back to the old farm. So 
I gave up my position and came back to Ohio. You have 
your problems here. We have our problems out there. Your 
farms are being deserted, they tell me. Your farms are not 
productive, especially on the hills, they tell me. Our farms 
present some discouraging features, as I shall detail to you a 
little later. When I came home to that old farm I found the 
same conditions there, almost, as existed when I went away. 
I remember as though it were yesterday, the day I stepped off 
the cars in 1889. It was just about this time of year. Just 


68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


about a week later than today. It was the day before Christ- 
mas. I remember how happy I felt when I stepped off the 
cars and started off toward the old home of my father. I 
started to walk over the four miles, going home to my father’s 
farm, and it was with a feeling of elation that I kept discover- 
ing upon every hand things with which I was familiar in my 
boyhood. I remember how happy I was to see it all. And I 
remember very well how happy I was when I stepped on an 
old bridge and saw the water running beneath, and saw the 
little fish darting here and there, just the same fish, it seemed 
to me, that I had left there when I went away. And it seemed 
to me as if they were there to welcome me back to the old home. 
And when I got near the old place I stood there gazing on my 
old father’s farm, and how familiar and fresh everything 
appeared to me. It seemed to me like getting back to heaven. 
After the first raptures of home-coming were over, my father 
said to me, “ Let us go out and look at the place.” We went 
out, and oh, how the old farm had changed. My father had 
changed, too. I could hardly think it was the same place. 
We used to think it was a fairly rich farm, and that we were 
fortunate in having such a good place, but somehow or other it 
did not seem to look just the same any more. Years before 
I used to think it looked so big, but after coming back from 
those great plains in the far west, oh, how small it did appear to 
me! I never shall forget how it came over me, and it did not 
seem as though I should be able to adjust myself to those new 
conditions. There was the barn that I used to think was so 
large, and I well remember how proud I was the first time I 
filled that barn with hay. I began to think what I could do, 
and the more I thought of it the more restless and discontented 
I became. I tried not to show my discontent, but my father 
saw that I was restless, and he said, “ My boy, now I suppose 
it is true that you did a great business in the west. I suppose 
it is true, as you say, that you had two thousand head of cattle 
to look after.” I do not believe that the old gentleman ever 
believed it was true. But I remember very well how he went 
to the shelf and took down his account book. He was a New 
Englander himself. He always kept an accurate account of 
everything. If he owed a man that man got it.- If that man 
owed him anything he got it too. He showed me that old 
account book, and showed me the hay he had cut, the wheat, 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 69 


and all he had sold off the farm that year. Footed it up, and 
the total amount — how much do you think it was? A little 
less than seven hundred dollars. Why, my heart sank like 
lead. JI had given up a place that paid me a salary a great 
deal better than that. And I thought, “ What have I come 
home to a farm for where the whole receipts are less than 
seven hundred dollars a year?”’ I did not know what I should 
do. What do you suppose the first thing I did was? I simply 
had to make up my mind to make the best of a bad matter and 
see what could be done. I said I have got to go to work and 
do all the work myself. I have got to get up at four o’clock 
in the morning to feed and harness the horses, milk the cows, 
and clean the stables, and do all this drudgery. Got to do it 
all myself, because I cannot afford to keep a hand on a farm 
that only yields a total of seven hundred dollars a year. Father 
saw how I felt about it, and he said, “ My boy, I used to make 
more money when you were with me before, but times have 
changed. I am getting old, and hired men are no good any 
more.’ It seems to me that I have heard that several times 
today. I have an idea, I know, they are with me, that hired 
men are necessary. It all depends on your getting the right 
man. But to come back; my father said to me, “ My boy, I 
want you to go ahead and do anything you want to. You go 
ahead and do what you are a mind to, and let me help you. 
Let me be the boy.” I could not help but think of that this 
morning when the president of Trinity College was talking, 
when he told about his father turning the grindstone while he 
ground the scythe. That was about my situation. It took me 
a long time to adjust myself to those new conditions, especially 
after what I had been used to in the far west. I never did 
become entirely adjusted to it, but when I heard him tell that 
story this morning it seemed as though I just fitted into the 
story.’ 

Well, I went out and looked over the farm, and began to 
calculate what had to be done. I saw a field which I thought 
might serve some of my purposes. It was a wet, damp, poor 
kind of soil, a wet, sticky, miserable soil, and I looked at that 
land, and I could not help but think of some I had seen in the 
far west. There was no help for it, however, so I said to my 
father, “ Father, I am going to drain this plot.” I got right 
down to digging ditches, and dug ditches most all that winter. 


70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


I am telling you all of this because it has its application in what 
I am to say to you a little later in regard to what I did on that 
place. I put in tile, and succeeded in making that old field dry. 
I did not care what it cost. I had made up my mind that I 
would make there something that would pay. I had made up 
my mind that in that wet, cold ground, as the result of work, 
I would make it dry, and make it yield something worth while. 
I made up my mind that I would make it rich, so that clover 
could grow on it; so that somebody, even if I did not do it 
myself, would be able to keep more stock. I intended, of 
course, to avail myself of it, and I was determined some day 
to make that thing pay. I used to talk with my father about it, 
but he had been used to a different order of things. He had 
faith, however, in my push, and he said to me, “ You will 
never believe what can be done here until you try it. Go ahead 
and do whatever you are a mind to. If you do it, then you will 
believe it.” Well, I went to work on that farm. I had always 
thought of raising lambs, more or less, but the only trouble was 
I had not thought of it enough. The idea at that time did not 
come to me what possibilities there were in that business. But 
all this work that I was doing, as it turned out afterwards, was 
simply preparatory, and was work which needed to be done. 
The farm was poor. The first problem that I had to face was 
to build up the fertility of that farm. I well remember the 
first summer. I had to face the same kind of a problem that 
many of you here undoubtedly have had to face. I said to my 
father, “I want bigger fields. I want more room. I want to 
keep more stock.” I had made rich a little spot on that farm, 
but the most of it was poor. I was anxious to make it do the 
best it could. I said, “Father, I am used to more cattle and 
more stock. We haven’t any sheep. We have only a few cat- 
tle. I am used to more cattle than we have here. I am not 
satisfied to take care of six or eight head of cattle. I have 
been used to taking care of large numbers. We must arrange 
things here so we can take care of a good many more than we 
have.” I thought at that time that we could. I told my father 
that I thought I knew how it could be done, and that I was 
going to try it. He said, “ Go ahead and try it if you want to.” 
I went to work with a will at that farm. I tore out some of the 
wood and brush and scrubby portions of some of the fields 
on that farm. I tore out some of the fences and made another 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. a 


field. I laid out a new land and made an entire new arrange- 
ment out of that old farm. I remember how that first summer 
I went back and forth between the fields and the barn and the 
house, and I could not help but think, as I looked over that 
place, how far it fell behind what it ought to have been, and 
how far short it was of the land on the prairies of Illinois, Kan- 
sas, and Nebraska, that I knew so well. That thought ran in 
my mind all the time. That was one trouble with me. I 
could not be content to carry on farming as we were compelled 
to do on that small place in Ohio. I could not see to my entire 
satisfaction, at that time, how it could be made to pay. I said 
to my father, “ This land is poor. It does not pay to carry on 
farming here and raise crops to compete with those raised on 
the prairiés of the great west.’ I said, “I think we make a great 
mistake. This soil has got to be made rich before we can raise 
crops with which we can compete with the west in farming,” 
and so I constantly took counsel with myself and studied how 
to make improvements; how I could bring that land up to a 
high state of fertility, where it would raise good crops that 
would pay some money. I knew that it had run down. I 
knew that something must be done. I did not know then of 
the fertilizing power of clover and other legumes. I knew 
about stable manure, and about the advantage of keeping live 
stock on a place, but I did not see how I was going to bring 
that farm up to a high state. 

And right here I want to tell you a funny thing. It has 
nothing to do with sheep in the world, but it does explain how 
I solved that problem, in part. A mile and a half away was the 
village, where they wasted a good deal of their manure. It 
was a village of a couple of thousand inhabitants, and I could 
buy the manure for twenty-five cents a load. I thought that 
was going to solve my problem. I made a great wagon box, 
wide and deep, a regular hay rack, and I had a big pair of Per- 
cheron horses, so that I could draw a big load. Then some- 
times, when some man sent me word, I would go up to the vil- 
lage and buy it and draw it out to the farm. I felt mighty 
glad when I got those big loads of manure, and I would just 
think to myself, as I was going home, ‘“‘ Why, in this stuff I 
have got something which I can spread out there, which will 
bring my farm up, and where it will be forever.” And so 
I pushed the horses along as fast as they could walk. I felt 


72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


that I had a solution of my problem. And do you know that 
on those loads of manure I felt mighty proud sitting or standing 
there on that load hauling it home, although it is not always a 
fine thing, in any sense, to sit or stand on a load of manure. 
But I felt in drawing that down there that I was soon going 
to make that country rich and more like the lands in the far 
west that I had known; into a land that should be rich and 
black as the land of Illinois. But I said I was going to tell you 
a funny thing. I was riding out on one of those loads one day 
when I saw a carriage coming. I thought I must pull to one 
side so as to let the carriage pass. I recognized who was in the 
carriage. Out in that country there was living there then, 
and there is living there yet, a real nice man, a very cultured 
and refined man, who had some beautiful daughters. I knew 
them. They seemed to like me well enough when I had my 
good clothes on. And sometimes I used to meet them when I 
did not, but that did not seem to make any difference. How- 
ever, on that occasion I perceived one of those young ladies, 
and I thought, “ There comes Miss , and I will have to 
get out of the way with the wagon and give her a chance to 
get by, and when she gets up even with me I will give her the 
nicest bow I know how.” As she approached me she did not 
look at me. I thought, “ Why, that is funny,” but presently 
when she got right up within a few rods of me I saw some- 
thing happen which surprised me; that poor girl had been 
stricken with blindness and couldn’t see me at all; never looked 
at mein going by. At first it was with a feeling almost of rage, 
and then I thought, “ You can go by me in that high and 
mighty way if you are a mind to; with all your chances in life,” 
I thought, “ and with all you enjoy, and with all your value, and 
your farm to boot, I would not have that spirit to go by an 
acquaintance because he happened to be on a load of manure. 
Is it nothing to you, young woman, that I can draw this load 
into a field where the field is dry and barren, where nothing 
grows; that I can drive in there with a load of manure, and by 
the use of that cover it deep with clover or corn; that I can 
make grain grow and raise good crops? Is it nothing to you, 
young woman, that because of this I can make that farm fertile 
and in time make a home for that sweetheart of mine and 
those children I hope to have some day?” So, full of these 
thoughts, I drove into the field and began to throw down big 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 73 


forkfuls, and as I took it out I said, as I threw it onto the 
ground, “ There is one and there is another. Now you be 
good, and you be good, and you do the best you can for me.” 
But I found after a while that I did not have to haul out 
manure from the town. I did not build up the farm with it 
as I expected, and then I began to think what I could do. I 
saw that I could not build up the farm fast enough in that way. 
Of course, it was valuable enough in itself, but it cost too much 
to draw it out. Then I turned my thoughts to other things. 
My father had never kept much stock on the place, and what 
he had kept had perhaps been of the wrong kind. I wondered 
what Icould do. Then I thought of sheep again, and [ thought 
of lambs. I said, “ Here is a little lamb. Is there any money 
in him?” We feed him while he is a baby. I grasped at the 
idea. I thought possibly there was a solution of my problem. 
And all my life I had been taught how much easier and how 
much less food it took to make a baby grow than an old animal. 
I said to myself, “I am going to try lambs and see what can 
be done.” So I went out and bought a couple of hundred 
lambs. They were lambs that had been born in the spring. 
I took them home and put them in the barn. I bought the 
littlest ones I could find, because I hadn’t the money to buy 
larger and more expensive ones. I had to borrow even as it 
was. I was living alone on that farm, without any money to 
go on with, and I had to do the best I could. So I bought the 
littlest ones I could. I built a place for them and commenced 
to try my experiment. There I fed them, there I took the best 
of care of them, and began to study how I could do the best 
with them. And I want to say this, for the encouragement of 
the business, that I never have yet fed a bunch of lambs that 
did so well as that first one. It was a great experience for me. 
And I was just as careful as I could be with them. If I had 
been feeding a typhoid fever patient I could not have been more 
patient and careful with them. They grew to like me, and I 
grew to like them. They would keep all around me and nibble 
at my coat tails, and put their noses up into my hand, though 
if I would try to touch them they might run away. I would 
stand and look at them. I tended them with the utmost care 
and in the best manner I knew how. They weighed fifty-six 
pounds on the average when they went into that barn, and as 
the result of my care and attention, I believe, they weighed a 


74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan.. 


hundred and eight pounds and a half when they went out late 
that spring. Was not that a triumph? I did not lose one. 
Not one in all that whole winter. I have never done that well 
since, but as a result of that experiment I made that one winter 
a profit of one hundred and fifteen dollars on those lambs. 
That was enough for me. I said, “I am going into the lamb 
business.” I made one hundred and fifteen dollars, and that 
was after I had figured all the work and all the feed, together 
with the cost of the flock. A clear profit of one hundred and 
fifteen dollars. Then I said, “ Now I begin to see daylight. 
Now, it is only a question of having enough lambs, and I will 
make this thing pay.” In my prosperity I kept it all to myself. 
I did not even tell my wife. I said, “Some day I will feed a 
thousand lambs on that farm.’ I did not tell anybody of it. 
They would have thought I was foolish. Today there are on 
that farm a thousand lambs, and a hundred breeding ewes 
helping me to raise that flock. They are all being fed on that 
farm. I had to borrow money to do it. I would not advise 
everybody to borrow money, but I did it in my case and got 
out of it all right. I was a little astonished to hear this good 
friend of mine, who addressed you this morning, advise you to 
do the work yourselves. We tried that, my brother and I. I 
called them home, just as my father did me, and my two 
brothers are there feeding sheep today. We tried to do all the 
work first, and then we began to hire some helpers, but we did 
not do so until we thought we were in a position to hire some 
additional help. We tried to keep it all for ourselves and turn 
the results of our labor into money. We were quite successful. 
Of course, with the increase of the business we had to increase 
our facilities for handling the flocks. We had to make money 
then on the farm. We had to build barns. We had to pay 
out.a good deal of money for our sheep, and we did not always 
pay our own money. Sometimes we had to borrow. .We 
borrowed a good deal. I do not advise any one to borrow 
money, but I am just telling what we did. We had to borrow 
money until the debt got pretty heavy. We had faith to be- 
lieve, however, that it would be all right. We had faith in the 
enterprise, for this reason: that while the debt was going up 
all the time the prospect of final success kept growing brighter. 
The prospect of success was beyond anything we had expected. 
I saw that the farm was producing better. We had our fences 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 75 


in good shape. We used to take care of our fences and do some 
work on the farm in between. Just living half the time be- 
tween the flocks and the fields, and during that time we made 
over some of the poor spots, improved the whole farm, until 
we finally got it so that we could take care of a thousand lambs. 
We kept hard at work, and finally, four years ago, there came 
a good year, when we had a thousand lambs on the farm, all 
as fat and sleek as they could be; all in the best of condition 
possible to send to market and realize good prices. I sold 
them out, and, of course, when the checks came back, one at a 
time, we were in a position to get out of debt. I never did 
anything in my life with greater satisfaction. I took those 
checks and laid them on the banker’s counter and asked him 
to take out what I owed him and let me know what balance I 
had left. I knew him well. He used to come out to the farm 
and look at things, now and then. I suppose he wanted to see 
just how things were. I told him I wanted to pay every cent 
that I owed him in cash; everything that I owed anybody I 
wanted to pay in cash. We owed this banker a lot. I had not 
figured it up to know just how much we did owe him, but I 
said to him, “ Now I have got money enough to pay that debt, 
to cancel all the notes which you have against me, and I want 
to pay that, and then I want you to tell me if I have anything 
left.” He figured up for a minute and handed me back a bank 
sheet showing the state of my account, and showing me that I 
was on the right side of the books. I had almost six hundred 
dollars in clear money. I was surprised and delighted. The 
farm was all paid for, and we were out of debt. We were all 
right then, because we were out of debt. That was a happy 
day. I went home and told my wife about it. When she saw 
me coming she stood in the doorway waiting for me to come, 
and when she saw my face she knew the story, and we were 
both of us so happy we could not say a word. Then we 
figured that night what we had made in profit on the farm, and 
we found that we had made more than twenty-five hundred dol- 
lars on that same farm, which had only given us a gross return 
when we began of seven hundred dollars. And there has not 
been a year since that we have not done as well. Cleared 
away all the debts, cleared away all the poor spots on the farm, 
so there are not any any more. We have moved the line fences 
back, and have built two new homes on the farm, one for my 


76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


brother and one for myself. That is what the sheep have done, 
or the lambs, and that is why I have the courage to stand here 
and talk to you about them. 

There have been two branches of the sheep industry which 
we have followed. The first is, where we buy the lambs and 
fat them ; but, of course, there is more profit in having the lambs 
born on your own farm, and feeding them to fatten them, than 
there is to buy them outside. It is much better to do that on 
the farm than it is to go to the trouble and expense of finding 
and purchasing the lambs. I am going to talk to you about 
that in the first place. Of course, one of the most impor- 
tant things is to make sure that the flock is well taken care of, 
but it is hardly necessary for me to say much about that now. 
Mr. Harris has discussed that question. I am glad that Mr. 
Harris has given you the good instruction he has about the 
care and breeding of the flock. That is a very important point. 
That is what we believe in, and what we try to do; that the 
ewes especially shall be strong and well nourished when they 
go into winter quarters. If the ewes are strong and in good 
condition, you will have strong lambs when they are born, 
Of course, in that connection the question of feeding is an 
important one. I feed some rape, and approve of it, the same 
as does Mr. Harris. I do not feed it quite so long as he does, 
because I do not have quite so much feed. Besides rape I have 
to have some dry clover hay. We want the ewes to be strong 
and well nourished, and not fat like this quarter which Mr. 
Harris exhibited to you. Ewes for breeding purposes should 
not breed too fat. You want them to be well nourished and 
strong, but not too fat, and then when the lambs are born they 
will be strong. I believe what he says is all right about their 
taking a walk out doors every day and having plenty of exer- 
cise. Sheep, of course, as he says, need plenty of air, but I 
would like to tell you that our barns are so built that they are 
almost like out of doors. We have them so arranged that 
clear along on one side is a raised door, or a door which is 
attached by hinges at the top, and which we can raise or lower 
at will. Then if the wind blows from that side we can close 
down that side and protect the flock, and give them plenty of 
ventilation from the other side. Or if there is a regular bliz- 
zard we can close down both sides and ventilate from overhead, 
and so protect the flock from chilling winds. Our sheep are 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. “hy 


always put in the barn at night. We do not want to run the 
risk of having little lambs born out in the snow bank. It is a 
good deal better if the lambs can be born early, and if the 
flock is well taken care of there is no reason why they will not 
do as well. We do not find any more loss among them by 
being born in cold weather, but it is because we look after them 
carefully. Many and many a time I have gone with my wife to 
look in the pens among the sheep to see if the little ones were 
strong and all right, and if the ewes were all right. So bear 
those two points in mind if you are going to raise lambs for 
money. First, not to let your ewes get too fat, and, second, to 
take the very best care of your flock, so that the little lambs will 
always be born strong and well. 

Now, another point. When the lambs are born we just 
simply make a little pen in the barn, that is made up of two 
pieces hinged together, two panels like, like the two sides of a 
gate; we take that and put it up in some corner in the barn. 
It is made just so that it opens and fits into the corner, the out- 
side corner being hinged together at the ends. We take that 
and put it up in some corner of the barn, and it makes a little 
pen something like four feet square. Sometimes we use that 
and put the ewe in it, particularly when it is necessary for her 
to have careful attention. Then when the little lambs are born 
we put them with the mother. We believe that that is an 
important thing, and it is certainly a saving of expense. In 
that way it makes it very easy. We do that for several rea- 
sons. In the first place, an old ewe does not know her lamb 
except by the odor, and the lamb only knows its mother by the 
call. They have a good deal of individuality, and we think it 
is a good policy to always shut them up a little while. Of 
course, after the lamb is born the udder of the ewe will be full 
of milk, or should be if the ewe is in good breeding condition. 
An old ewe will always own her lamb if her udder is full of 
milk, and that is one of the points that we are careful to look 
out for. If she has not got plenty of milk she will not own her 
lamb. We try to raise the lambs, or to give them a good start, 
on their mother’s milk. After a ewe has been parted from 
her lamb we can still use them, and we try to encourage the 
ewes to adopt other lambs, and so we keep them at work in that 
way. We place them in a pen and put the lamb in with them 
and try to make them own them, and as a usual thing they will 


78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


do so as long as there is a good supply of milk in their udders. 
After the lamb is born then our method is like this: There 
should be two or three pens for lambs of different ages. We 
put them by themselves and then begin to give them, gradually 
at first, a little more variety of food. We also do the same 
thing with the old ewes. We begin to give them a little richer 
feed, so as to increase the ewe’s milk, not only to increase the 
quantity, but so she will give it up more readily. Then, too, 
we always pay careful attention to this fact: For a week, after 
the little lamb is born, we milk her out every day, clean. That 
should be done particularly in cases where the lamb is unable 
to take it all. If we do not want to do that, if we have got a 
big lamb that can take it, we catch the old ewe and put this lamb 
on, and he will usually clean her out good. Generally we will 
have half a dozen that we are able to use for that purpose. You 
see if a ewe gives more milk than the lamb can take, of course, 
the milk is not all taken out, and that interferes with the length 
of time that the ewe stays in milk. It is an easy matter, in such 
cases, to arrange so as to have lambs that will run up and clean 
out the ewe. Of course, there are good reasons why the lamb 
should take what it can after being born. It is the natural 
method, and a lamb needs that for medicinal reasons. It does 
not do to take them away too quick, certainly not for three or 
four days, as it is very apt to kill them. Our ewes are such 
large milkers that the little lambs almost never can take it all, 
and so we have a surplus to use for others. We find that fact 
a strong element in our success. We try to increase the milk- 
giving habit of the ewes, because we want to hurry that little 
lamb along into quick, fat mutton. The lambs, too, must have 
a chance to be by themselves. We cannot hurry them along 
as fast as it is desirable, we cannot go to that extreme just on 
the mother’s milk alone. So in some corner of the barn we 
pen off a little pen — not too little — in some place where it is 
easier for the lamb to get into it than anywhere else, making 
it where it is natural for them to get to it, and placing it where 
the ewes are all around it. The pen should be made with 
panels wide apart, or pickets spread from one another, so that 
the lambs can run through easily. I find that our ewes cannot 
follow the lambs into these little pens if we have the pickets” 
about seven inches apart. -These little pens should be placed 
so that the lambs can run back to their mothers and placed so 
h 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 79 


that the old ewes cannot follow. That, of course, gives us a 
chance to separate the little fellows from the ewes, and to feed 
them separately. In these little pens we put a flat-bottom 
trough with a board over it, so that the lambs cannot get in, 
you know. In that trough we put ground feed at first. I do 
not care very much what you put in, wheat bran with a little 
linseed meal with it, or a little cracked corn, or even some wheat 
middlings. I do not like that so well because it is too floury. 
Wheat bran and a little cracked corn, with parts of linseed 
meal, is what I use most. They will not eat it for ten days or 
two weeks unless you educate them a little. If you are careful 
to train the little fellows to eat, and if you accustom them to 
being handled, there is no trouble to hold them up, and pretty 
soon they will like it ; they will not object to that, and then you 
can take a little of this stuff in your hand and put it in the little 
fellow’s mouth. Put your hand up to hfs mouth and may be 
all at once he will find out it is good and commence to eat. 
Then give him some more, and some to some of the others to 
eat, and pretty soon they will all follow that example. It is 
surprising to see how quickly they will do it sometimes. I 
have often used a little coarse brown sugar in order to encour- 
age them to eat a little quicker than they otherwise would. 
After they get to going then give them all you can possibly 
get them to eat. That doesn’t mean that you can put it in in 
great quantities and leave it there all the time. That is not the 
way to get them to eat, because if they go there and find the 
feed always there they simply nose it over and somehow or 
other it becomes distasteful to them,.and they do not take so 
much of it. They will not eat so much. I do not know 
whether these boys here before me know how to keep in a 
girl’s good graces. There is a little lesson in this, so let me tell 
it. When you go to see a girl, if you leave just five minutes 
before she wants to have you go, the next time you go to see 
her she will say when she sees you coming, “ There is that fel- 
low coming again. I am glad to see him, because he never 
stays too long.” If you stay just five minutes longer than she 
wants to have you, then what does she say? Why, she sees 
you coming, and she says, “ There is that fellow coming again 
that bored me so the last time he was here.’’ That applies to 
lambs also. If they have a little bit less than what they want 
to eat they will come back with a big relish the next time. For 


80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


that reason we try to feed them so they will eat up all that we 
give them, and get good and hungry by milk time. If there is 
a little bit that is not eaten up we take it and give it to the 
ewes. 

I want to emphasize this point. I do not know whether I 
have brought out this idea with sufficient force to make it as 
clear to you as I would like to. There is a great deal in han- 
dling the flock in a perfectly natural way. Handle the ewes and 
lambs so naturally that it will seem perfectly natural for them 
to run in and out among each other, and by having these pens 
placed as I have described that goes a great ways towards 
keeping the flock contented, as it allows the lambs to mix with 
their mothers, and they do better in consequence. Lambs do 
not want a hothouse. I think I have already told you that 
they want plenty of good fresh air. I do not mean by that 
that they can stand it*to be kept in a cold or damp place. They 
cannot. They do not want a cold place, where the wind blows 
through. They want to be protected from strong winds if 
possible. It is better to have a place that is open to the south, 
if open at all, with the wind all shut off on the other side. The 
place should be arranged in such a way that the wind can be 
shut off in the direction from which it comes. 

Now, when the lambs will dress from thirty to forty pounds 
they are ready to go to market; to ship to New York, to New 
Haven, or any other place where there is a good sale for them. 
I do not know much about your local markets. I know what 
the markets are in our large western cities, and after figuring 
up the cost of raising you will find that they have cost you less 
per pound to produce, by reason of shipping them off in the 
way I have been describing to you, than they will if you carry 
them on for a year. They will bring you from six or eight to 
ten dollars apiece, and sometimes even more, and it is almost 
like finding money. 

When you take them away from the ewes then you can put 
others on. Perhaps there are twins, and one of them needs 
more help and nourishment than the other. Just take an old 
ewe that has parted from her lamb and put her in her pen, and 
try her to see whether or not she is milking in good shape, 
and if she is, and she objects, just put her neck in the stanchion. 
All that is necessary is to keep her quiet, and to prevent her 
from running around. I just drive two stakes down and tie 


1905. | MONEY IN LAMBS. 81 


them together and then put the twin lamb in with the ewe, and 
with the twin there, if she does not kick too much, he will help 
himself. After he has taken nourishment from this foster 
mother for a few days she likes it just as well as though it was 
her own, and she will raise him. If you do not want to do that 
you can simply catch her once or twice, or three times a day, 
and let the little fellow clear the ewe out while you hold her. 
Perhaps it may be necessary, if the lambs are quite young, to 
milk her out afterwards, but that is not usually so. After she 
has served your purpose, and when it is necessary to dry her 
up, if you will stop the grain feed and give her some timothy 
hay, that will do it every time. 

The little lambs are fed. It is better sometimes to feed 
them so as to shove them along as fast as possible. Of course, 
you want to get them into market as soon as you can. I will 
give you my ration that I give them first. It is corn meal and 
wheat bran, equal parts of wheat and meal. I put in about 
ten per cent. of coarse ground linseed meal or oil cake, as the 
Englishmen say. I find that that agrees with them first rate, 
and they do very well. I give them a low trough and let them 
eat all they want. What they do not eat I give to the ewes. 
The soy bean, such as you grow here, makes the best thing I 
know of to furnish the protein for lambs. I believe that is 
grown here, as well as with us, for that purpose. We do not 
have any trouble in growing it, and I do not think you will 
have here. At least that is the way I understand it. 

The principal thing to be aimed at in selecting the food and 
fattening the lambs, is to get them into condition to be sent 
to market as soon as possible. This method of grain feeding, 
mixed with the mother’s milk, makes the cheapest lamb food 
I know of, and they seem to do the best on it. They will 
always bring a good price. 

I cannot quite agree with my brother here when he advises 
you to carry them over whether your prices are good or not. 
I do not believe in that. I believe in letting them go and not 
being obliged to incur the expense of keeping them. Let them 
go while they are young. The babies are the things that pay 
in this world, especially in the lamb business. 

Now, if you have any questions to ask I shall be very glad 
to afiswer them. 


Acr. —6 


82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. Hinman. What kind of fences do you use? 

Mr. Winc. Nowadays we are using almost altogether 
wire fences. We find that wire fences serve our purpose, and 
we are able to make them dogproof without much trouble. 
Perhaps if our country was situated the same as some of yours 
we could use some other fence to advantage, but I do not think 
you can make any fence dogproof so well as you can a wire 
fence. We place a barbed wire on the top. 

Mr. Htnman. Do you have much trouble with dogs? 

Mr. Winc. We had that trouble. I think it makes a dif- 
ference what breed you raise as to whether you have trouble 
in that line or not. 

I am so far away from home that I probably shall not get 
into trouble if 1 say this to you: I think that Dorset ewes are 
not nearly so subject to attacks of dogs as some other breeds, 
or in any case they stand their ground when dogs come around, 
and do not run off. Some breeds of sheep run almost on sight 
of a dog, and dogs from instinct take after them. 

Mr. Hoyt. Do you have any Angora goats? It is said 
around here that they will not run for dogs. 

Mr. Winc. We introduced Angora goats for that very 
purpose. Of course, I think a real sheep-killing dog will kill 
a Dorset sheep, but under ordinary circumstances if the dogs 
have not been in the habit of killing sheep they will not worry 
Dorset sheep, and I do not think they will Angora goats. The 
Angora goat, I do not think, however, is quite so brave. 

Mr. Hinman. Do you confine yourself to Dorsets entirely ? 

Mr. Winc. In breeding ewes I confine myself to them 
entirely. I want to say that there are objections to the pure 
bred for the business I have. A sheep that is descended from 
a merino ewe and a Dorset ram makes the best sheep in the 
world for this lamb business. They are a lamb that fattens 
quicker than the better breeds, they are more sure to lamb 
early, and that is a point of great advantage. 

A Member. What do you think of the Shropshire? 


1905. | DISCUSSION. : 83 


Mr. Winc. The Shropshire is a grand good sheep, but 
they do not lamb quite so early as the other breed. 

Mr. Hinman. Are they not a larger sheep? 

Mr. Hoyr. Will they not weigh more when you send them 
to market? 

Mr. Winc. Well, I do not know. Of course, they all 
vary some, but taking a lot on the average I think the others 
are better. 

Mr. Hoyt. Do you think that they are better than the 
Southdown? 

Mr. Winc. Well, between the Shropshire and the South- 
down I do. Of course, we know that the most perfect mut- 
ton form in the world is the Shropshire. 

Mr. RicuMonp. Can you get any more for it in the market 
here? 

Mr. Winc. It sells for about the same price as the South- 
down. The Dorset sells also for about the same price per 
pound. All classes are on about the same level in the market, 
except as to the wool. 

Let me tell you just a thing or two here. Of course, I do 
not know whether there are any sheep breeders here or not. 
If there are I do not know it. But if you are going into the 
sheep business do not buy extraordinarily high-priced sheep. 
Get good sheep, of good average kinds. I have not the time now 
to tell you all the reasons why, but let me tell you this: They are 
more subject to parasites than most sheep I know of, and also 
for the reason that they are slower to mature. You cannot do 
so well with them where you keep them year after year. 

Secretary Brown. Do you not change your stock? 

’ Mr. Wine. We do. We get new rams occasionally. The 
suggestion that brother Harris made is a splendid one, that 
when you get a new ram, to get just as good a one as you can. 
If he is not a good one you are not apt to get good, strong 
breed of stock, so that it is quite important to get a strong, 
vigorous ram. 


84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


We have a great deal of trouble in Ohio, and in fact I think 
more than you do here, because we have a worse climate than 
you for resisting parasitic infection. Many of the diseases of 
the sheep come from the stomach worm. When the lambs in 
the summer time begin to scour, and the wool gets loose and the 
eyes look weak and blurred, and they go around in a half life- 
less condition many times, the trouble is nothing but stomach 
worm. They die and you bury them. Over in England they 
have more trouble than we do. I have been over there and I 
have noticed some of their methods. I noticed that they 
changed the sheep from one field to another frequently. I 
asked one shepherd about that, and he said, “ Why, sir, we do 
not dare to let our lambs sleep two nights on the same ground.” 
One time I saw a flock and they had a fence around some oak 
trees in the pasture, so that the sheep could not get under it. 
I asked the shepherd, “‘ Why don’t you let the sheep get under 
those trees?” and I found out the reason. I didn’t blame the 
shepherd, but it was not that at all. There was apparently no 
objection to letting them lie underneath that tree where there 
was thick green grass, but the fact was that there they got a 
little throat worm, which works on the sheep, and they had 
learned by experience that they must not let the sheep lie under- 
neath that tree. 

We change our flock from one field to another and not let 
them run all summer in one place. By doing that we have had 
apparently no trouble with parasites. 

Mr. Brown. How often do you change these flocks from 
one lot to another? 

Mr. Wina. I should say they ought to be changed as often 
as once in ten days. 

I would like to tell you a little about our fodder. Of course, 
we have to grow fodder for the sheep in the winter. One of 
our strongholds is alfalfa. That grows high up, and it has this 
advantage in connection with this matter, that we have just 
been talking about, that they do not get the germ of the stomach 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 85 


worm among it so much. That only breeds down close to the 
ground. We have never had any parasitic sheep come from 
alfalfa fed. Red clover will do the same thing. To my mind 
that is a strong recommendation for both of those feeds. 

Mr. Witson. Do you have any idea that you can raise 
alfalfa in Connecticut? : 

Mr. Winec. I think you can. If you take pains to pro- 
cure alfalfa that has these little nodules on the roots, so that 
the ground can become thoroughly inoculated, you will not 
have any trouble about raising alfalfa. 

Mr. Hoyr. Did you ever raise any alfalfa for your sheep? 

Mr. Wine. I cut about 350 tons of alfalfa hay for the 
sheep this year. 

Mr. Hoyr. Do you think it is better than the common 
clover? 

Mr. Winc. Oh, yes. I think it does better with us. 

Mr. Hoyt. Do you mean it grows better with you? 

Mr. WinG. Yes. 

Mr. Hoyt. Do you think it does better there than here in 
Connecticut ? 

Mr. Winc. Well, I don’t know about Connecticut. I 
think red clover is as easily grown as alfalfa. Alfalfa, how- 
ever, produces a larger crop, and more of it. When once it is 
introduced you are sure to get a good crop from it without 
much reference to drought. When once the soil is thoroughly 
inoculated you would have no difficulty in getting three crops 
year after year. 

Mr. Hoyr. Is there anything in this idea of buying the 
soil that is inoculated where that grows? 

Mr. Winc. Yes, there is. There is a good deal in that. 

Mr. Hoyt. Then, in your opinion, it is necessary to have 
the inoculated soil before you can do anything with it? 

Mr. WINc. It is necessary, as I understand it, before you 
can obtain the best results, to have your soil thoroughly inocu- 
lated. 


86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. Hinman. How many years do you grow your alfalfa 
before you plough again? 

Mr. Winc. Well, we plough it about every four or five 
years. 

Mr. Hoyt. How do you manage to plough it? I should 
not think you could plough it, as the root is so strong and runs 


down so deep. I should not think you could plough it without 
cutting it. 

Mr. Winc. We do not find any difficulty in ploughing the 
alfalfa. It is not often that our men say it is difficult to plough 
it. The way we do is this: If you take an old plow and an old 
worn-out harness, a poor team, and a hired man without any 
conscience, I will admit it would be a pretty hard matter to 
plough it, but if you take a new plough, or one just as good as 
new, with a good, stiff harness, and a good team, and a man 
with a conscience, and a file to follow the plough, so as to 
sharpen it up every little while, you can plough it just as well 
as you can anything. If the roots are tough and big it is 
sometimes necessary to sharpen the share every twenty minutes. 

Mr. Hoyr. The hired men in Connecticut, I am afraid, 
wouldn’t stand that. They would leave us in no time. 

Mr. Winc. You might have to do more of that here than 
we do. Our soil does not have so much stone in it as yours. 
Here your ploughshare would not stay sharp very long. It 
is not necessary to do that with us so much. Furthermore, 
our fields are mostly 160 rods long, and we go down the field 
and then come back to the upper end before the plough comes 
out of the ground, and the man files the share, or sharpens it up, 
before we start out again. 

Mr. Hoyt. Have you had any experience in raising soy 
beans? 

Mr. Winc. Yes. They do well in the south of Ohio, but 
I do not think they will do well so far north as this. In some 
years they may be useful to you, but the further north you get, 
of course, the less liability there is of getting a good crop. 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 87 


There is one little point that I intended to speak of. That 
is, in speaking about running sheep together, it will not do to 
run weak sheep with strong sheep. If you have any weak 
sheep in your flock you should cut them out. That escaped 
my notice, and I failed to say anything about that before. That 
applies particularly if you are running large flocks. It is better 
to put the weak ones by themselves. 

The Presipent. Mr. Wing has been on the floor for some 
time, and if there are no further questions we will take a recess 
until 7.30 P. M. 

(Convention adjourned to 7.30 P. M.) 


EVENING SESSION. 
WeEpDNEspDAY, December 14, 1904. 


Convention called to order at 7.30 Pp. M., Vice-President 
Seeley in the Chair. 

The Presipent. If you will come to order now we will 
have some music. There is nothing that a farmer likes to hear 
any better than good music, and I am pleased that we have 
some young people here who can entertain us in right good 
style. 

Music. 

The Prestipent. The subject of the address this evening 
is ‘Some Observations in the Orient,” illustrated with the 
the stereopticon, by Congressman E. J. Hill of Norwalk. He 
certainly needs no introduction to this audience. I take pleas- 
ure in calling upon him. 


NOLES ON. DRIP AROUND: FEAR WORLD.” 
(From an Informal Talk) 
By Hon. E. J. Hitt of Norwalk. 


Illustrated by Stereoscopic Views. 


On Saturday March 23, 1901, I started with a friend upon 
a trip around the world. We left Jersey City for Chicago on 


88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jane 


a bright, pleasant day, and next morning found ourselves speed- 
ing across Central Ohio and through the gas belt of Indiana, 
and so on to Chicago. The next morning found us in Omaha, 
where we were temporarily delayed by a severe snow storm, 
but the delay was short, and the morning of the third day found 
us crossing the splendid grazing country of western Nebraska. 
The morning of the 27th of March witnessed our arrival in 
Salt Lake City, where we made a short stop. We visited Fort 
Douglass, which is situated on a plateau at the base of the 
Uintah Mountains at the outlet of the gulch through which 
Brigham Young and his people marched into the modern Zion. 
The view from the fort is beautiful, the mountain-rimmed val- 
ley showing up in all its glory. It is little wonder that Young 
concluded that he had found the promised land. On the day 
that we were there the whole circle of mountains was glistening 
white in the clear sunlight, and with the lake in the distance, 
the farms to the south, and the city in the foreground, it made 
a fine picture. The mountain streams have been tapped and 
the alkali plains turned into a garden. We visited the Mormon 
Tabernacle, Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution, the Lion 
House and the Beehive, where we had an audience with Presi- 
dent Snow. 

After a very agreeable day we started west the next morn- 
ing, and with a varied and uneventful trip arrived in San Fran- 
cisco on April Ist. The next day we boarded the Steamer 
Buford and started on our ocean voyage to the Orient. We 
reached Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, on April oth, and 
as we were Sailing along over a smooth sea we could see Molo- 
kai. It looks like an extinct volcano in the distance. In the 
center of the island there is a broad yellow band, which indi- 
cated where the sand hills lie. After we arrived at Honolulu, 
and after inspection by a quarantine officer we were told that 
cabin passengers were free to go and come at will. We landed, 
and meeting friends were taken to the heights back of the city, 
called the “ Punch Bowl,” where a magnificent view of the city 
and harbor and ocean is given. Honolulu lies upon a flat at the 
foot of the mountains. The streets are wide and straight, and 
the general impression which one receives of it is very favor- 
able. The growth and progress of the city since the islands 
were annexed to the United States have been great. The won- 
derful profusion of flowers in all the yards makes the residence 
sections look very attractive. 


No 1 PARLIAMENT BUILDING, HONOLULU 


No 2 HONOLULU HARBOR 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 89 


Many new buildings are being erected, including hotels 
and fine residences, and the outlook for the prosperity of the 
islands is good. 

We paid a visit to Governor Dole, also visited the House 
and Senate, and were much amused at the procedure in two 
languages. 

(Photograph No. 1.) 

Both houses have many members who speak only Hawaiian, 
and everything must be done twice through an interpreter in 
order that each side may know what the speakers upon the 
other side are saying. The session of sixty days is thus prac- 
tically changed into one of thirty days. At the time we were 
there, only eighteen days remained, and but four bills had been 
passed. 

The city is wealthy, and is clearly a delightful place in 
which to live. The harbor is small, but the crowd of shipping 
from all parts of the world was highly indicative of the pros- 
perity of the place. 

(Photograph No. 2.) 

We made a visit to a new hotel, called The Moana House, 
at Waikiki Beach. It is a fine structure and worthy of any 
watering place. The beach is superb, and altogether it is a 
delightful place to enjoy a vacation. The next day we drove 
to the Pali. The word means precipice, but this is The Pali or 
the greatest of all. The government has built a splendid road 
up the cafion. The valley gradually narrows, being shut in 
by the precipitous sides of the mountains until at a point about 
five miles from the city, and about two thousand feet above it, 
we came to a sheer drop of 1,200 feet, and before us was spread 
out the whole windward side of the island and a vast expanse 
of ocean. The opening between the mountains is not more 
than two or three hundred feet, and on the quietest day the 
wind sweeps through this funnel at a terrific rate. The view is 
superb. 

The next day we took cars and visited a large sugar planta- 
tion on the north side of the island, 55 miles away. The ride 
around Pearl Harbor and along the ocean beach was very 
interesting. We found cane cutting going on and the sugar 
mill in full operation. The daily produce from that one 
plantation is about 100 tons of sugar. The plantation consists 
of about 25,000 acres, 11,000 of which are tillable, the balance 


rere) BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


mountainous and used to control the water supply for irrigation 
purposes. About 5,000 acres are now under cultivation, and 
more being prepared. The plantation reaches for 15 miles 
along the coast, and constitutes a little community by itself, 
with a population of about 2,000 persons, having their own 
stores, shops, scientists, chemists, surveyors, and engineers. 

Leaving Honolulu on April 12th, after an uneventful voy- 
age, we arrived off Guam on April 2oth. A launch from the 
naval collier “ Justine’ came and took us ashore. We found 
that Governor Schroeder had gone to Agana, but Mrs. Schroe- 
der and her children and governess were camping on the beach 
in a board house and tents. 

(Photograph No. 3.) 

She sent us in a carriage to the Presidio, where we visited 
the Filipino prisoners. We saw and talked with Mabini, Pio 
del Pilar, Ricarti, and others. We found them well taken care 
of, and they said they had no complaint to make of their food, 
accommodations, or treatment. We told Mabini that Aguinaldo 
was captured. He-said, “I am glad. Now we shall have 
peace.” As the news was whispered around it seemed to me 
that the faces of the prisoners indicated satisfaction rather than 
regret. 

Here, for the first time on our trip, we saw water buffalo, 
carts with solid wooden wheels, houses with thatch of palm 
leaves, and nipa, and all the peculiar characteristics of the 
tropical life among the natives. 

(Photographs Nos. 4 and 5.) 

The island is about 29 miles long, and from 6 to 10 wide. 
The population is about 9,000. It can be made useful to us 
as a coaling station and cable relay, but aside from that is of 
comparatively little value. 

On Wednesday, May Ist, we found ourselves in Bernadino 
Straits, with the island of Luzon due north, and the splendid 
ash cone of the Mayon volcano smoking away in plain sight. 
Flying fish and porpoises abounded upon all sides, and the sail 
through the inland waters was very interesting and attractive 
after the monotony of our sea voyage. Early next morning, 
upon going out upon the deck of the Buford, I saw the flash 
lights of Corregidor right abreast of us as our ship was entering 
Manila Bay. All large ships in Manila harbor anchor about 
two miles from shore, and are loaded and discharged from 
cascoes or large canal boats. 


fd 


: hat ; 


Sg 
areas 


No 4 A HOUSE IN GUAM 


No 5 THE GUAM EXPRESS 


ay AMAL 


No 6 PASIG RIVER, MANILA 


No 7 STREET SCENE, MANILA 


/ 


No 8 STREET SCENE, MANILA 


‘ 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD 


eS QI 

(Photograph No. 6.) . 

These boats are poled by the natives, who live with their 
whole families in a little cubby-hole on the stern. The boats 
are covered with bamboo matting along the sides and half way 
down to the water a bamboo platform is built, about 18 inches 
wide, on which the men walk from bow to stern and push the 
boat with poles. There were hundreds of these boats to be 
seen, and thousands of people were living upon them. The 
government hires them at $3.00, Mexican, per day, for the boat 
with the crew, men, women, and children thrown in. 

Passing up by the Lunetta and the walled city, we entered 
the Passig River. It would be difficult to find a busier place. 
The commerce of the place is enormous. I counted two ocean 
steamers at the wharves in one little contracted spot, and hun- 
dreds of tugs, barges, cascoes, and small boats. Manila lies at 
the southern end of an enormous bay, and a few miles east of 
it is the Laguna, a large fresh-water lake, connected with it by 
the Passig River. The land for miles around is almost perfectly 
flat, having a great depth of soil, very rich, densely populated, 
and producing enormously of rice and sugar. 

Manila is a city of about 250,000 people. In fact it is really 
two cities, one city within and the other city without the walls. 
The Spaniards long ago built regular walls, moats, draw- 
bridges, and forts, and must have spent millions in this work. 
Within the walls are the government buildings and official resi- 
dences, and some business as well as residence buildings, but 
the high walls towering up for about 25 feet shut off the sea 
breezes, and make it a very hot place. Outside is an area of 
open ground, used for gun ranges, and then comes the modern 
city, stretching along the bay and up both sides of the Passig 
River, and around to the bay shore to the south and west of the 
walled city. This latter section is called the Lunetta, and here 
the bands play at night and all Manila turns out for a drive and 
relief in the sea breezes from the scalding heat of the day. 

(Photograph No. 7.) 

We put up at the Hotel Orienta. It was said to be the best, 
but if so I do not know what the others can be. The beds, like 
all here, are made of splendidly carved native mahogany, with 
woven bamboo, like the cane seat of a chair, in place of a mat- 
tress. On this is a piece of grass cloth, and a sheet over all. 
They are as hard as a board, and it would seem as though the 


92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 
people must develop ossified hips from their use. Possibly 
there is some connection between these bamboo hard beds and 
the prevailing custom of carrying the babies here astride of 
either hip, instead of in the arms or on the back as most mothers 
do elsewhere. Mosquito nets are necessary. The insect is 
small, does not sing, but is present everywhere, and a vora- 
cious biter. The streets are fairly wide and clean. There are 
about 55,000 Chinamen there, and they constitute the workers, 
servants, and shop keepers of the city. They are industrious, 
active, and shrewd, and constitute a very important element of 
the population. It is amazing to see the great loads which 
some of them carry hung from bamboo sticks, balanced across 
the shoulders. 

(Photograph No. 8.) 

One street, for several blocks, is lined on each side with lit- 
tle shops about the width of an ordinary window. Chinese 
women sell drygoods. The goods are piled up on each side 
of them, and they sit in .the middle for business. At midday 
a canvas is suspended from awnings at the curb to shut off the 
heat of the sun, and the whole thing looks like a toy shop. 

Of course, everybody there rides when they can, as it is too 
hot to walk. The cab and street service of the city is miser- 
able. 

(Photograph No. 9.) 

Most of the buildings are of stucco or hard wood, with the 
floors in mahogany or tile. Ants eat up everything else, and 
the cockroaches take what they leave. 

Outside of the city, in the outskirts, and in the poorer quar- 
ters, the houses are nothing but huts, made of bamboo, and 
thatched with nipa. They are built from six to ten feet above 
the ground, and have good ventilation if lacking in other things. 
Everything is subordinated to coolness, and life is hardly 
worth living then. <A shirt worn with the tail out and a pair of 
pants is the prevailing costume. Sometimes the shirt is of lace, 
but it is worn the same way. 

The people, as a whole, are small, with splendid coal black 
hair, dark brown skin, small features, and little hands and feet. 
They appear to have few wants and apparently no ambitions. 
As a rule they are clean, but know little of sanitary regulations. 
They are, of course, ignorant. An officer told me of one town 
of 5,000 people where an attempt was made to establish local 


Nog THE CARABAO EXPRESS, MANILA 


No 10 ON CARS TO DAGUPAN 


No 11 CALUMPIT ON DAGUPAN R. R. 


No 13 DAGUPAN MARKET 


No 144 DAGUPAN MARKET 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 93 


government. The right of suffrage was given to all who had 
held office under Spain, together with those who could read and 
write and had five hundred dollars’ worth of property, and even 
under those conditions they could only find 28 voters. 

We made a visit to Dagupan, and on the way passed up 
through the region where Lawton and McArthur carried on 
their campaign against the Filipinos. 

(Photograph No. 10.) 

We found a splendid farming country, furrowed with the 
little dykes and low terraces of the rice fields. The houses 
are almost all bamboo and covered with nipa thatch, perched 
on poles and raised from six to twelve feet from the ground, 
presenting a curious sight. 

(Photograph No. 11.) 

Most of the towns along the route had been burned to pre- 
vent their giving shelter to the Americans. Rice and sugar are 
the prevailing crops in this section. Timber is very scarce, 
and fuel dear. The city of Dagupan and the outlying barrios 
include about 30,000 people. It was a curious sight to visit the 
market. They have two market days each week, and I pre- 
sume there were fully 2,000 people who had come in from 20 
miles around to swap their wares and the products of their 
labor. Bolos, hats, sugar, fish, meats, vegetables, and every 
conceivable thing were bartered, exchanged, or sold. 

(Photographs Nos. 12, 13, and 14.) 

On our return to Manila our attention was called to the ant 
hills. They are a curious feature of the landscape. In places, 
as far as one could see, the fields looked as if filled with hay- 
cocks standing higher than a man. Ants are masters of the 
situation here, eating up everything, timber and even lead pipe, 
and, of course, food of all kinds. Bananas, mangoes, and 
cocoanuts are the staple fruits in that region, together with a 
kind of pear called a chico. 

(Photograph No. 15.) 

Before leaving for Japan we paid a visit to Cavite, where 
we saw the wrecks of the Spanish ships which were sunk by 
Dewey’s fleet. 

Our next stopping place was Nagasaki. It was a genuine 
relief to board the steamer and enjoy once more good beds and 
the comforts and luxuries which we missed while in Manila. 
As we sailed into Nagasaki harbor the steamer was almost 


94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


instantly surrounded by hundreds of sampans. They are small 
boats, that are quite wide, and have a little cabin on them. The 
Japanese handle them very skillfully. 

We went ashore, called on the American Consul, and then 
took a jinricksha and rode about the city. A jinricksha is a 
large-sized, two-wheeled baby carriage, drawn by a man. It 
is wonderful how strong these men are, and how handily they 
get about with these vehicles. One amusing thing to me was 
the serious, sedate countenances which the children seemed to 
have. I say “seemed,” for on every conceivable occasion they 
break into laughter, and old and young all appeared to be a 
polite, agreeable people. The women are strong and vigorous, 
better looking than the Filipinos. The people are clean, and 
the women have splendid jet black hair, which they do up most 
elaborately and curiously. Men and women work alike, as 
boatmen, coal passers, and in the fields, as well as everywhere 
else. It was a wonderful sight to see them coaling the ships. 
There must have been three or four hundred, of all ages and 
both sexes, at work on the “Sumner.” Six lighters were 
ranged alongside, and forming in rows they passed the coal up 
in little baskets, holding about twenty pounds each, and there 
was a constant string of them coming up all the time. It was 
a human elevator. 

(Photographs Nos. 16 and 17.) 

I saw a pile-driver operated by hand. About fifty women 
sat in a circle, each with a rope run over a roller overhead. 
At a signal all pull together, and up came the big iron hammer 
and then dropped on the pile. Pretty much everything is done 
by hand there. The shops all open on the front, and the work 
can be seen going on in plain sight. We saw needles being 
made by hand, and many other curious operations. It was 
very interesting to watch their processes, all the reverse of ours. 
Even a carpenter’s plane is drawn towards one, instead of being 
pushed away as ours is. 

Upon another occasion we went ashore and calling on Mr. 
Harris, the American Consul, he went with us to visit the 
Shinto Temple. This temple was built 600 years ago, and con- 
tains the famous bronze horse brought from India. From the 
location of the temple a magnificent view of the city and har- 
bor was had. That same day we started with ’rickshas and 
extra push men over the mountains for Moge, a little fishing 


No 16 COALING SHIP, NAGASAKI 


uma hits sonia 
3 IG Tj 3 P benches OF 


No 18 JAPANESE HILLSIDE 


4 tues er 


re: i aes 
A NS ra a fits Dh Fa 


eer 


No 19 ON PEKIN R. R. CHINES 


No 20 PEKIN R. R. WAYSIDE HOTEL 


< 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 95 


village three miles away. , It was particularly interesting to 
notice how the people have terraced and utilized every inch of 
ground. The steep side hills are built up with stone walls and 
made into little spots where rice, wheat, and barley, potatoes, 
beans, and all kinds of vegetables are grown. The industry of 
the Japanese is remarkable. They work hard, live on very 
little, and sleep on a mat on the floor. 

(Photograph No. 18.) 

On the way to Moge we stopped at the Japanese school, and 
although the school had just been let out we found a lot of 
children playing and the teachers weighing and measuring 
the new scholars who had come in that day. Each one is 
weighed and measured in every way for identification, and then 
given a brass tag so that they will know themselves and be 
known by others. 

From Nagasaki we journeyed to Taku, up along the coast 
of Korea and across the Yellow Sea. When we reached the 
place we found it to be a city of mud huts. Row upon row of 
mud huts with a single two-story wooden hotel, constituting 
our first view of that Chinese town. It is simply awful how 
human beings can exist in the way they apparently do in that 
place. Passing up the river between crowds of junks, steam- 
ers and sailing vessels, we came to Tangku. There was no 
hotel, no food, and no place to get either. We were advised to 
apply on board the United States ship “ Monocacy,” which 
was lying in the stream. We made a descent on her and were 
cordially received by Lieutenant Ryan and Captain Wise, 
who gave us staterooms and beds for the night. We were 
heartily glad to sleep again under the American flag. The 
next morning we took the train for Peking. 

(Photograph No. 19.) 

The whole country between Tangku and Peking is as flat 
as a board, except for the millions of graves and tombs. They 
look much like the ant hills in Luzon. As far as the eye can 
see the country adjacent to the large towns is dotted with these 
tumuli. Each year the living enlarge the mounds of those gone 
before. China is an immense graveyard. The mounds are to 
be seen in most inopportune places. I saw several in the 
busiest streets of Peking. On our journey up we saw many 
signs of the destruction wrought during the Boxer uprising. 
We passed through Tientsin, which seemed to be quite a pre- 


96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


sentable city of a million people. The country through which 
we passed was splendidly tilled, everything agricultural looking 
finely. 

(Photograph No. 20.) 

The whole country is a garden, and most of it made so as 
the result of hard labor. There were plenty of mules, and yet 
many ploughs were drawn by men. 

At 3 p. M. that day our train ran through a breach in the 
wall of Peking, stopped in an open space between the Temple 
of Heaven and the Temple of Agriculture. A howling mob 
of ’ricksha men captured our party and took us to the “ Hotel 
du Nord,” which we found fully occupied, but at the American 
Legation we met the Rev. Gilbert Reid, who kindly provided 
for us at a Chinese residence, which he was temporarily occu- 
pying. 

(Photograph No. 21.) 

Our beds were curious. They were of stone, built up about 
eighteen inches and reaching entirely across the end of the 
room. Midway a door opened under the stone mattress, and 
there was a long oven where a fire was built to warm the bed. 
In winter one side of the sleeper is roasted, while the other 
freezes. This couch is called a kang. On it is spread a mat, 
and here a whole Chinese family is accustomed to sleep. For 
four days we did Peking. Bumped about its horrible streets 
and choked in its blinding, ill-smelling dust. We visited the 
Temple of Heaven and the Llama Temple where the worship 
of Buddha is maintained. The Temple of Heaven is a large 
walled area, with walls within walls, and in the central area is 
the Holy of Holies. None of the outer buildings are remarka- 
ble, and all showed signs of decay. The Temple of Heaven, 
where once a year the Emperor goes to pray, is a splendid 
pagoda, three or more stories high, round and tapering to a 
large ball or globe at the top. The brilliant blue tile and the 
bright-colored intricate wood work of the cornices, and the 
harmonious proportions of the whole structure, make it very 
grand. It stands on a series of marble terraces, built in circles 
and raised to the level of the colonnade. This is fully half 
a mile long, and I should say three or four hundred feet wide. 
Chinese architecture, as a rule, is cheap and tawdry. 

(Photograph No. 22.) 

The Llama Temple is a repetition of a Chinese house on a 


No 2x SHINTO TEMPLE AT TOKIO 


No zt DR. REID’S RESIDENCE 


No 22 TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKIN 


gt wrk, wie 


i “ET ee damimaiiinil 


No 23 SUMMER PALACE 


e ae me 


No 24 MARBLE BOAT SUMMER PALACE 


No 25 FORBIDDEN CITY 
In Emperor’s Palace 


No 27 CHINESE LOCOMOTIVE 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 97 


large scale. It is filled with all kinds of gods. There were 
400 of them in one receptacle, and the chief glory is a wooden 
image, at least sixty feet high and ten or twelve feet in diam- 
eter, and about as hideous as it could be made. 

We saw a Buddhist Bible there. It consists of 180 vol- 
umes and there is at least a ton of the book. There were 400 
priests at this temple. 

We made a visit to the summer palaces in the country, 12 
miles out of Peking. A stone road runs the whole distance, 
being about 20 feet wide and perfectly level, and built of heavy 
flat stone like our flagging, and heavily curbed on each side. 
A large artificial lake has been constructed at the foot of a 
precipitous mountain, and part way around this lake and up 
the face of the mountain are the buildings and enclosures of the 
summer palace. A fine covered walk runs along the edge of 
the lake. Flowers and plants, odd rock work, and bronze 
ornaments meet the eye. Every rafter of this long covered 
way is hand-painted on both sides, showing scenes in the 
history of the empire and views of palaces and charming nat- 
ural scenery in the various provinces. 

(Photograph No. 23.) 

All of the tile roofs here are of gold color, and the balus- 
trades and staircases to each building up the mountain side are 
of green and gold. The effect is very fine. The view from the 
top, out over the lake, gardens, and the vast expanse of a 
perfectly flat country, is very novel and interesting. Just 
beyond the palace is what is called the marble boat. This is a 
full-sized river steamboat, built wholly of marble. 

(Photograph No. 24.) 

We made a visit to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden 
City is walled within the Tartar city, and, like the others, is 
a series of courts beyond courts, temples behind temples, big 
reception halls and little ones, according to the degree of impor- 
tance attached to the ceremony. The Acme or highest throne 
is here. It is an ordinary gilt framed sofa, with seats for two. 
I sat upon the throne. We visited the private apartments of 
the Emperor and Empress Dowager, and the gardens of the 
palace, and found them very interesting. 

(Photographs Nos. 25, 26, and 27.) 

From Peking we went back to Nagasaki in Japan, and from 
there went to Takeo, famous for its hot baths, and tried them. 


AcR.—7 


98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


From there we went to Moji, a great coal depot, with a fine 
harbor, and from there to Kobe and Osaka. In Osaka we 
visited the Satsuma ware painting shop and bronze factory 
warehouse. All of the so-called factories which we saw in 
Japan are very small, having perhaps five or six men at work 
in an upper room. At a foundry and machine shop there we 
found more of a factory than we had seen anywhere before. 
Cast iron pipes, screw jacks, blacksmiths’ supplies, and iron 
work generally was being made. We also visited the mint. 

From Osaka we went to Kyoto and visited the Temple of 
Buddha. The place is full of temples. We visited many shops 
and were surprised to find most of the fine embroidery was 
made by men. 

From there we went to Narra, the site of one of the princi- 
pal Buddhist and Shinto temples in Japan. The approaches 
to the shrine are by stone steps, and the path, leading through 
splendid woods, is lined on each side by hundreds of square 
stone ornamented pillars with stone lanterns on top. When 
lighted the scene must be magnificent. We saw the sacred 
white horse, and fed the sacred fish at the pond. 

That evening we started for Yokohama. There we called 
upon the American Consul, purchased some photographs, and 
made acquaintances with the American colony. 

From Yokohama we went to Tokio, obtained our mail at 
the American Embassy, lunched at the Metropole Hotel, and 
then journeyed to Nikko. The country, like all Japan which 
we saw, was filled to the last inch. 

(Photograph No. 28.) 

Wherever irrigation is practicable rice is raised, but where 
the country is dry or water scarce, wheat, barley, and other 
vegetables are grown. The Kegan waterfall is an exceed- 
ingly beautiful sight. It is formed by the outflow of Lake 
Chusenji into a deep gorge, and the main waterfall is rein- 
forced half way down by little falls made by seepage of the 
lake through the rocks. We made the journey in jinrickshas. 
The scenery was delightful all the way, and the lake is a gem 
in the mountain tops. 

We went back to Tokio (Photographs Nos. 31 and 32), 
visited and lunched at the American Embassy, went through 
the House of Representatives and House of Peers, visited an 
iris garden (Photographs Nos. 29 and 30), some of the tem- 


en 07 Sata TONE aE 
“abcine > IP 


No 28 RICE FIELDS, JAPAN 


No 2g IRIS: GARDEN, TOKIO 


No 32 OSAXA DISTRICT, TOKIO 
Theatre in temple grounds 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 99 


ples, and after having our passports viséd by the Russian 
Minister and obtaining letters from him to the governors of 
various Russian provinces, started on our journey to Siberia. 

We left Kobe on the Japanese steamer “Rosetta Maru” for 
a trip down the inland sea to Nagasaki. The sea seemed to be 
as densely populated as the land. Lobster boats, junks, schoon- 
ers, and fishing craft were on every side. After having spent 
about three weeks in Japan, traveling by rail most of the time, I 
had found my anticipations of seeing much beautiful scenery 
wholly unrealized, but it all came back to me on that delight- 
ful trip through the inland sea. Alaska and Norway cannot 
compare with this part of the trip, for in addition to the count- 
less islands, of all shapes and sizes, the channels are filled with 
steamers, schooners, junks, fishing boats, and the terraces and 
slopes on the mountains, and the numerous villages and cities, 
give an odd feature here, which neither of the other countries 
have. A blue sky and a bright sun made the trip a charming 
one, and I went to bed that night feeling that another gem from 
the world’s scenic treasures had been added to my collection. 
We left Kobe that night, and after a rough trip found our 
steamer, the “ Borea,’ in Nagasaki harbor. The steamer, 
however, was not very satisfactory, and we concluded to wait 
a week for a larger and better boat. While waiting we paid 
a visit to the United States man of war “ Kentucky,” and 
lunched with the admiral. The following Sunday we went to 
the English church, which, after a long hot climb, we found 
on the hill back of the American Legation. The missionary 
question in Japan is a much discussed and never settled one. 
The American Consul’s servants were nominally Christians, 
They dedicated their boy to Shintoism. His interpreter when 
educated declared himself to be a Buddhist. The English 
Consul’s interpreter was a Methodist, Dutch Reform, and 
Catholic all at once. 

After waiting several days we left Japan for new experi- 
ences in Korea and Russia. Our first destination was the 
harbor of Fusan. All of the Korean town which was visible 
consisted apparently of mud huts, like the Chinese houses of 
Taku. Owing to the lack of transportation facilities we were 
not able to see much of the city. We left Fusan in the most 
cosmopolitan company with which I ever sailed. It consisted 
of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Danes, English, Americans, 


100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Turks, Scotch, French, Russians, and some whose nationality 
was unknown. We sailed up the Japan Sea in plain sight of 
the coast of Korea. Many whales were spouting around the 
ship. After a delightful day’s sail we reached Gensan, but 
too late to go ashore. Gensan has a fine harbor, well pro- 
tected, and with good anchorage. 

(Photograph No. 32%.) 

The Japanese were in possession, and have evidently gone 
there to stay. The next morning we took a sampan and went 
ashore, walked through the Japanese concession, and crossing 
a primitive bridge went through the Korean town. 

(Photograph No. 33.) 

It consists of one long street, lined on both sides by miser- 
able little one-story mud huts, without floors, and horribly 
dirty and ill-smelling. Why a people living amid this filth 
should clothe themselves in white, I do not understand. The 
women wear sleeves and neck pieces, leaving their bosoms 
exposed, and then a white skirt below. 

(Photograph No. 34.) 

The men wear long white coats and full pants, and wooden 
or grass-cloth shoes, with white cloth bound about the ankles, 
in place of stockings. This, with a little black stiff hat, set on 
a head frame, makes a queer costume. The men are large and 
generally good looking, while the women are small and homely. 

(Photograph No. 35.) 

The country about Gensan seemed to be well cultivated. 

From Gensan we went to Vladivostok. The entrance to 
the harbor of Vladivostok somewhat resembles the Golden Gate 
at San Francisco. The city is fortified from every hilltop. 
The harbor is a splendid one, with abundant room and deep 
water. The city appeared to be perfectly new, brick buildings 
abounding, and the change from mud huts and one-story 
thatched roofs which we had been seeing for two months, was 
very agreeable. Upon landing we found that our impression of 
the city when viewed from a distance was entirely correct. The 
buildings are all new, constructed of brick and stone, ranging 
from three to four stories in height, and are well designed and 
substantial. The city has good wharves, parks, wide streets, 
a new railroad station, fine steamship lines, and is evidently 
well prepared to exercise a large influence in the future of the 
Orient. 


No 32% COREAN GROUP ON JAPANESE CONCESSION, GEUSAN 


No 33 COREAN EXPRESS, GEUSAN, COREA 


2. ye ; 


No 35 COREANS ON SHIP 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” IOI 


We called upon the governor. In the evening we went to 
the opera and enjoyed a very creditable entertainment. When 
we went to bed our sheets and blankets came into play, for all 
travelers carry their own bedding in Siberia. . Candles, water, 
and everything were charged extra, and our bill for one day 
came to $4.25 each. 

At noon, July 4th, we started on our journey across the 
continent. Very soon after leaving the borders of Amur Bay 
the railroad enters the valley of a river, and judging by the soil, 
grass, flowers, and general appearance, we seemed to be trans- 
ported into a rich river valley of our own west. We occasion- 
ally passed thriving villages, and prosperous looking farms 
were noticed frequently. As we journeyed north the country 
improved, disclosing magnificent stretches of well-watered prai- 
ries, wheat farms, large herds of cattle, and fine grass. The 
towns, as a rule, are located some considerable distances from 
the stations. - The depots are well-built pretty wooden cottages, 
and in each town on the highest point the domes of the Russian 
churches were seen. As we continued to journey north the 
country changed. Much heavy timber was to be seen. A 
train of cars loaded with 3 by 10 white pine timber indicated 
pine trees somewhere, and a profusion of gnats, mosquitoes, 
and flies told of near-by forests. 

When we reached Khabarosk, on the Amur River, we 
wondered whether we could get a boat. We found, however, 
that the governor at Vladivostok had telegraphed the chief of 
police to arrange for us. We were taken to the best hotel and 
informed that a cabin for two had been reserved on the mail 
steamer sailing the next day. 

We called on General Grodekoff, and he offered to tele- 
graph ahead for the boat at Blagovestchenk. 

The city of Khabarosk has wide straight streets, spread 
over the high bluffs, and the principal part of it looks down 
on the River Amur, which at that point is about a mile and 
a half wide. 

We sailed on the mail steamer the next day, and during the 
following night one of the iron barges, which were being towed 
astern, swerved and ran into the bank. The second one ran 
into it and rammed it so hard that its back was evidently 
broken. We were obliged to tie up to the bank while the 
barge was being unloaded. We were able, however, to make 


102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


better speed without it. The Amur is a wonderful river. 
More than a mile wide, it is like a great lake. It flows through 
prairie country, a splendid tillable land, which some day will 
raise a large part of the world’s wheat supply. The Amur 
River is the boundary between Russia in Asia and China. 
China on the south and Russia on the north. It is a splendid 
country. Mountains are occasionally seen in the distance, but 
for the most part it is prairie, and the river banks show at 
least ten feet of soil. 

(Photograph No. 36.) 

At a small village we passed we found a crowd of women 
at the gangplank selling strawberries. 

(Photograph No. 37.) 

I bought two quarts for 40 kopecks, or 20 cents of our 
money. We had to take on wood frequently, and as it was all 
carried on board by hand from woodpiles high up on the river 
bank, our progress was very slow. 

(Photograph No. 38.) 

As we passed through the Kingan Mountain section the 
scenery on the river became very fine. At one of our stopping 
places we took on board a correspondent of a Paris journal, 
who was racing around the world with a representative of 
another Paris journal, one going east and the other west. 

During the trip to Blagovestchenk we frequently ran 
aground and were delayed by having to tie up at the bank and 
take on wood. Upon our arrival at the city we found it to be 
constructed of good buildings, and to possess wide streets and 
good stores. After leaving Blagovestchenk we had the same 
sort of experiences as before, our boat frequently running 
aground, but we had the consolation of finding other vessels 
and steamers on the river in the same predicament. Traveling 
on the Amur in low water is not pleasant. The insects infest- 
ing that country were very annoying. We were especially 
tormented by enormous horse flies, fully an inch long. One 
of the most interesting things in natural scenery that we found 
upon the trip was the so-called White Mountains, or Tsaigon 
Mountains I think they are called. They are uneven hills of 
sand rock, several hundred feet high, which bordered the river, 
and which are continually breaking off and wearing away. 
The strata and layers visible seemed to be on fire. The smoke 
is visible in points in the day, and it is said the fire is seen in 


No 36 WAITING FOR WATER TO RISE ON THE AMUR 


No 38 WOOD YARD, AMUR RIVER 


ee a me ve > et 


No 39 POVROSK, AMUR, AND SHILKU RIVER JUNCTION 


‘ip a 


=) ; 
_ 
j eo: . 

"4 , . 

Fi i 

+ 
‘ ! 
i 
; 
‘ 
a = ° ‘ 
7 . 
‘at 
ri 
‘ 
a 
- ' 
= 
ry *: 7 = 
Fo > s " 
* 
of - . spt 
7 be 
- 
‘ 7 - 
~ i) 
: < i * 
. 
7 . x 
E 5a nt en 
‘ 
. 
La = 
— 

» 


No 40 A BUSINESS CORNER IN STRETENSK 


No 4x MUSEUM, IRKUTSK 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 103 


the night. I think it is a discoloration from hot springs, which 
exude vapor, and that instead of coal it is a brown earth like 
the mud springs of the Yellowstone. 

At Povrosk, which is at the junction of the Chilka and 
Aigoun Rivers, we took the Chilka. 

(Photograph No. 39.) 

The character of the country through which we had passed 
can be somewhat judged by the fact that we had sailed for 
nearly 1,200 miles on the Amur River without having seen a 
single waterfall on either bank. The Chilka proved to be 
more picturesque than the Amur, the mountains being higher 
and the banks bolder. The river runs in a single course be- 

tween high banks, and the views are far reaching, and the 
' mountains, though not high, are beautiful. 

We finally arrived at Stretensk, where we were to resume 
our railroad journey westward. 

(Photograph No. 40.) 

The route is through the Valley of the Chilka and the 
Ingoda Rivers. The views are very pretty, and the country 
superb. Fine farms, excellent cattle, and good grazing. We 
had been told all day of a railroad accident ahead of us, and at 
half past two in the morning we were compelled to get up and 
dress and transfer around the débris. The wreck was on a 
high bank with steep rocks on one side and the river on the 
other, and with twelve carloads of people attempting to pass 
each other, all carrying beds and bundles, and all in a hurry, 
the scene in the moonlight can be imagined only. It was 
finally done, however, and we went to bed and slept till 
morning. 

Much of the country that we passed through appeared to be 
well adapted for farming purposes. The country was quite 
populous, villages being frequent, and the farms looked well 
and prosperous. We passed through one city (Tchita) of 
22,000 people, and that same evening we entered the Ablonai 
Mountains. At that point in Siberia the railroad runs along 
by a little river, which flows westward to Lake Baikal. The 
soil is light and sandy, and the prevailing trees are pine. This 
is the country of the Beuriats, a pastoral people, formerly 
Mongols, with the Chinese features, queue, and dress, except 
that they wear round hats with turned-up brims. The coun- 
try is fine. 


104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


When we reached Lake Baikal, after passing our baggage 
through the custom house, we went on board the steamer to 
cross the lake. The ice-breaker, used in winter for keeping the 
channel open, went out ahead of us with the baggage cars, 
while the passengers went on a smaller boat. Lake Baikal is 
a fine body of water, and is said to be about 50 miles wide and 
400 miles long. After crossing the lake we continued our 
journey to Irkutsk. 

(Photograph No. 41.) 

That is a city of about 35,000 people, situated on both sides 
of the Ungara River, and apparently in a flat country. The 
next day we went shopping and bought cigars, four English 
novels and some candy for use on the steppes. We visited the 
cathedral and museum in the morning, and in the evening con- 
tinued the journey. 

(Photograph No. 42.) 

The country after leaving Irkutsk is especially fine. All 
day long we rode through a splendid prairie country with just 
enough grade for good drainage. White birch abounded on 
both sides of the track, and dense pine forests could be seen a 
little further removed. Here and there was a small farm, and 
now and then a river. The country appeared like a paradise 
for farmers and cattle raisers. The forests are clean, no under- 
brush, but grass and ferns carpeting the ground under the 
trees. 

After leaving Irkutsk the country continued fine. Many 
undulating prairies could be seen, stretching as far as the eye 
could reach, with plenty of timber scattered about. I was 
surprised at the extent of cultivation there, and at the fre- 
quency and size of the towns. 

(Photograph No. 43.) 

The soil seemed to be very fertile, and the crops and 
grass excellent. As we continued our journey westward the 
country steadily improved in appearance, changing from a 
prairie country to fine rolling slopes. 

After leaving Omsk we came into a flat prairie country, 
where the soil looked rich and the grass thrifty and good. It 
is magnificent farming land. Every little while we saw herds 
of horses, cattle, and sheep grazing on the open prairie, and 
Tartar boys sitting on horseback watching them. In that sec- 
tion of Siberia the towns are larger than those we had seen 


a re See 


No 42 OPERA HOUSE, IRKUTSK 


No 43 A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 


po oe i a coe s oo : costes 


No 44 EUROPEAN RUSSIAN PEASANT VILLAGE 


No 45 KREMLIN, MOSCOW 


See 


Se ee 


Bey 
ee 
¢ 


att ee 


= 


Sela ae 


No 46 BIG BELL IN KREMLIN, MOSCOW: 


No 47 A BREWER’S RESIDENCE, MOSCOW 


1905. | NOTES ON “A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.” 105 


before, but less frequent. Still further west we passed into 
the country of the Khirgese. They are cattle raisers. The 
country in that section of Siberia is splendid, as fine as I ever 
saw. Lakes and large ponds abound, and in the absence of 
rivers they receive the drainage of the country. 

Continuing our journey westward an occasional pretty view 
could be seen from the car windows as we climbed up the east- 
ern slope of the Ural Mountains. We passed the boundary 
post marking the line between Europe and Asia, in the night, 
and in the morning ran down into the valleys of the western 
slope. In that section of the Ural Mountains there is nothing 
especially attractive about the scenery, but as we journeyed 
still further west we came into a splendid farming country, with 
the peasant villages and large estates, splendid farms and 
wretched huts, indicating wealth for the land owners and 
misery and poverty for the land workers. 

(Photograph No. 44.) 

Upon reaching Moscow we went to see the Kremlin and 
the churches there, also the “ Napoleon ” church, or Church of 
our Saviour. The latter is a new one, built to commemorate 
the French campaign. It is a beautiful building, and is said to 
be the finest church in Russia, but it is not to be compared with 
the cathedrals of Milan, Florence, Cologne, or even those in 
England. 

(Photographs Nos. 45 and 46.) 

We visited the Royal Palace (Photograph No. 50), where 
all of the emperors of Russia go to be crowned. It is a beau- 
tiful building. Since Peter the Great, St. Petersburg has been 
the capital, but the coronation ceremonies are held in Moscow. 
We visited many churches and museums, and among other 
sights drove out to Sparrow Hill, where Napoleon had his first 
view of Moscow. ‘The view of the city from there is a very 
fine one. 

(Photograph No. 47.) 

From Moscow we went to St. Petersburg (Photograph 
No. 48), visited the American Embassy, the Royal Art Gallery, 
the Monastery of Alexander, where we heard the monks sing- 
ing the service, also the curious cemetery connected with the 
monastery. We also drove through Alexander Park and the 
islands in the Neva, as well as visited the cathedral built by 
Peter the Great in the Peter and Paul Fortress, together with 


106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


the three-room cottage in which he lived. We visited the Gal- 
lery of Russian Art, went to the lace stores, the monuments of 
Catherine and Peter the Great, and finally to the palaces. 

(Photograph No. 49.) 

From St. Petersburg we passed by rail through Russia over 
the German frontier to Berlin, visiting many of the points of 
interest in Berlin. From there we went to Brussels, to London, 
where we spent a week in visiting the scenes of former 
experiences, including the National Gallery, St. Paul’s, West- 
minster, Blackwall Tunnel, Regent’s Park, the Zoological Gar- 
dens, the theaters, and many other points of interest. 

On Saturday, August 31st, we boarded the good ship 
“ Philadelphia,” and as we passed down the Solent the United 
States cruiser “‘ Dixie’ mustered her whole crew, and as our 
ship passed the bands played the “ Star Spangled Banner ” and 
“ Home, Sweet Home,” and with three hearty cheers sent after 
her the “ Philadelphia ” began her first voyage under her new 
name. 

After an uneventful trip we sailed into New York harbor, 
only to receive the awful news that McKinley had been shot, 
and the expressions of pleasure on reaching home were at once 
changed to those of sorrow and sadness. However, we 
reached home in safety, having circumnavigated the world in 
five months and fifteen days from the time of departure, visit- 
ing many strange countries, having been among many queer 
people, and seen many beautiful sights; but of them all none 
were so dear or so pleasant as New England and our own 
home in Norwalk, Conn. 

Music. 

Convention adjourned to Thursday, December 15th, at 
10.00 A. M. 


SECOND DAY — MORNING SESSION. 


December 15, 1904. 


The Presipent. The meeting will come to order. The 
first on our programme this morning is music. 


Music. 


The Presipent. Iam sure we are all very much interested 
in housekeeping. I suppose we could not help it very well. 


fn CHET 


pli 


mS ’ 


4 


No 48 BUSINESS CORNER, ST. PETERSBURG 


Baa 


Ht ARN hi: a od 


No 49 PETER THE GREAT MONUMENT, ST. PETERSBURG 


Dein 


Las 
Fo a ars 


. 


iH eo pile 3 ; ah 
cceepeidiaiaeadiiieate artes cart >* gases 


cate it , Se i 


a ibe iz + anes 


No 50 EMPEROR’S PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING. 107 


If you will look on the programme you will see that the first 
thing this morning is “ The Reserve Power in Housekeeping.” 
We have a lady here who, I think, will be able to interest us all 
in this subject. I have the pleasure of introducing Miss 
Martha Van Rensselaer of Cornell University. 


RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEFPING. 
By Miss Marta VAN RENSSELAER, 
Of Cornell University. 


Ladies and Gentlemen: I am really glad to see so many 
gentlemen in the audience, although it is not generally supposed 
that they are interested in housekeeping — though they cer- 
tainly are three times a day, and the women certainly are 
interested in having them take up the subject as a study, 
because they have an idea that if men built the kitchens, if the 
men worked in the kitchens, if the men stood at kitchen sinks, 
if the men stood over the stove, if the men threw out the dish 
water, and the men traveled up and down the cellar stairs, that 
the cellar stairs would be easier, that kitchen stoves would be 
higher, that the kitchen sinks would be suited to the height of 
the individual, that gas jets would be hung within reach of the 
people who have to light them, that steps would be taken out 
from between kitchen and dining-room, that refrigerators 
would be within easy reach, that ice would be upon the farm, 
that the water would be brought into the house as well as into 
the barn, and, in short, that the same economy of labor would 
be studied in the household that is now studied in other lines 
of work in which men are engaged. For that reason we do not 
regret that the men are here this morning to hear a simple talk 
upon “ Reserve Power in Housekeeping,’ for the men do 
build the houses, the men do plan the kitchens to some extent, 
and it is a very fortunate thing when a man says to his wife, 
“T want to know where to put this kitchen sink.” It is a very 
fortunate thing that he consults his wife in regard to the plans 
of the house, because she is the one who does the work, and 
because she seems to have an intuitive knowledge of how these 
things ought to be. I was not saying —I would not have you 
misunderstand me —I was not saying that I thought the men 
ought to work at the kitchen sink; I was not saying that I 


108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


thought they ought to do the cooking, although I think it would 
be well done if they did it, and I think perhaps the dishes would 
be well washed if they washed them. When men do things 
they generally do them pretty well. When they do learn how 
to cook beefsteak it is very appetizing, and if men planned the 
meals I am sure they would study rations for the family as 
they now study rations for cattle. I think it is a very fortunate 
thing, when an emergency occurs, that the men know how to 
do these things, and when it comes to training boys, I think I 
should have boys trained to do housework the same as girls 
are trained to do housework. Boys go away from home, boys 
are thrown upon their own resources; they go into the cities 
and into colleges, and very often board themselves. They very 
often have to darn their own stockings, and it is a very 
unfortunate thing when a boy is not trained in some of the 
arts of home-making, so that they can be a helpmeet as well 
as to have the wife a helpmeet. 

I have not come to you, I assure you, with any new ideas 
_ in regard to housework. I wish I had some new ideas, because 
I think we have certain problems in connection with house 
economy which it would be well to solve. I cannot tell you 
how to lead the girl to like housework so well that she will want 
to stay upon the farm instead of going to the city —1 cannot 
solve that problem entirely. I cannot tell you how to secure 
domestic service and have it well trained. I cannot tell you 
how to make girls like to do housework better than anything 
else, but I can suggest, perhaps, some of the old, old things; 
I can remind you of some things our mothers did — some things 
we know so well and yet which we do not practice and for 
that reason need to be reminded of over and over again. 

In the first place our houses are not always as convenient 
as they should be. I shall refer several times, perhaps, to our 
work in the University Extension in New York State, and for 
that reason I am going to take the liberty of giving you a little 
sketch of it in order that you may know something of the source 
of help and the information that I want to give you. We were 
having in New York State a reading course for the farmers, 
and nature studies for the children, and they said: Why not have 
something for the farmers’ wives? While the men are study- 
ing rations for cattle why should not the women study rations 
for men? While they are studying the conditions of the soil, 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING, 109 


and the culture of fruit, why not give the women a study which 
shall make thém better homekeepers? Then they said: You 
cannot, in a university, tell women how to do housework ; they 
are doing it every day, over and over again. They can make 
better doughnuts than you can, they can make better pies than 
you can. Nevertheless, we sent a letter to the women of the 
State, assuming that every farmer who was enrolled in the 
farmers’ reading course had a wife. We sent in that lesson to 
the farmer a letter to the farmer’s wife and said, “ Would you 
like a parallel course with that of your husband, in domestic 
economy?” About two thousand replies came saying, “ Yes, 
we want to study along those lines,’ and there came at once a 
large number of letters, because we had asked in that lesson, 
“Are there any ways by which you can save steps in the 
home?” We found we had touched upon the vital question ; 
that women were not asking for less work to do, but to be able 
to do more work, to conserve their strength in such a way that 
they might be able to accomplish more-work. They needed not 
a recipe for making doughnuts, they wanted to be in sympa- 
thetic touch with other people. The healthy woman upon the 
farm is not complaining of the drudgery, neither is she com- 
plaining because she has so much work to do, but the thing 
that wears upon her, and the reason, perhaps, why so many 
girls do not want to remain on the farm is on account of the 
monotony of the life. When you give them something to think 
about, when you lead them to look beyond the kitchen sink to 
the sunset, or, if necessary, to the sunrise; when you lead them 
to look beyond the kitchen work to the time which they. have 
for reading; when you lead them to become interested again 
in the music they had forgotten, to the book they had put upon 
‘the shelf, you bring them into touch with life and give them 
something to lift them out of the drudgery — the work doesn’t 
seem so much like drudgery. 

We began by asking about steps, steps that they were taking 
in the home. Several women wrote that they had been read- 
ing the lesson we had sent them upon saving steps to their hus- 
bands. In some cases the husbands objected and said, “ Don’t 
tell me about that; I am so driven I can’t talk about extra 
steps.’ On one occasion a man said, “ You are making some 
expense on my farm, but it is a good thing. I had to put ice 
in the house and bring water into the kitchen.” We found in 


IIO . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


the ten or twelve lessons or bulletins we have sent out that the 
lesson upon saving steps was perhaps the most vital and touched 
them in a way that other lessons have not. In many cases the 
houses are not convenient. A farmer doesn’t always consult 
an architect — perhaps fortunately, perhaps unfortunately — 
when he builds his house. He is very apt to make a house 
according to the custom which prevails, whereas an architect, 
or a person who is spending a good deal of time along that line, 
will study how to build a house with the most convenience ; he 
will study how to build a house in order to bring the furniture 
into the right place, and the doors into the right place. 

It is a very good problem for a woman to consider whether 
she is taking five steps to get to her cupboard when she might 
just as well move the cupboard and take only three. She 
begins to consider how many miles of travel she is taking in 
the course of a year. We asked them to make a mathematical 
calculation to determine how many miles of travel a woman 
would take in getting their meals —in determining how long 
it would take them to go around the world, traveling the dis- 
tance required to get around the world in doing their house- 
work. You will see that it was a good thing; it induced them 
to study wherein they might change conditions and bring their 
household furniture into lines so that they would not travel 
very far. One woman writes this: she said, “Ever since I 
have lived in this house I have made my bread in the kitchen ; 
I have traveled across the dining room, across the pantry, to 
get to my flour bin.” She said: ‘* My mother did it before me, 
and I have done it, and it never occurred to me, until we studied 
the lesson upon saving steps, to change the flour room, or bring 
the flour barrel into-some place within easy reach of the 
kitchen.”” A man wrote that he had found it very convenient 
to have water in the barn but it hadn’t occurred to him before 
that he might bring it into the kitchen, and save his wife’s time 
and strength by bringing that water where she could merely 
turn a faucet and have plenty of water for her kitchen work 
without having her travel across the veranda, down the steps, 
part way across the door yard, to the pump. 

They have also studied ways by which they can use their 
muscles to better advantage. It isn’t possible to change the 
height of the kitchen sink for every passing maid, but a man 
can at least change the height of it for his wife, for he doesn’t 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING. III 


change often enough so that there will be very great incon- 
venience in that respect. I have seen women working at 
kitchen sinks so low that they had to bend the back. No won- 
der that the spirit droops and she has very little courage, for 
three hours spent at a low kitchen sink is backaching work. 

Why is it that the hooks are put into the closet or about the 
room just a little higher than it is easy for a person to reach? 
Why is it that the gas jet is very often just beyond a woman’s 
reach? : 

There are simple changes which may be made about a house 
which will make it possible for a woman to keep her courage, 
keep her strength, and make her feel that housework is not real 
drudgery. 

Another bulletin which we sent out is on the subject of sav- 
ing strength. We have physical culture for women in the 
household. A woman very often says that she has no time to 
study physical culture, that that belongs to the women who are 
not busy, and to the women who haven’t very much exercise ; 
but the woman who has to do her household work from day to 
day is not using certain muscles that she ought to use. She is 
bringing the strain of her work tfpon the wrong muscles. I 
don’t know that very many women will care to go to school, 
but there are a few vital principles which she may study which 
will keep her in good health. She is not asking for less work 
to do, she is asking how to do the work she has better, so that 
she may be able to accomplish more without loss of strength 
and health. In the first place she does not stand always upon 
the balls of her feet in doing her work. If, as she stands at her 
table, she will study to see whether the weight is upon the heels 
or balls of the feet, it will be a wise conservation of strength. 
She can determine that by rising upon the balls of her feet 
occasionally. As she stands at her table doing her work, if 
she stands back upon her heels, abdomen forward, chest down, 
she will feel a constant sagging of her hips, a constant depres- 
sion which comes to every organ of her body, then a depres- 
sion to her mind which affects her whole being. Let her rise 
upon the balls of her feet, abdomen back, chest up. Let her 
say, “ Life is worth living.” She sees the bright side of life, 
courage comes, strength comes. An athlete works hard to 
keep his muscles strong. A woman should practice the same 
principles as an athlete, use her muscles, and she will become 


112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


stronger if she uses them in the right way, as does the athlete 
or the student of physical training, keeping her weight upon 
the balls of her feet, keeping her chest high and head high. If 
she is obliged to bend at her work, let her not get over it in this 
position (illustrating), which she has gotten in the habit of 
doing, but bend at the hips; that keeps the chest up. And if 
she is obliged to work at a table too low for her, or at a stove 
(and a stove is nearly always too low), or a sink too low, let 
her bend at the hips and keep her chest up. Working in this 
way there is no strain whatever upon the abdomen. Let the 
limbs perform the burden of the work; they contain no vital 
organs, therefore they cannot be injured. See that the weight 
is kept over the center of gravity, which will be over the balls 
of the feet. They become the base. In this way she will 
accomplish more, and she will find that she is gaining strength 
rather than losing it. 

She wants to reach, she finds she is obliged to. The shelves 
are high. Some women reach in this way, bringing the body 
away from the reach instead of with it. It is possible to keep 
the weight upon the balls of the feet, let the body go with it; 
that motion does not injure the person, does not bring a strain 
where this does. This brings a strain upon the back, upon the 
organs of the body which are not well suited for the strain, but 
bring the arm this way, let the body sway toward the place 
where one has to reach, and there are no bad effects. We 
often watch men at work and cannot help but notice that they 
use their bodies to rather better advantage than do women. 
If a man is sawing wood — we don’t see them sawing wood so 
very often nowadays, I don’t know but it has become a lost art 
— | have been looking for a man sawing wood for a long time 
to see how he did it, but I suspect he uses his arms. If a 
woman washes clothes she uses her back. She gets over her 
tub, her chest gets a little depressed, and she uses her back 
upon her work, bringing the strain upon the back, and says 
work is drudgery. It is hard work, indeed it is, but it is pos- 
sible with the weight forward upon the balls of the feet —I 
don’t mean she shall rise upon her toes in doing it, but keep 
the weight there, keep the chest up, use the arms as a man does 
when he saws wood, as a man does very often when he rows a 
boat. The great difficulty in a woman’s work is that she uses 
lier back while a man uses his limbs. Is it not a fact that a 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING. I1l3 


man is very apt to do things in the easiest way and a woman 
in the hardest way? When a man lifts he uses his limbs for it. 
When he lifts a bag of meal he uses his arms. If a woman 
has to lift a chair or to lift any burden, she is very apt to use 
her back. No wonder it is hard work. It isn’t difficult if one 
has strong arms — and the more we use them the stronger they 
become — to lift a chair with the arms. Let a woman try to lift 
a bag of meal, she doesn’t manage it perhaps very gracefully, 
but she can certainly gain strength and come to the point of lift- 
ing heavy loads if she will study how to lift. She ought never 
to try to lift with the weight upon the back of the heels. That 
is a very vital point, she should keep the weight forward and 
lift with the arms. 

I suppose that one of the things which women will always 
have to do is to pick up after the men and after the children, 
There are various ways of doing that. I suspect that the ordi- 
nary way, the one which we usually practice, is this (illustrates). 
No wonder we women when we do it think it is pretty hard to 
always keep picking up after folks. When I picked up that 
handkerchief I bent my back, brought the strain upon the back, 
but it is possible to keep the back from doing any work.  (Illus- 
trates again.) All the strain in that case is brought about the 
knees, and it wasn’t a difficult thing to do; I didn’t think to 
groan when I did it that time, for it was so easy. I think when 
a woman picks up that way she should be thankful that she has 
aman to pick up for. A great degree of courage goes with our 
work when the work doesn’t seem very hard. 

Washing clothes isn’t a very easy thing to do, scrubbing 
isn’t easy, but houses have to be scrubbed and clothes have to 
be washed, and a great many women nowadays are doing it in 
order to get it done and done the way they want it done. It 
isn’t easy to get hired help; that is, it isn’t always a possible 
thing to get someone who will come and do the work as you 
want it done. A great many women do their own housework, 
not because they cannot get help at all, but because they can’t 
get it done the way they want it done. We have to study sim- 
plicity, study how to do things in the easiest possible way ; then 
we can learn to scrub and sweep in a way that will give a great 
deal of personal comfort to the woman who is doing her own 
work, 

I don’t see a broom around here; it may not be necessary 


Acr.—8 


114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan:, 


to have a broom here, but I will use my arms so that you may 
see what I am doing. I can sweep in a way to bring a great 
deal of strain upon the back, and the woman who does that gets 
exceedingly tired. When aman sweeps he sweeps toward him, 
doesn’t he? Or I may be able to sweep so as to use my arms 
in doing it — I don’t suppose you would know what I am doing 
now. ‘There is no strain upon the back. It is possible to sweep 
for quite a long time, using the arms, and it is possible to get 
over and use our backs and become weary in a very short time; 
so in mopping, so in scrubbing. I suppose the very easiest way 
to scrub is to get down on our hands and knees. A foreign 
woman prefers to scrub by getting down on her hands and 
knees, and I can see the advantage of it to a great extent. She 
lets the weight of her body do part of the work. In getting 
over upon her hands and knees to scrub the weight of her body 
comes on the brush to some extent. If she takes the mop, 
she uses her back in such a way as to weary her in a very short 
time. You say it looks like hard work to clean a kitchen floor 
by getting down on one’s hands and knees. After all a great 
many do it in preference to using.a mop, simply because it is a 
conservation of strength to do it in that way, and she finds 
she doesn’t get so weary and perhaps she has better results. 

There are various things along that line that I might speak 
of in ordinary housework, but I think I have mentioned the 
general principles. 

Then there is the habit which we have of resting when we 
have hard work to do. Did you ever see a woman when she 
thinks there is no one around drop into an easy chair, pick up a 
paper and begin to read, but she hears some one coming and she 
gets up quickly and goes to work again. She feels as so many 
have felt— but I think they are giving up the notion — that 
it is something to be ashamed of if she stops in the middle of the 
day to rest. One of the very best times to rest is just before din- 
ner, when things are rushing; you expect the men in the house 
very soon and they want things about right when they come, 
and they ought to have them about right, we don’t deny that ; 
but that woman is very apt to get the screws screwed a little 
tighter, to get a little more tension in her body, to work a little 
harder, and the lines in her face become a little deeper and she 
gets a little more anxious. She is afraid dinner won’t be ready 
on time, that something is going wrong, and she thinks house- 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING. 115 


work is very anxious work. That woman at dinner time must 
have her warm meal ready to serve. She must be ready to 
receive the complaints of the children, if they have any, when 
they come home from school; she must be the sweet spirit of 
the household. She must preside at the dinner table and be 
just as serene as though the cake hadn’t burned, as though 
everything had gone well about the dinner. She must be the 
one to be sweet and amiable, no matter how things have gone, 
and to be the one who is the lever of the whole household. 
Really, she has had cares enough since early morning to break 
down one individual unless she learns to look at life in a philo- 
sophical way, as she very often does. Now, if she has added 
tension to her body as the work increased, become more and 
more anxious, when dinner-time comes and that strain comes 
upon her from the necessity of being the one who is always 
bright and cheerful, if she is able to go beyond the dinner hour 
to her resting hour, if she has one, she gets along very well, 
but sometimes there is a last straw which breaks the camel’s 
back. She may want to go behind the kitchen door and cry; 
she can’t do it, though. She may want to give up and say: “I 
can’t keep this household running; it is too hard work. Here 
I have spent the whole day trying to keep things in shape and 
have the cooking good, and I haven’t heard anything but grum- 
bling since dinner began.” The daughter says, “I don’t want 
to settle down to this kind of a life.” It isn’t to be wondered 
at, but I suppose if when she found she was getting tired she 
would simply drop everything and say, “I have done the best 
I can, I will do the very best I can, and it will come out all 
right, I don’t need to worry”; if she would have an easy 
chair brought down to the kitchen, one of those good old- 
fashioned easy chairs, and drop into it perhaps at eleven o’clock 
in the forenoon, drop into it and simply relax, close the eyes, 
relax the jaws — it is a good thing for even a woman to relax 
the jaws sometimes — give up, take the tension out of the 
body, shake it out. She finds her hands clinched, she finds the 
lines getting very deep in her face, she finds her teeth shut tight 
together, and she is working harder and getting more anxious, 
and sometimes I have heard of her getting so anxious that she 
got cross. But if she will drop everything and say, “I am 
going to rest for an hour or so,” it is surprising how cares will 
fly away, how refreshed she will feel, and she will go about her 


116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


work feeling that the dinner hour is much easier than she 
anticipated, and she meets her family with a cheerful counte- 
nance. She has a right to that rest. Perhaps she may pick 
up a book at that time, perhaps that is relaxation to her ; it may 
be a book of poems, it need not be a recipe book necessarily, it 
may be something that will refresh her soul. Let her go to the 
piano any time during the day. You know when a woman 
leaves school and goes onto a farm she is still just as much inter- 
ested in books, she is still just as much interested in music as 
that woman who went into the village or the city and settled in 
life, who hired her help, went around the corner when she 
wanted a loaf of bread instead of having to make it, who calls 
in a milliner when she wants a hat or goes to the dressmaker 
for her dress, and finds life a great deal easier in these respects. 
The same two women possibly went to the same school, stood 
as high in their classes, had the same ambitions in life, had 
equal ability, and yet, when a woman goes onto a farm there is 
work for her from morning until night. Shall we say that 
woman is not as well educated, has not just as high ambitions 
in life; shall we say that she is not just as intelligent as the 
other woman who married a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher? 
What do we expect of the farm woman? We expect that she 
will be an all-around, well educated woman. What does she 
do? She is her own cook, she must know all about cooking ; 
she is her own milliner, possibly her own dressmaker ; she takes 
care of the animals about the place, or at least part of them; 
she attends to the flower garden; she is the nurse of the house- 
hold, and very often nurse for the neighborhood. She is the 
woman who takes some interest in public affairs in the neigh- 
borhood; she is a pillar of the church. I might enumerate a 
good many things that she is. Do you say that the farmer’s 
wife, then, isn’t an intelligent, all-round woman? She is a 
woman with a broad education, with a practical education, the 
woman upon whom we are all depending. She is the woman 
whose sons and daughters we are relying upon. She is the 
woman whose sons have gone to college, whose sons are occu- 
pying important places in this world. She is the mother of the 
household ; she is the woman who is staying at home and doing 
that housework, taking up the cares of the household to let the 
son and the daughter go away to school. In the city or village 
it is the man a great many times who is furnishing money to 


1905. | THE RESERVE POWER IN HOUSEKEEPING. 117 


send the son to college. The burden doesn’t come upon the 
woman in the city as it does upon the woman on the farm. 
Many a boy or girl who goes to the agricultural college says 
that it is possible from the efforts of his father or mother, for 
they are staying at home and attending to the work so that they 
can be away, and that is the woman who has the care, who is 
taking the responsibility, making it possible for the farmer’s 
boys to be the great men of the country; and are they not? It 
is an oft-discussed proposition and nothing new to you, that it 
is the boys who have come from the farms who are making 
their way in the world, becoming our statesmen, becoming our 
lawmakers, becoming our clergymen and substantial men in 
the community. Let the time come when we shall go back to 
the farm and make farming one of the greatest professions in 
the world. Now, if that woman has that care in company with 
her husband, she is the woman who needs to learn to relax. 
There is a large responsibility resting upon her. Is it not a 
difficult thing when a woman’s health gives out, when a woman 
has lost her strength, is it not a difficult thing to find any one 
to come in and take her place? Then she needs to conserve 
her strength, needs to add to it, for it is a pretty difficult thing 
for a man to run his farm without his wife. It is almost 
impossible for her to give up, therefore she needs relaxation 
more than most anyone else. She needs to rest part of the day. 
We can relax without going farther than our easy chair, with- 
out lying down to do it. What do you do when you go to the 
dentist’s? Do you relax? We Americans have a peculiar 
habit. Do you know what a German physician said when he 
came to this country? WHe said, “Americans have a terrible 
disease. It is written on every face,” and he called it “Ameri- 
canitis.” You may call it ambition. Perhaps it is ambition, 
it grows out of ambition; but has it not become to a great 
extent, as the German physician said, “Americanitis”? It is 
written in our faces. When you go to the dentist you grasp 
the arm of the chair, you push your feet against the bottom of 
the chair, and you shut your teeth together until the dentist 
pries them open, and you suffer more in the anticipation than 
you do in the participation. What do you do when you think 
the train is late, when one is waiting for the train? You get 
anxious. What do we do when we get on a street car going to 
make an appointment? Watch the people upon a street car 


118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. Ljau., 


and you will see anxiety written upon their faces. Watch it 
in a city where there is rushing and turmoil. Relaxation is a 
thing we are leaving out of our lives. That man who has 
written that wonderful book called “ The Simple Life,” is teach- 
ing relaxation all the time, relaxation of the spirit. Now 
relaxation of spirit may come to be relaxation of the body, 
and the woman in the home needs to learn it; needs to simply 
relax and take away the tension out of her body and learn to do 
things in an easy comfortable way. When life seems to be full 
of care she needs to relax and say, “ Things will take care of 
themselves, we will get along all right.” We need it in the 
busy time when we screw things up still tighter, so we can 
stand the work. I would suggest, then, relaxation of the 
nerves, of the muscles of the body. When a woman feels that 
she has difficult work before her, I would suggest that she go 
and rest; have a chair in the kitchen, an easy chair where she 
may sit down when she is paring the potatoes. After a woman 
has worked a good many years she learns to do that, and it is 
to the daughters perhaps that this should be said. After a 
woman has lost her strength it is very easy for her to learn to 
do those things, but sometimes it is too late. We need to learn 
those things while we have our strength. No one need to be 
ashamed of a chair in the kitchen, no one need to be ashamed 
to have conditions so nearly right in a kitchen that it is easy to 
do the work. We have large missions to do upon earth, and 
we need to have a great deal of ability and competency, and we 
need to study all the time to be at our best, and we are not at 
our best when we are tired. We are not at our best when we 
are working under unfavorable conditions. 

These are merely comments, merely suggestions, which, 
while as I said before they are not new, we may still well keep 
in mind. We get into bad habits, we can get into the good 
habits just as easily. We can get into the habit of keeping 
cheerful and pleasant, and letting our worries go, saying, ““ We 
will do the best we can,” and when we do the best we can we 
have nothing to worry about. 

I want to congratulate you upon the fine opportunities 
which you have in this organization for meeting shoulder to 
shoulder and having heart to heart talks once a year, of having 
an organization where the men and women work together. I 
don’t object to women’s organizations, I don’t object to men’s 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 119 


organizations, but one thing I like about the farmers’ organiza- 
tions is that the men and women work together. I do know 
that the women when they attend these meetings listen with a 
great deal of interest to the discussions in regard to the raising 
of cattle and the rearing of sheep, and the planting and tilling 
of the soil, and I have often wondered if when they went home 
they did not advise their husbands in regard to it. But at any 
rate I admire their interest in the subjects; I like the fact that 
they are working together and that they are partners. In no 
profession of life that I can name are men and women so nearly 
partners as they are as farmers. For that reason it is a delight- 
ful occupation, and for that reason these meetings which we 
have throughout the country are delightful, and I carry with 
me a very great admiration for the work which you are doing. 


Mr. Gop. As no one appears to be ready to ask questions, 
I rise to ask a question and to say a few words myself confirma- 
tory of what the lady has told us. 

I learned a good while ago that a boy could be kept in trim 
so that work and errands were a pleasure to him, or he could 
be driven with work so that he would shirk it every time he 
had a chance, and that was a provision of nature to restore that 
boy’s activity again. When you sent him in a hurry on an 
errand, he came back again and tumbled down under a tree. 
That was an exercise of nature to lie there. You,could call 
upon him in a few moments again and he would start up as 
lively a boy as ever. But if you didn’t let him have, once in 
a while, a chance to rest, if you were all the time nagging him, 
you wouldn't get much satisfaction out of that boy or girl that 
you wanted to stimulate to exercise. 

Now if we have a horse we find we have to get a certain 
amount of work out of him, and we feed him, and one man, 
with the same amount of feed and the same amount of work, 
keeps that horse in good plight, and he holds him in with the 
rein all the time while the horse is doing his work. The other’ 
man so manages that horse that he has to have the whip up to 
strike him to do his work, and he will do no more work, and 
keep that horse poor all the time on the same feed. 


120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


There is a principle in our animals that we understand and 
practice as farmers, and now we need to apply it to humanity 
a little more than we have been in the habit of doing in the past. 
The lady has given us illustrations with regard to the use of the 
back or the limbs for doing some kinds of work. Mr. Hoyt 
here might tell us something about pulling trees. He knows 
how to have men pull trees without breaking their backs and 
tiring them very much, and we can pull docks with our knees 
instead of our backs, and other weeds and bushes. We have 
learned that, and now we are learning that a woman may spare 
herself some of her labor by using her limbs instead of her 
back. 

I am very much pleased with these illustrations of family 
matters, and some of them come home personally to the house 
that I occupy. The kitchen is a good way from the dining 
hall, but that seems to be the nature of things and difficult to 
remedy. The flour barrel is conveniently near the kitchen, and 
we have water in the kitchen as well as at the barn. We are 
all up in that line, but the matter of disposing of the refuse 
from the kitchen is one that we haven't solved to a general 
family satisfaction. It comes up in a variety of forms, and is 
one worthy of a great deal more study and consideration than 
it has yet received among our rural population. 

I am very much pleased with the sort of home character 
of this address we have had this morning, and I am surprised 
there are no more ladies here in the audience; there ought to 
have been, but there are a goodly number here, and I hope that 
we shall carry these instructions to our rural homes. 

Mr. Rosertson. I would like to ask what the lady would 
suggest in this matter. There are mothers who feel that their 
children should take life easier than they themselves have done, 
they are relieving the children of burdens and carrying them all 
themselves. They want to relieve their sons and daughters of 
work which they had to do, for the reason that they went 
through things not very pleasant and they want to have their 
daughters have an easier time. 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 121 


Miss VAN RENSSELAER. I have rather old-fashioned ideas 
in regard to that subject. I think that the fathers and mothers 
are relieving their children too much, that the burden is coming 
upon the father and the mother when the child ought to be 
taught to do for his father and his mother. It never hurts a 
boy to relieve his father. It never hurts a boy to relieve his 
mother in any kind of work, and that is the greatest blessing 
which you can confer upon a boy when you teach him, if he 
needs to be taught, to do things for his father and mother. 
Give a boy or girl his strength, which we will assume the boy 
and girl of whom we are speaking has, and I would say that 
you train him to do those things. They are not going to hurt 
him, and if you do these things for him and thrust him about 
upon the world, he is helpless, and the world has got to teach 
him a great many lessons that the father and mother should 
teach him. Therefore, I cannot sympathize with that condi- 
tion. I cannot sympathize at all with the boy or girl growing 
up in a home not knowing how to build a fire. A boy in my 
class the other day said, ‘““ My mother never let me build a fire, 
she thought I couldn’t.” There he was, a boy in the twenties, 
who owned up before those young women that he didn’t know 
how to build a fire. Do you suppose anybody would choose 
him? No. I feel that one of the things in this world that we 
need nowadays is to teach boys and girls to wait upon their 
elders; it won’t hurt them. I cannot comprehend how men 
who have made themselves and become the great men that they 
are, through self exertion, through self-sacrifice, can shut their 
sons off from that same privilege. Paying their bills, letting 
them not work their way through but satisfying every possible 
want, is a great misfortune to the children. 

This question has been asked: “ Do you believe cooperation 
in domestic affairs to be possible in farming communities to 
help the housewife? ” 

It hasn't, it seems to me, been tried very much, but it seems 
to me possible, and this question comes at once: 


ce 


Can we have 


122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan., 


“= 


a laundry?”’ We had an article a short time ago in “ Country 
Life in America,” written by Professor Bailey, in which he 
advocated a laundry in a farming community. Nearly every 
farming community has some water power or machinery by 
which this same power could be applied to laundry work. This 
woman spends half a day or more in her home washing out the 
clothes ; that woman over there is doing it, and that woman 
over there is doing it, all through the community, and she is 
getting pretty tired of it. The woman in the larger village or 
city sends her clothes to the laundry. It seems to me it would 
be possible to have a laundry in connection with a cheese fac- 
tory, if necessary, although I am not certain that the two things 
would work well together, but in some way utilize power for 
doing that washing. I am not saying that it can be done. I 
am still in doubt about it. I have asked some men who handle 
laundry machinery if such a thing were possible. They say, 
“ We have written to a number of manufacturers in the coun- 
try asking that question in regard to a laundry. They say they 
cannot make the machinery cheap enough so that farmers will 
want to buy it. It would hardly be possible to do it less than 
$300.” 
laundry machine at a cost of $300 will it pay? I have asked 
the question instead of answering it. 

This woman makes cake today, and pies, and that woman 
does the same thing, and that woman does the same thing. In 
a larger community these women send to the bakery —and I 


Now, if twenty families in a community can use one 


am sorry she has to, for home-made pies are better than any 
other. There is a duplication in a farming community of all 
lines of work, so that if you had some woman in a community 
who would learn how to make the best kind of pies, and let this 
woman send to her for her pies, and that woman send to her 
for her pies, and that woman, I don’t see why you are not sav- 
ing the time of these women to do something else. Here is a 
woman who keeps chickens, and that woman keeps chickens, 
and that woman. There is a duplication of time and work and 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 123 


energy. It seems to me if that woman would make a success 
of her chickens, and that woman make a success of making 
honey, and that woman make a success of bakery stuff (if she 
knows how to make it homelike), and that woman raise celery, 
perhaps it would be better for each woman. I haven't tried any 
of these things, but I have been thinking along that line and 
wondering why farmers cannot have united interests. I hope 
some of you will disagree with me and take up the other side, 
for 1 am very anxious to know if these things are at all possi- 
ble. I would like to see the things tried. To be sure it would 
be better for the women to eat fewer pies and to get along with 
less cake, and have a simple table ; perhaps that would be a bet- 
ter solution of her household problems. 

The PresipentT. I would like to ask the speaker if she 
doesn’t think the women are largely responsible for this routine 
work into which they are so likely to fall? They get a certain 
round of duties and they follow the thing up day after day 
and never think that they themselves can make an improvement. 

Miss VAN RENSSELAER. I think that is true. It takes 
thoughtfulness. We are doing things at a great disadvantage 
simply because we have got into the habit of it, but I do want 
to say that the men can help a great deal in that respect. 
Women do get very tired in their work and some people need 
encouragement a good many times; they need to have the man 
drive around with the carriage as bright as before he married 
her and say, “ Let’s go for a ride; let’s go to see our neighbor ; 
let’s go to church today; let’s go and hear a concert.’ Then 
she will begin to see other people and see how other people are 
doing. But when the conditions are such that she gets up at 
five o’clock in the morning and works until nine, and goes to 
bed and just lies down to sleep exhausted, without any of those 
things like music or books to rest her, it is very natural to fall 
into that rut, and that rut, expressed in a common way, is the 
thing that is wearing her out, not the hard work. 

Mr. KirkHAm. I got up with about the same motive that 


124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


Mr. Gold did, to tell how glad I am to hear this lecture. I 
wish Mrs. Kirkham had been here to hear it, but I couldn’t 
prevail upon her to leave. A great many things, it seemed, 
needed attention and I couldn’t induce her to come. That is 
the way with a great many of the ladies, I presume. The 
gentleman who spoke last night confided in me a certain fact 
which has been illustrated here by the speaker. He has been 
through a very active campaign, we all know, and is one of our 
Congressmen from this State. Being well acquainted. with 
him, I asked him about his health. ‘“ Well,” he says, “I have 
had a hard time since the campaign closed. I thought I should 
just sit down and get rested, but there was something the mat- 
ter with my heel, and I went to see a doctor. He told me what 
I had done exactly. ‘ You have used that heel more than any 
other part of your body.’ I used to speak every day and every 
night, and I had a habit when I was speaking of stepping back 
on my heel and putting the whole weight on that heel, and now 
I have been laid up and ought not to be here tonight.” That is 
the way he spoke. “ But,” he said, “I’m getting better of it 
now, and I’m going to take a rest.” 

I am old enough to know better, but I got onto my heel a 
month ago, and I took off my stocking and saw a black streak 
clear around from the instep to the other side — the blood had 
settled there. I knew what caused it, and I let up. Well, I 
remember when I was a young man hearing a farmer talk one 
Sunday noon — the time the farmers get together in the horse- 
sheds. He said the Swedes were their help. He said: “ You 
never hear of a Swede complaining of chronic disorders ; they 
know how to handle themselves in hard work. They stand 
straight up when pitching oats, rye, or hay; they stand right 
up with the whole strength of the body over the center of 
gravity.” He had studied the matter himself, but farmers 
don’t have time to do it as a rule — | don't. 

Then when the lady was talking about the planning of the 
house, I suppose every one here thought about the back part 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 125 


of his own house. It carried me right home, but I am happy 
to say when I called to see my wife and told her I was going to 
get a man to plan the house, she said, “ I wish you would let 
me do it.” I said, “I want to have you.” And so we just 
put our heads together and planned that house, and the only 
problem I have never been able to solve is where to put the 
cellar stairs. We couldn’t find a place in the house to get them 
in, so we made a crooked pair of stairs to get down cellar, to 
save room. I have wanted to tear those stairs down for over 
a year, but my wife says, “ Would you change those after 
twenty years of occupancy? Not a thing in it have I wanted 
to change in all those year's.” Just as soon as I could get a 
man to do it I brought water into the house, and it has been a 
wonderful blessing. I don’t know how any one ever lives with- 
out it. My neighbors don’t have it, and a great many of them 
go to the well. 

I am thankful I have heard Miss Van Rensselaer, and shall 
report her when I get home. , 

Mr. Piatr. A year or two ago, before the Connecticut 
State Grange in Hartford, Dr. Smith of Higganum, a good 
physician, presented an essay on the model kitchen. One 
prominent way in which he made it was to have a revolving 
cupboard in the kitchen to contain the pots and kettles and pans, 
and perhaps the flour. That was to have it convenient and save 
steps; and he did away with the cupboard under the sink, and 
made the kitchen more sanitary. I would like to ask the lec- 
turer if such a revolving cupboard has been put in use and 
found a desirable thing. I never saw one, and I don’t know 
where you could find one. The doctor himself said he didn’t 
put one in his own house because his wife objected to it for 
some reason or‘other. I would like to ask the lecturer if she 
ever heard of one. 

Miss VAN RENSSELAER. I did hear of one, but I have 
never seen one; but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a good thing. 
One great difficulty in all of these things is very often the 


126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan; 


expense and that the help will not use them. This is oftener 
true of the help than the housewife. Not having any practical 
knowledge of that, I couldn’t say, but it would seem to me that 
it might be a saving of steps and time — you let the cupboard 
do the traveling instead of the woman. 

Pres. Stimson. My question, which I arise to ask, is right 
in line with the previous question. We see advertised on the 
market kitchen cabinets. I wondered if they had been brought 
into use very extensively. My question was prompted by the 
feeling that most men feel that if we adapt our houses so as to 
save steps, our wives will be stronger in most cases. I know 
that in my grandfather’s house the china closet was at the far 
end of the house, in the parlor, and over the fireplace in the par- 
lor was another cupboard devoted to some pewter ware brought 
out on state occasions. The big oven was near the center of the 
house, a room at least away from the kitchen. Now, very for- 
tunately, that house burned down, but there are still houses 
which have not burned down, and I have wondered whether 
kitchen cabinets would serve a beneficial purpose in this matter. 

Miss VAN RENSSELAER. My experience with kitchen cabi- 
nets is this: I would not want to keep house without one. 
The shelf is a good place for mixing things. You pull out a 
drawer here at the right, and you have cooking utensils; in 
another drawer you have spices, and possibly another place here 
for the flour, which is a great deal better than traveling off 
somewhere for it. It is better than going to the cupboard to 
get the necessary knives and spoons. Then it keeps things 
away from the dust, that is one thing. 

We have made quite a study of home sanitation in our 
Farmers’ Wives’ Reading Course — trying to get things under 
cover, trying to do away with the danger of disease, in connec- 
tion with the utensils and the food. I just take this occasion 
to say that I brought along a few of our Farmers’ Wives’ leaf- 
lets, which perhaps you will be interested im. There is one on 
“The Saving of Steps,, “ Decoration in the Farm Home,” 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 127 


“ Sanitation.”” These we have for free distribution in New 
York State. I don’t know as they suggest anything very new, 
but a few things to remind the women. 

(Question.) Have you anything there to remind the gen- 
tlemen? 

Why, yes —the first question in this 


oe 


Home Decoration.” 
I would say that we sent with the bulletin a quiz, a fourth 
page, containing perhaps ten or twelve questions which the 
women answered and sent back to us; then if they required any 
correspondence further we sent them letters. The first ques- 
tion is ““ Comment on the Attitude of the Men.” One woman 
said, ‘‘I made a perfectly lovely silk pillow, and a gentleman 
had gone and laid his head on it.” We have received answers 
from a great many on that subject, and I want to tell you that 
almost every lady is in sympathy with that gentleman who laid 
his head on that pillow, although they say they would make 
them out of gingham instead of silk. Then, too, out in New 
York State we are driving our hints straight home to the farm- 
ers when in this lesson on “Saving Steps” we talk about 
an ice house, about bringing water into the house, etc. We 
get very pathetic letters, letters which show to us what is needed 
perhaps more than anything else. When a woman says that 
she is becoming tired of the four walls of her kitchen, and she 
is thankful for a letter which is coming to her regarding her 
home life, and says, “Remember me in your prayers,’ when 
she wants sympathy from some one; when a woman says that 
she is very glad to get these lessons because her husband con- 
siders that it isn’t necessary to build a vegetable cellar, that it 
isn’t necessary to build a place for her to keep her provisions, 
and that it is trot, trot, trot into the kitchen all the time, we 
can feel that it would be a good thing to put in a few hints for 
the farmers, so our letters to the farmers’ wives are lessons to 
the farmer and his wife at the same time. 

Mr. Gotp. I am reminded just at this point that the last 
story that I have read in a magazine happens to come in just at 


128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


this point. In Scribner’s last issue is the “ Corner Cupboard,” 
which is made the basis for a pleasant little story that reminds 
me somewhat of the kitchen cabinet. Have you seen “ The 
Corner Cupboard ’”’? 

Miss VAN RENSSELAER. No. 

Mr. Gotp. Look it up in Scribner’s, last issue, I believe. 

Mr. Hoyt. I have been hesitating for some time whether 
I ought to say anything about this important and vital, and I 
might say tender, subject. If there is anything that a wife hates 
to hear talked about it is for her husband to tell how his mother 
used to do things. Of course there is nothing that stimulates 
work as well as love for that work, and there is nothing that 
makes work such a drudgery as to have no love or heart in 
that work, and I am sorry to say the tendency at the present 
time is for both boys and girls to look upon work as a drudgery, 
therefore they do not like to do it. I know of instances where 
young ladies will not do a particle of housework because they 
haven’t the strength. It makes their backs ache to sweep, and 
yet they will take a stick and go into a forty-acre field and 
knock a ball all day long, and chase it about with perfect ease 
and contentment because their hearts are in it. It is no harder 
work to sweep than it is to knock a ball over a ten-acre field, 
neither should I think from the position that it would make the 
back ache any worse. 

My mind goes back to my boyhood days, and I see my 
mother doing her work, and her heart was in it. I have seen 
her, day after day, skim thirty pans of milk and carry it to the 
swill barrel perhaps forty feet away to empty it. I have seen 
her, and I have helped her, pick her forty or fifty geese every 
six weeks through the summer. I have seen her dip her five 
hundred candles twice a year into the tallow to make the candles 
for the family. We had men on the farm to work, and they 
boarded in the family. I have seen her, for rest, take her knit- 
ting needles and all the evening long, knit, knit, knit from the 
wool, perhaps, that she had carded, and knit for seven children 


1905.] | DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECTICUT. 129 


and herself and husband all the stockings and mittens and com- 
forters they needed. And I have seen the milk on the shelf, 
and the dozen pies which she made every Saturday afternoon. 
(My wife says she doesn’t believe it, but it is ‘a fact.) Her 
heart was in the work, and I never heard her complain. And 
she lived to be ninety-three years old. It isn’t work that hurts. 
When the heart is right work is a pleasure. I believe in mak- 
ing it as easy as you can for your wife in doing the work. We 
are not living in the days when we required so much of our 
wives and daughters as we used to, but it is wrong, as the lady 
has said, to bring up our children so that they will not know 
how to make a loaf of bread or a good cake, or to sweep the 
house or mend a stocking. What is a girl for, if she is going 
to be the wife of some person, if she doesn’t know how to do 
the first thing that is required of a prudent wife? The question 
of housekeeping today is going to be a serious one, a serious 
one. We cannot depend upon help as we have done in the 
past, neither out doors nor in, from the fact that it is more 
amusement and more pleasure that the young are looking for 
rather than for anything else. 

The Presiwent. The next number on our programme will 
be a lecture by Dr. G. P. Clinton of New Haven on “ Diseases 
of the Potato in Connecticut.” 


DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECHICUR. 
By Dr. G. P. Crinton, New Haven. 


Ladies and Gentlemen: Some of these troubles that I am 
to speak about are shown by photographs of the Experiment 
Station, which are in the room below, so that people who are 
interested especially in that subject can get some general idea 
from those pictures. 

There are many food plants more aristocratic than the ple- 
beian potato, but few that are more useful. The former kind 
we use occasionally to whet our flagging appetite, but for the 
people of the temperate zone no plant, save wheat alone, sur- 


AGR.—9 


130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jane 


passes this humble friend in its food value. In the United 
States it forms one of our most important crops, that of 1899 
being valued at about $98,000,000. 

Like most of our agricultural plants, the potato seems to 
have certain regions or localities where it thrives best. With- 
out doubt the potato belt in this country lies along our northern 
border, since of the ten states producing crops of greatest value 
in 1903 five — Maine, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Minnesota — lie in the northernmost tier of States, while the 
other five — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, lowa, and Colorado 
—lie just south of these. Another group of States in the 
central and northern Rocky Mountain region stands out as a 
potato district, but not so much so on account of the total values 
of the crops as on account of the great yields per acre—a 
result apparently largely due to irrigation. At present New 
~York and Maine can best lay claim to be our greatest potato 
States. In the latter, Aroostook county in 1899 had planted 
about 42,000 acres, or a greater area than any other county in 
the United States, while the total value of the State’s crop in 
1903 was over $9,000,000, and the average yield per acre — 

196 bushels — was greater than in any other State. On the 
other hand, New York led every other State in the total value 
of the crop, which exceeded $19,000,000. 

There are certain conditions that make these northernmost 
States valuable for potato culture. This plant thrives best in 
a rather cool climate; it relishes plenty of moisture well dis- 
tributed through the season, and the mechanical and chemical 
condition of the soil must be to its liking. These conditions, 
apparently, obtain best in the above region. On the other hand, 
the potato responds as promptly as any other plant to intelli- 
gent husbandry, so the proper attention given the crop is a 
prominent factor in successful potato culture anywhere. 

So much for the value of the potato as an agricultural 
plant and its general condition in the United States. My point 
in this has been to suggest that here in Connecticut the potato 
may be classed as one of our most important agricultural plants, 
that the State itself may be considered a prominent potato 
State, especially if its size is taken into consideration, and that 
we may well increase the acreage. The following figures show 
the present situation: In 1903 the total area of the State 
planted with potatoes was about 29,000 acres — an increase of 
about 6,000 acres during the last thirteen years. This acreage 


1905. | DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECTICUT. I31 


was greater than that devoted to any other crops except hay 
and corn. The value of this crop was considerably over 
$2,000,000, being surpassed only by hay and tobacco. In New 
England the same year the State stood next to Maine in the 
value of the crop, and in the United States it was the eighteenth 
State in the value of its crop and the twenty-third in its acreage. 
The average yield the past ten years has been 96 bushels per 
acre. Except two years these average yields have been greater 
than those for the United States as a whole. While New 
York is considered a very important potato State, its average 
yield during this time has been only 83 bushels per acre. All 
the other New England States, however, surpassed this State 
in the average yield during the past ten years, though during 
the past five years our average has been equal to that of 
Massachusetts,*or 99 bushels per acre. 

The State lies just on the southern edge of the great potato 
district, but to offset this it enjoys the best market situation of 
any State in the Union, and it raises a good quality of tubers. 
As stated before I believe we are so situated that we should 
increase our acreage — in fact we are doing it. To do this 
with profit, however, we should also increase the yield per acre. 
There are three ways along which we may hope to accomplish 
this latter result: 

First. While the best methods of planting, of cultivation, 
and fertilization of the soil may be known, the chances are that 
they are not followed in 25 per cent. of the potato fields of the 
State. Director Clinton of Storrs gave you a paper along this 
line last year. We can assume at the outset that the very best 
methods are none too good for the agriculturist. Every farmer 
is bound by the nature of his occupation to be somewhat 
of an experimenter, and his own experience is the experience 
upon which he must rely in the end, but he should always strive 
to keep this experience up with or towards the best that his 
locality and the country affords. 

Second comes the factor of seed selection. This may in- 
clude selection of varieties, but I do not mean this so much 
as I do the selection of seed free from disease, of good shape 
and with a pedigree for yields. Neither do I mean such seed 
as you have bought upon representations that it was of this 
kind, but rather seed that you have raised yourself and by the 
rigid application of selection upon approved methods you 


132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


know to be of this character. Our agricultural literature now 
shows the results of selective tests, especially as applied to corn 
and wheat. Some work has even been done with the potato, 
and we know that the unit with which to work is the hill raised 
from a single tuber and not the tuber selected at random after it 
reaches the potato pile. We now have our seed breeders’ asso- 
ciations for discussion and improvement of methods. The 
work is reaching down to the farmer, who is beginning to apply 
what has been learned so far. 

Third comes prevention of insect injuries and fungous 
diseases. No one doubts that the potato in this State is severely 
_ troubled by these pests and that the financial loss they cause 
to the growers is far too great. Investigators have learned 
considerable about the life histories of these parasites and some- 
thing about methods for preventing their attack. The chief 
questions now are whether these methods should be more 
generally adopted by the potato grower and how practical are 
they. I do not believe that the consistent use of preventive 
measures against fungi will make any grower wealthy, but, on 
the other hand, I think most persons are undercautious rather 
than overcautious in this matter, and that in the long run intel- 
ligent preventive measures will pay. It is under this third 
phase of the question that I wish to indicate very briefly 
what we know about the fungous pests of the potato in this 
State and the methods that may be employed to lessen their 
ravages. They are six in number. 

1. The Early Blight fungus produces subcircular, brown- 
ish spots about a quarter of an inch in diameter or more ex- 
tended and irregular areas at the margin of the leaf. The 
trouble occurs from June on and, so far as has been found, only 
on the leaves. My observations indicate that this is not so 
serious in this State as some suppose and that it is often con- 
fused with paris green burn or with tip burn. It may be pre- 
vented by spraying with bordeaux mixture, but it does not 
usually merit attempts at prevention. Paris green burn may 
also show as a general searing of the margins of the leaf, 
which dries up at the injured places. This injury to the foli- 
age often becomes serious and is of too common occurrence in 
the State. The damage results from sprinkling or dusting the 
foliage with pure paris green. A small amount of lime should 
always be used with it, as this keeps it from going into solu- 


1905.] DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECTICUT. 133 


tion when the caustic action on the foliage results. The tip 
burn trouble mentioned is purely physiological, due to the foli- 
age at its margin being unable in times of drought to replace 
and check the transpiration of water, consequently the tissues 
here turn yellow, roll up, and finally die. This trouble is not 
so common here as it is in some of the States of the middle 
west, since moisture is more evenly distributed during our 
growing season. 

2. The Scab fungus apparently confines its attack to the 
tubers, where it produces a superficial, corroded, or “ scabby ” 
condition of‘the skin. The presence of the fungus acts as an 
irritant, and as a result an unusual development of corky tissue 
results. This growth of cork cells not only helps to protect 
the tuber from the scab fungus but it is also helpful in keeping 
out other fungi and bacteria that would cause subsequent 
rotting. Scabby potatoes, apparently, are not much more 
subject to rot than are those free from scab. 

Scabby potatoes occur all over the world, and many theo- 
ries have been advanced as to their cause, but it was not until 
Professor Thaxter, the first botanist of the New Haven station, 
studied the trouble that the true cause was shown. The fungus 
18 sometimes seen on the scabby spots as a faint grayish mold 
that appears most prominent when the tubers are freshly dug. 
It is very simple in structure and easily breaks up into bacteria- 
like rods. It can also live in the soil and its development there 
is favored if this be slightly alkaline, instead of acid, and by the 
presence of manure. Other root crops, such as beets and 
turnips, are attacked, so that rotation of these with potatoes is 
not desirable. 

The most efficient preventive measures now known are 
selection of land as free as possible from the fungus ; proper 
rotation of crops; the use of clean seed; the careful use of ani- 
mal manure if scab has proved troublesome; avoiding liming 
land used for potatoes; and seed treatment with formalin or 
corrosive sublimate. This latter process consists in soaking the 
tubers for about one and a half hours in corrosive sublimate 
(one pound to 50 gallons of water), or in formalin (one pound 
to 30 gallons of water). To get the best results treated seed 
should be planted on land free from the fungus and but little 
manure used. 

3. The Rosette or Rhizoctonia disease has lately come into 


134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


prominence in the literature dealing with potato diseases in this 
country, though it has been known and discussed for some time 
in Europe. It is called the rosette disease because the green 
vines often show the trouble by a rosette clustering of the 
leaves. Finally some of the plants may turn a sickly yellowish 
color and eventually die, but ordinarily the diseased condition 
does not manifest itself above the ground. The trouble is 
caused by a rhizoctonia, or sterile fungus that is carried on 
the tubers. During the past two years this stage has been very 
evident on the potatoes sold in this State. It shows as black- 
ish growths of threads, usually compacted into sclerotia, or 
superficial flattish masses, which are a quarter of an inch or 
less in diameter and which occur more or less distinct or run 
together over the tuber. Very often these escape notice or are 
mistaken for dirt, but if the potato is washed and examined 
while wet they become very evident. These compacted sterile 
cells carry the fungus over the winter in a dormant condition, 
but when the tubers are planted in the spring they develop a 
mycelial growth that crawls up onto the young shoots. On 
these, beneath the ground, the fungus often inflicts serious 
injury by attacking the superficial tissues, sometimes com- 
pletely girdling the stems with a dead area. This attack often 
results in the death of the parts beneath, in which case new 
tuberous shoots must be formed above the dead area. The 
final result, then, is a crop of small potatoes or a greatly dimin- 
ished yield. By the latter half of June and in July the fungus 
appears just above the ground, surrounding the stems with a 
grayish, mealy, rather inconspicuous growth for a distance of 
an inch or two. This is the fruiting stage of the fungus, and 
while not at all like the toadstools in appearance the manner of 
its spore production places it with this group of fungi. Both 
the fruiting stage on the stems and the rhizoctonia stage on the 
tubers have been known in Europe, but their relationship was 
not suspected. Only recently Mr. Rolfs of Colorado, while 
studying the cause of the potato failure of that State, has 
proved their connection. During the past season the writer 
has observed the development of the fungus in this State and 
has no doubt of the relationship of these forms. In some fields 
from fifteen to twenty per cent. of the hills were observed with 
the fruiting stage on the stalks. However, we were not able 
to trace so serious injury to the infected plants as has been 
reported in some other States. 


1905.| | DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECTICUT. 135 


As this trouble is carried on the seed tubers and as it be- 
comes established in the soil, the preventive measures must be 
the same as those used against scab. Two experimenters have 
tried formalin and found this more or less efficient. The chief 
objection to it is that sometimes the germination of the tubers 
is retarded or injured enough to decrease the yield. 

4. Bacterial Bight and Rot. ‘There is a bacterial disease, 
usually to be found in our potato fields in June and July, that 
attacks a plant here and there. This trouble generally infects 
less than two per cent. of the vines. The plants assume a sickly 
yellowish color, remain stunted, and finally wither and die. 
These plants are easily pulled from the soil, when it is seen that 
the stem below is more or less rotted. Even in the early stage; 
while the plants are still green, if cross sections are made of 
the stems the bundles will often show a brownish diseased 
condition while the rest of the tissue is healthy. This diseased 
condition of the bundles interferes seriously with the proper 
conduction of water and plant food. The disease becomes most 
prominent in the underground stem; the tissues of the pith col- 
lapse, leaving a hollowed center, in which stage the plants look 
as if attacked by the stalk borer, and eventually the whole 
stem rots off. Practically no potatoes are obtained from these 
plants. 

Later in the season, especially after the true blight has killed 
the vines, one often finds that the tubers are rotting from a 
slimy, sticky, ill-smelling rot. This is also caused by bacteria 
though sometimes attributed to the blight fungus. A year 
ago this was a very common trouble in our potato fields. It 
is quite possible that the bacterial blight of the stems and the 
rot of the tubers are caused by the same organism. The fact 
that the tubers usually begin to decay at the stem end points 
to this relationship. 

In the way of preventive measures we have little to suggest 
beyond care in the selection of seed and the removal of diseased 
tubers from the field when dug. 

5. Fusarium Wilt or Dry Rot is a fungous trouble in its 
effects somewhat like the bacterial disease just described. The 
fungus invades the stem underground and reaching the bundles 
chokes these with a growth of its threads so that eventually 
_the water supply of the plant is cut off or greatly reduced, 
when the parts above ground wither and die. We have had 


136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan, 


some obscure wilt troubles in our potato fields, though as yet 
the writer has not recognized this as the cause. In the tubers, 
however, it has been found as a very common agent of decay, 
with the bacterial rot being largely responsible for the trouble 
a year ago. The disease usually begins at the stem end, form- 
ing a slow dry rot. Not unfrequently bacteria occur with it 
and help the rot along. When the infected tubers are placed 
in a moist atmosphere the fungus breaks out on the surface in 
small white fruiting tufts. The decay continues in the cellar, 
though probably not so vigorously as in the fields, especially 
after the tubers become dried out. Often tubers show the pres- 
ence of the fungus only in cross section by a slight discolora- 
tion of the bundles. These tubers, when planted, no doubt 
help to perpetuate the disease. 

Because the fungus develops inside the tissues of the tuber, 
seed treatment is of little value against this trouble. Our pre- 
ventive measures so far are limited chiefly to the selection of 
seed tubers free from the fungus. 

6. True Blight or Downy Mildew is the last and most 
important of these parasites of the potato. It is an old trouble, 
has proved very injurious in Europe and here in years past, 
and has been much studied both to gain facts in its life history 
and to prevent its ravages. Blight first appears on the potato 
leaves in this State anywhere from the first of July to the latter 
part of August. Its time of appearance and the severity of 
attack depend on weather conditions. If after its appearance 
there occurs a moist or muggy period of several days’ duration, 
it develops with surprising swiftness and carries off the vines 
in a short time. The fungus produces blackish areas, usually 
beginning at the tip or margin of the leaves, and these increase 
more or less rapidly according to the weather. Examining 
the underside of an infected leaf the fruiting stage is seen as a 
faint whitish growth at the juncture of the diseased and 
healthy tissues. In dry weather these moist blackened tissues 
dry up. Under favorable conditions the disease progresses 
so rapidly that there soon remain only the green stems and 
these then die as a result of the death of the leaves. Ina week 
the blackened dead stems will wither up. Inconspicuous leaves 
may take the place of the former luxuriant green field. 

Occasionally one sees diseased spots on the stems, but so 
far as I have been able to observe we have no reason to believe, 


1905.] | DISEASES OF THE POTATO IN CONNECTICUT. 137 


as do some, that the fungus passes down the stems to the 
tubers. So I see no reason for pulling up the vines to prevent 
the tubers rotting from this trouble. The tubers, however, do 
become infected with the fungus, apparently by the spores fall- 
ing from the leaves to the ground and washing down on them. 
After gaining entrance to the tuber the fungus causes a slow, 
dry, reddish-brown rot. Bacteria and the Fusarium fungus, 
however, often gain entrance as the result; the blight infection 
and these agents make the trouble much more serious. A 
tuber containing the blight fungus often shows a pitted surface, 
has a reddish tinge, and the skin may often be easily separated 
from it, while in cross section the reddish-brown diseased tis- 
sue usually shows most prominently in a band at the surface. 
So far as we now know the blight fungus is perpetuated only 
by the mycelium carried over the winter by these infected 
tubers. Just how the disease is transferred from these to the 
leaves is not definitely known, though it is believed by some 
that the mycelium passes from the tubers up into the stems 
and leaves. Personally I do not believe this occurs. Theoreti- 
cally the fungus should possess thick walled resting spores to 
carry it over the winter. Such spores have been found in 
decaying tubers and leaves and associated with the blight fun- 
gus, but their real relationship has never been definitely proved, 
and botanists are disinclined to believe that such a stage exists. 
The writer has recently been striving to settle this point, but so 
far has found little that is new to add to our knowledge of the 
fungus. Artificial cultures of the fungus have been grown 
on sterile media in test tubes. Slices of potato taken from the 
interior of the tubers under conditions to exclude bacteria and 
spores of fungi and inserted into a ‘sterilized test tube contain- 
ing a plug of cotton saturated with water have afforded the 
best substance for the growth of the fungus. These slices of 
potato are not decayed by the fungus, thus showing that the 
decay in nature is due to the bacteria and other fungi which 
closely follow the blight fungus. So far only the summer spore 
stage of the leaves has developed in these cultures. 

The blight fungus decreases the yield of potatoes in two 
ways. First, by the premature killing of the vines a month or 
six weeks before they should die, the possible yield is dimin- 
ished sometimes by half, as it is during the last weeks of the 
plant’s natural life that the tubers rapidly make their growth. 


138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Second, the full or partial yield of the plants may be obtained 
and then cut down more or less by the subsequent rotting of the 
tubers. If I can judge accurately from an experience extend- 
ing over only three seasons, the blight, when it comes on early 
and suddenly, as it did in 1902, may cause a small crop with but 
few rotten tubers; but when it develops late and lags along 
slowly to the end of the season, as it did somewhat in 1903, 
but more especially this past season, we may grow a larger 
crop that suffers severely from rot. This rotting no doubt 
develops worse in a season like the past because more spores 
through a longer period are washed down onto the tubers than 
are when the vines are blighted and dead inside of a week. 
Finally let me give briefly the preventive measures that may 
be used against this fungus. We may grow the early varieties 
with their smaller yield and higher prices. These are often 
nearly matured by the time the blight appears and so suffer 
much less than late varieties. However, they are not without 
their diseases, and on the whole are not so popular with growers 
as are the late varieties. Knowing that the blight is carried in 
the tubers, all potatoes showing any signs of the disease, 
especially a reddish discoloration of the tissues when cut open, 
should be rejected. While evidence so far goes to show that it 
makes no difference if rotten tubers are left in the field, yet we 
may be mistaken about the ability of the fungus to develop 
winter spores in these, in which case it would be an error not to 
gather them up. Cultivation that tends to cover the tubers 
deeply in the soil and at the same time keep the ground from 
becoming wet—such as ridge culture— seems to be best 
adapted to prevent the tubers from rotting. This system also 
tends to hold up the vines and allow freer circulation of the air 
for drying out the soil and evaporating moisture from the 
leaves. ‘Too close planting and too luxuriant growth of foliage, 
for the opposite reason, favor a more rapid development of the 
blight. Some work has been done on the selection and breed- 
ing of blight-proof varieties. The government is said to be 
at work along this line. One rarely sees any indication of 
blight-proof individuals in our fields, so we should not be dis- 
appointed if we get no relief from this direction. Spraying 
with bordeaux mixture has given more or less excellent 
results. The writer’s experiments along this line have given 
some encouraging and some discouraging figures as to yields. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 139 


If he was a potato grower, however, he would not hesitate to 
use this method of combating the fungus, believing that it 
would pay in the long run. Spraying with the bordeaux mix- 
ture should begin about the middle of July and at least three 
applications of two to three barrels per acre should be given. 
The second application might be given about the first of August 
and the third after the middle of that month. One, however, 
must use his judgment as to the exact time and the number 
of applications, as these depend upon the weather. The proper 
thing is to have the foliage well covered with the mixture 
when the blight weather comes on. When needed, paris green 
— one-half pound to the barrel — may be added to the mix- 
ture to fight the potato bug, and there is no danger of burning 
the foliage. There is considerable work about spraying large 
fields and it necessitates a convenient and good water supply. 
The geared sprayers that pump out the mixture as the horse 
_carries the apparatus along are rather unsatisfactory for use 
with bordeaux mixture, since they do not sufficiently drench all 
parts of the foliage even when driven over the same rows a 
second time from the opposite direction. A barrel pump car- 
ried on a one-horse cart — one that can straddle two rows of 
potatoes — with one man to pump and drive and two to follow 
on foot, each with a sixteen to twenty-foot hose provided with 
a single nozzle and spraying two or three rows as he goes, is 
the most efficient way of spraying a field, but it takes time and 
labor and lots of the mixture. 


DISCUSSION. 


The Secretary. You will notice Dr. Clinton is the only 
speaker on our programme who has ever spoken before at a 
midwinter meeting. I happened to be at Dr. Clinton’s labora- 
tory in October and found he was at work upon a scientific 
investigation of the diseases of the potato in Connecticut. I 
thought it was too important a subject to be neglected, there- 
fore he was asked to speak on this subject before you today. 
There are two questions I would like to ask him. The first is 
in regard to the selection of seed. If I understood him cor- 
rectly he recommends selecting seeds from the plants before 


140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the potatoes are dug. The second is, whether we shall con- 
tinue to plant our own seed, seed which we grow, or whether 
we shall get new seed every year. I know in large potato 
growing sections in many parts of the country they will not 
plant their own raised seed, but they will go to Maine or New 
York for seed every year. I’d like to get an answer from 
Dr. Clinton on these points. 

Dr. CLinton. Our method of seed selection is this: First 
I call attention to the fact that you can breed up good strains 
of plants just as you can breed up good strains of animals, but 
it has got to be by selection. It has got to be rigid and carried 
through some years. Our plan of selection is like this: We 
go through the field and mark out the most vigorous vines — 
those freest from disease. At the end of the season we dig 
those vines and you select only from those that have got not 
necessarily the largest potatoes or those that have the largest 
number, but those that have the best shape, freest from disease, 
and that indicate the largest total yield, also selecting for the 
size or type of potato that you want. You select very carefully 
in this way, and the very best that you find. Then take the 
potatoes next spring and plant a little plot of those whole tubers 
so that you know that the vine comes from a single cutting. 
Then you go through the crop at the end of that season, and 
from them select the very best individuals, the same as the pre- 
ceding year, and plant those the third season. The fourth 
season you can make your selection a little larger and plant 
enough so that from that crop you will have enough to plant 
your whole acreage the succeeding year. You have had four 
seasons’ selection. The fifth season you may plant your crop 
from those selected plants. Each year keep up the selective 
process. At the end of the tenth you have been selecting the 
best tubers from certain points. If there is anything in evo- 
lution or breeding up one individual from another, you have 
perhaps accomplished that result. I know it can be done in 
other things — in corn and wheat — and they are doing it with 


1905. | DISCUSSION. I4I 


the potato. The ordinary method is to go to the potato pile 
to pick out the best tubers there. That is partially right, but 
it isn’t the whole truth. The best potatoes you pick may have 
come from a vine that gave a very small yield, but, if you have 
one potato vine in that yard that has given a large yield of 
medium sized potatoes, free from disease, you want to get that 
and try to build it up from year to year. 

Now, there is something in bringing in seed from different 
regions to renew the vitality of plants, but not so much as 
ordinarily supposed. I do not think that the man that had been 
bringing in seed from outside that was not selected would have 
the results that a man would have who selected in this way. 

Secretary Brown. I would like to hear Professor L. A. 
Clinton, Director of Storrs Experiment Station. 

Mr. Cyrinton. Mr. Chairman, I was talking with a gentle- 
man in the back part of the room and I don’t know what you 
want me to talk about. 

The PresIDENT. Potatoes. 

Mr. Cxiinton. This year I sprayed our potatoes seven 
times, and they nearly all rotted with us. Now, I didn’t lose 
my faith in spraying at all, but I have come to this conclusion: 
that if we are going to spray we have got to do it more thor- 
oughly than I did it this year, not more times, but it has got to 
be hand work. I sprayed seven times with one of the auto- 
matic spraying carts. That is an easy way of getting it done. 
You can go over an acre in a morning before breakfast, if you 
get up early enough, but it doesn’t keep the potato from rotting. 
The only way I have found effective to keep potatoes from 
rotting is to have one man get on the cart and hold the pump 
handle, and stay right by them and get them thoroughly cov- 
ered with the mixture, the under side of the leaves, and the 
stem as well as the under side. That means strenuous work, 
but I believe it is better for the farmer to go over the potatoes 
two or three times and spray them that way rather than seven 
or eight times with an automatic spraying cart which lets them 


142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


rot after all. Even by our spraying, as we sprayed this year, 
we increased our yield on the sprayed field very perceptibly. 
Our increased profits per acre were about eighteen dollars, and 
that paid us well for the spraying that we did. Next year I 
shall spray, but I shall do the larger part of the work with a 
hand sprayer and stay right by them until we get them done. 
I shall spray part of the field with an automatic spraying cart 
and leave part unsprayed for a test. Another thing that I will 
do is to plant a variety which will mature in August. I shall 
grow an early variety even at the expense of yield at first. We 
can grade up our early varieties so that we can get a larger yield. 
I want a grade, an early variety, that will mature in August, 
and I shall grow them and try to get ahead of that late blight. 
It is a problem how we are going to keep the blight from rotting 
them after we get them grown. I believe that it means a hand 
spray or else an early variety. The variety I secure for early 
planting is called the Early Manisted. 

I got less favorable results this year, not that I didn’t in- 
crease the yield, but I lost it afterwards by the rotting of the 
potatoes. I don’t say that spraying is going to save them; we 
are going to have failures, but if you don’t do it thoroughly you 
are going to have more failures, but a large part of the increased 
yield that I got from spraying was afterwards lost from the 
rotting of the potatoes. The sprayed part gave a greater yield 
than the unsprayed. The question is how to prevent the rotting 
—that is the hardest part of the problem. 

Professor Bennett of Storrs College carried on some ex- 
periments this year. Mr. Bennett sprayed his by hand and did 
his work very thoroughly. I think it might be interesting for 
Mr. Bennett to tell the results he secured. 

Mr. Bennett. I have been trying to find out whether 
spraying would prevent potatoes from rotting. This year I 
planted a plot of potatoes, six rows, three of which I sprayed 
and three I left unsprayed. I kept the bugs off of both, and 
as soon as the potatoes were up I sprinkled them with bordeaux 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 143 


mixture. I did a good job with the hand sprayer and kept 
putting this bordeaux onto the potatoes about once a week, 
covering them all thoroughly. In all I made ten applications. 
The frost struck them September 23d. The unsprayed plot 
was dead entirely, no blight there, just turned yellow. The 
sprayed plot was in as good condition as it was during the 
summer. If that frost had held off we would have got a better 
yield than we did. When we dug our potatoes, we got seven 
bushels from the unsprayed plot, and fourteen bushels from the 
sprayed plot. When we dug them I think we found one 
decayed potato in the sprayed plot; since then I have found, I 
guess, half a dozen potatoes that were decayed quite badly. 
About three weeks afterwards I looked them over again and 
picked out from twenty to thirty. The question is whether it 
paid us. We think it isn’t necessary to spray a great number 
of times. Professor Jones has increased his yield every year 
— increased from 26 per cent. to 196 per cent., an average of 
75 per cent. increase — but he has not controlled the rotting. 
His potatoes each year have rotted more or less. He has only 
sprayed two or three times. I should recommend spraying 
about three or four times, beginning about the time you expect 
the blight will appear on the potatoes, but it must be done 
thoroughly. I did not intend to leave practically any space on 
those plants that were not covered, and I think I didn’t leave 
very much. They had a double spray each time by lifting up 
the vine and spraying all over. I wanted to see if we could 
stop the rotting. 

The plot, I think, had been manured with barnyard manure 
to a small extent. The land was pretty rich in the first place, 
and during the season, after the plants were up, I sprinkled 
between the rows a coat of nitrate of soda and phosphate of 
potash, about six hundred pounds of the combined material. 

Adjourned until two o’clock. 


144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


AFTERNOON SESSION. 
December 15, 1904. 


Convention called to order at 2 P. M. 
Vice-President Seeley in the Chair. 


The PRESIDENT. We will open our exercises this afternoon 
with some music. 


Music. 


The PresipENtT. We have this afternoon a very important 
subject to be brought before us, “ Thoroughbred Poultry versus 
Mongrels, from the Farmers’ Standpoint,”’ by Mr. Morris F. 
Delano, of Millville, N. J. 


THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS, 
FROM THE FARMERS’ STANDPOINT. 


By Morris F. DELANO of Millville, N. J. 


Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: Before starting 
my paper I would like to tell you that I fully realize it will be 
very short from a rhetorical standpoint. It is simply a practi- 
cal paper from my own personal experience, and I am simply 
trying to tell it in as interesting a manner as I can. 

The number of farmers who consider the mongrel barn- 
yard fowl “just as good” is growing smaller every year. 
There are several causes that are revolutionizing their point of 
view, and making them realize the value of the thoroughbred 
in poultry, as well as in other live stock. Among the principal 
ones are, first, the press. Every leading agricultural paper now 
has a department devoted to poultry, with its competent poultry 
editor. Original articles are now demanded by readers to fill 
the columns of these departments. The old hit or miss style, 
where the liberal use of the scissors provided the bulk of the 
matter for this department of each paper, no longer goes. 
Farmers are getting more and more particular as to quality of 
reading given them, as number of periodicals to choose from 
multiplies. 


1905.] THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 145 


The growing popularity of poultry topics has been recog- 
nized by our leading newspapers. They often print articles in 
their daily editions, and devote a page in their weekly edition 
to poultry. As a rule they confine themselves to clippings, but 
the near future will alter this, and they will follow the lead of 
the straight agricultural papers, and will add a poultry editor 
to their staff. 

The exclusive poultry press is gaining in numbers, and in 
circulation every day. They are going more and more to the 
farmers, and those interested in the bread and butter side of the 
industry. Several of the leading papers have from twenty-five 
to forty-five thousand subscribers, and their lists are increasing 
at a rapid rate. 

Next in importance in arousing interest, and reaching a 
larger number each year, are the State Agricultural Colleges, 
with their extensive experiments and valuable data collected 
concerning same and put in tabulated form for circulation. 
More and more of our bright lads are learning to appreciate 
the generous living to be earned by following poultry raising 
as a business, and many of them are taking the courses at our 
State colleges, and coming out with their diplomas to wake up 
those of us who have gained our knowledge in the longer 
course of experience. They gain a good theoretical grounding, 
and also have some practical experience instilled in them in a 
much shorter time than they would have gained the same 
knowledge in any other way. 

In the near future, the colleges will demand longer courses, 
and more practical work from their poultry students before 
granting them diplomas, and when this time comes they will 
take an even higher place among the sources of poultry wisdom. 

Many States are introducing Institute work, with lectures 
followed by discussions, at central points. The method of 
your State Board of Agriculture is really better, I believe, as it 
brings more interests together, and is more apt to reach men 
who have never given poultry a serious thought — simply left 
it to their wives to produce pin money with. 

The combination of all these powerful movements, with 
several others I have not mentioned, is doing the poultry indus- 
try a world of good. . 

It has been demonstrated beyond all shadow of doubt, that 
thoroughbred poultry is a bigger money-maker than the mon- 


AGR. —10 


” 


146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


erel, considered from every point of view. Carefully and 
fairly conducted egg contests have proven them to be better 
egg producers. The fowls sold in the open market, after their 
days of usefulness as layers are past, have averaged to weigh 
more and have brought a higher price. The surplus cockerels 
killed off have been much heavier, and consequently brought 
more money. Besides these advantages, every farmer raising 
thoroughbred poultry works up some trade in stock for breed- 
ing purposes. This latter source of income will vary greatly 
with the man. If he will take enough interest in his flock to 
try and make it uniformly good, and will then hustle a bit in 
working up trade, he will soon find this feature of his flock 
bringing in many welcome dollars. Later on I will make a 
few suggestions that may help somewhat along this line. 

As a source of beauty and adornment on the place, the 
thoroughbred easily wins the blue. A man has a large variety 
‘of colors to make his choice among, and, when he has chosen 
his favorite, each one of you will grant that he will enjoy and 
appreciate a uniform flock having color of his choosing much 
more than he will the motley conglomeration of all the rainbow 
hues possessed by the old time mongrels. 

Grade poultry well deserves consideration, and is a big 
improvement over mongrel stock. Vigorous thoroughbred 
male birds, crossed on mongrel females will, as a rule, produce 
cockerels that make better market poultry and pullets that are 
better layers than were the old flpck. It will take a long time 
to build up a flock in this way, but it is far better than the old 
method of inbreeding, or swapping for a likely cockerel with 
one’s neighbors. 

A better class of grade poultry is produced by making first 
crosses of thoroughbreds with an especial purpose in view. 
For instance, a White Leghorn male bird crossed with Light 
Brahma females will produce pullets that are better layers than 
straight Brahmas, and cockerels that mature earlier than do 
the Brahmas, and weigh much more than do the Leghorns. 
A Plymouth Rock-Brahma or a Wyandotte-Brahma cross will 
make better market poultry, but not quite as good a layer as 
does the Leghorn crosses on Plymouth Rocks, and Wyandottes 
produce quicker ,growing broilers and good, plump roasting 
chickens, as well as making a good laying cross. 

All the crosses I have mentioned are good, and are largely 


1905. | THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 147 


grown. My own experience has been that these cross-bred 
chickens are not enough better than the thoroughbred, in the 
particular point you are after, to counterbalance their many 
weak points. 

In choosing cockerels for crossing purposes, breeds to 
cross, or a breed to be kept pure, you should consider thor- 
oughly what you wish it for, and then select the breed that will 
do you the most good. There is some one breed that will 
exactly fill your requirements, and it is then simply a matter 
of your own personal color preference that will determine the 
variety. 

Most breeds have several varieties distinguished by color 
alone. The shape of all varieties of the same breed should be 
the same, but varieties of color are nearly legion. For instance, 
we have ten varieties of the Wyandotte, seven of Leghorns, 
five of Plymouth Rocks, and so on. Before suggesting breeds, 
I will first take up the branches of the industry and outline 
these. 

This is the day of the specialist. The poultry industry is 
beginning to feel the trend in this direction, and the most 
successful poultrymen today are those devoting themselves to 
one, or at most two, of the important branches of the business. 
The chicken is marketable at several stages of its development, 
but to produce the best quality at any given age it is necessary 
to vary the feed right from the shell. 

Market poultry can be graded in five classes ; squab broilers, 
broilers, small roasters, large roasters, and stewing fowls. The 
first class requires a Io to 16 oz. chick. This weight, in good 
order, is reached in five or six weeks. The broiler weighs three 
to four pounds to the pair, and is finished in 8 to 14 weeks 
according to parent stock, and size demanded. In roasting 
chicks, the weights most desirable are from 10 to 12 pounds 
to the pair. Asa rule, they command top prices at this weight. 
There is a growing demand, however, for extra good soft 
roasters, weighing 8 to 12 pounds each. These choice big fel- 
lows are even better eating than are turkeys, and when they 
become more generally appreciated, they will need to be grown 
in large numbers. This top weight has been reached in six 
months. It takes good vigorous parent stock, and an ex- 
perienced feeder to drive them quite as quickly as this, however. 
Stewing fowls are desired plump, with yellow skins, and as 


148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


young as your conscience will force you to put them on the 
market. 

Prices for market poultry are governed, first by trme of 
year, and second by condition. I put the season first simply 
because best prices are determined by fashionable trade to a 
certain extent, and because it is much easier to condition poul- 
try at some parts of the year than at others. 

Good squab broilers rarely ever fall below 60 cents per pair 
in New York, or Philadelphia, while Boston market seldom 
goes as low as this for top quality stock. The highest price I 
ever received was $1.40 per pair for selected chicks in private 
trade. A full season’s record averaged 81 cents per pair for 
the output. Our average cost to produce was about 50 cents 
per pair. This could have been reduced somewhat if we had 
been able to procure more hatchable eggs. Squab broilers are 
used at luncheons, both in private families and at hotels and 
clubs. They make a much better appearance than does a regu- 
lar broiler, served split. 

Broilers should weigh 3 to 4 pounds to the pair, and range 
in price from 20 to 60 cents per pound. Have known price to 
remain constant at 35 cents for six weeks at a time. From 
February to September the average price in a good season will 
be about 32 cents for first quality chicks. The best broiler is 
one we can plump up at eight weeks, and have it reach one 
and one-half pounds weight. This size, in perfect condition, 
and with good yellow legs and skin, will bring top market price. 

It will cost about 30 cents to produce a first class 2-pound 
broiler, and a little less for a 1%4-pound chick. You will see 
that this leaves a good margin of profit in this branch of the 
industry, and market is never over-stocked with Ar products. 

Before going on with roasters, will say a word about feed- 
ing broiler chicks for best results. I have made very careful 
experiments covering several years’ time, and, having tried 
almost every method, have chosen this as the most successful: 

We do not remove chicks from the incubator until they are 
24 to 36 hours old. Simply remove trays, open ventilators, 
and allow machine to run down to a temperature of 95 degrees 
or less. This will allow chicks to finish thoroughly the assimi- 
lation of the yolk of the egg which has been their nourishment 
during the formative period, and will bring them from the 
machine chipper, and ready for trouble. The first feed they 


1905.] THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 149 


get is fine chick grit, and a clean fountain of pure water. We 
then feed a cake composed of bran, rolled oats, enough mid- 
dlings to stick it, fine grit, fine shell, and well mixed with milk. 
No rising timber of any kind is used. This mixture we put in 
large flat pans, and bake in a slow oven for four or five hours. 
When cool, we crumble up, and feed twice a day. The other 
three feeds we give a mixture of cracked grains, seeds, and 
grit, very similar to the leading commercial brands of chick 
feed. The fine grain is thrown in cut clover litter for the first 
few days, but we soon graduate them to planer shavings. We 
try and feed exactly enough to keep their appetites on edge, 
and have them watching eagerly for attendant as he comes 
along with next meal two hours later. The working chick is a 
healthy animal, and conversely, the healthy chick is a worker. 

When we are forcing chicks for broilers we put a box of 
beef scrap in their pen when they are two weeks old, and let 
' them eat what they wish. They will soon become accustomed 
to it, and will not gorge. It is a big factor in producing quick 
growth. Perfect cleanliness is absolutely necessary to suc- 
cessfully raise broiler chickens. 

The production of roasters is getting to be more and more 
a profitable and prominent branch of the poultry industry. 
My personal experience with this branch has been very limited. 
We market each fall several hundred off-colored specimens 
from our thoroughbred flocks, but have never forced growth 
from shell to roaster age. If I were to do so, would start in 
the same as with broiler chicks, but not feed the beef scrap 
until about 3 weeks old. Beginning with the fourth or fifth 
week, would make one feed a day of a good concentrated mash 
food, and gradually increase number of mash feeds until we 
were feeding it three times a day with mixed grains in be- 
tween. This method would help grow larger frames, and not 
force plumpness too quickly. 

The cockerels in a flock of chickens you are raising to the 
roaster age should be caponized for best results. It not only 
increases their eating qualities, and consequently their market 
value, but it makes them docile, and does away with scrap- 
ping proclivities. This will enable them to convert all food 
into growth and not waste any energy in recovering from bat- 
tles with others in the flock. 

The modern cramming machine promises to revolutionize 


150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the fattening of fowls. When marketed they should be 
plump, yellow as gold, and not over-fat. Experiment with 
the machine has produced this result in a shorter time, and 
with no more labor than other methods. 

A poultryman can combine all branches of the market in- 
dustry just described, or, better yet, can combine some one 
branch with the production of ducks for market. The rais- 
ing of broilers will conflict less with the ducks than will the 
production of roasters, as they are turned over more rapidly, 
and easier to drop when work on ducks becomes burdensome. 

A great number of small, as well as large poultrymen, 
specialize on producing market ducks. In some sections, and 
on some farms, the industry has reached enormous propor- 
tions. Two mammoth plants have an annual capacity of 100,- 
000 ducklings. Many others, perhaps better money makers, 


produce 25,000 to 50,000 per annum. Besides these many .,, 


large plants, the number of farmers, or farmers’ wives, taking 
up this branch as a side issue is rapidly increasing. They are 
making money in every instance where they go about it right. 
Perhaps a few hints as to the way we raise ducks on our farm 
will help some of you. 

Our location, on sandy land, gently sloping to the shore of 
a beautiful lake, is almost an ideal one for ducks. Our breed- 
ing ducks have runways into the water, and we find our eggs 
more strongly fertile than are those laid by birds without swim- 
ming pools. To encourage those of you without available 
water, and who wish to give ducks a trial, will say that two 
of the most successful growers of ducks in New England do 
not have any water for their breeding birds to swim in, and 
think they do exactly as well without it. 

We begin setting duck eggs about January Ist, and con- 
tinue until they begin dropping off badly in fertility, or cease 
laying early in July. We hatched a few late in August this 
year, but eggs ran so poorly in fertility at that time of year it 
hardly paid us to bother with them. 

When our ducks finish hatching, we remove trays, and let 
them dry off in the incubator, as we do the chicks. Removing 
them to the brooder house at 36 or even 48 hours of age. 
Our first feed is a crumbly mixture of rolled oats, kiln dried 
bread crumbs, thoroughly mixed with raw egg beaten up, and 
milk. To this we add plenty of fine grit, and give pure water 


1905. | THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS., I51 


in clean fountains, giving depth enough for them to wash their 
nostrils, but not room enough to get in all over. We drop the 
egg, and work in a little middlings, meal, and beef after the 
first week. After the third week, drop the oats, and cut down 
the crumbs, and feed bran, middlings, and meal with about 5 
per cent. beef scraps. The amount of meal and scrap we in- 
crease gradually, until at 6 or 7 weeks they are getting nearly 
half meal, and 15 per cent. scrap. At 10 weeks old our ducks 
will weigh Io to 12 pounds to the pair when fed on this diet. 

Prices for green ducks range from I5 to 35 cents per 
pound. The average price for best quality is about 18 cents 
for the season. It costs 50 to 60 cents to grow a duck to Io 
weeks age, leaving about 40 cents profit on each duckling 
computed on average prices for season. 

We use artificial means altogether in producing our market 
poultry, and, whether you raise 100 or 1,000 or more young- 
sters a year, it will pay you to give the incubator and brooder 
a thorough trial. They work when you want them to, and 
produce early youngsters to catch the high prices. Poultry 
raising on a large scale is absolutely impossible without their 
use. 

Geese are profitable to raise where one has pasture to 
turn them out on. They will require almost no grain food, 
and are nearly clear profit when marketed at Thanksgiving or 
Christmas time. 

Turkeys are rather hard to rear, but a sure market awaits 
the successful grower, and prices average higher every year. 

In marketing all kinds of poultry they should be dry picked 
to command top prices. Most sections of the country have a 
more or less competent man who does this work by the piece. 
We pay 3% cents each for chicks, and 7 cents each for ducks. 

In producing broilers, I have used eggs from mongrels 
picked up within a radius of ten miles of our farm, at a price 
3 cents per dozen above the market price — eggs from Leg- 
horn crosses on Plymouth Rocks, and on Wyandottes, and eggs 
from thoroughbred Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, and a few 
other breeds. 

We have had some fair hatches and produced some At 
broilers from the mongrel eggs. The average quality was not 
good however. Our grade eggs have done better, and have 
made good chicks to weigh one pound each at six weeks age. 


152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


Our thoroughbreds have averaged nearly as well at six weeks 
age, and after that time have run right away from both mon- 
grels and grades. For two years, now, we have raised nothing 
but thoroughbreds, and the rapidly increasing number of 
broiler raisers who are willing to pay $60 per 1,000 for eggs 
from good thoroughbred Plymouth Rocks, and Wyandottes 
proves that my experience is not unique in this respect. Last 
year we sold nearly 30,000 eggs for hatching, and this year our 
trade promises to exceed this amount. Am citing this merely 
to give you an idea of what the demand is for thoroughbred 
products at prices well in advance of market rates for eggs. 

During the fifteen years since 1889, I have tried nearly 
every popular variety. Will give you a brief synopsis of my 
experience, and reasons for choosing and retaining the varieties 
I now breed. 

My first thoroughbreds were Brown Leghorns, and Light 
Brahmas. At the same time I had a flock of cross-bred buff 
fowls, very similar to the present-day Buff Plymouth Rock, 
but several years before the latter were introduced as a dis- 
tinct variety. The Leghorns were good layers of medium- 
sized eggs. They were nervous, impossible to confine without 
mutilation with ordinary wire, and color of egg shell was 
against them on Cape Cod, where I had my early experience 
with poultry. 

The Brahmas were quite good winter layers of brown- 
shelled eggs of splendid size, and found them very profitable 
from that point of view. They were slow in growing to mar- 
ketable condition, and in maturing, and made poor market 
poultry below the roasting weight of eight pounds. The hens 
are also heavy awkward mothers. 

My buffs were good layers of fair-sized eggs. Made splen- 
did mothers, and were comparatively easy to break up from 
sitting. The chicks made rapid growth, and were ready to 
market in July and August, when my summer resort trade 
demanded them. They filled every requirement for me, ex- 
cepting at that time I did not consider them thoroughbred. 
Can trace my present fondness for the Buff Plymouth Rock 
right back to this flock of single-combed buff fowls that gave 
me such excellent results when I was a boy. 

The Langshan boom now came on in full blast, and I dis- 
carded Brahmas to make room for their lordly Chinese breth- 


1905.| | THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 153 
ren. Added both blacks and whites, and the next year the 
Barred Plymouth Rock. 

The Langshans are splendid winter layers, excellent 
mothers, and Ar flavor as table fowls. They have but one 
serious fault. The black, feathered shanks and white skin on 
the black variety, and blue shanks and white skin on the white 
variety absolutely spoil them as high-class market poultry, 
and make them second quality. These defects are all that pre- 
vent the Langshan from becoming one of our leading general- 
purpose fowls. 

The white shanks and white skin of the new English Or- 
pingtons will prevent them, too, from becoming popular in 
this country, as, to be widely bred, a breed must conform with 
the general requirements of the public taste. So far they 
demand yellow legs and skin on dressed poultry, and I have 
seen no signs of their becoming educated to anything different. 

The Barred Rock filled a niche in my regard from which no 
other variety has succeeded in ousting them. They are today, 
and probably will always be, one of our leading general pur- 
pose fowls. Their only drawback being dark pinfeathers when 
dressed for market. The buff and white varieties combine the 
good qualities of the barred, without this single defect. Their 
light-colored pinfeathers make theirs a most attractive carcass 
when picked by the expert. The Plymouth Rocks, barred, 
buff, or white, are good winter layers, first quality table poultry 
at any age, ideal mothers, and they are fine docile birds, stand- 
ing confinement well, or able to hustle for themselves where 
they are given the opportunity. 

The White Wyandottes were added to my yards in ’98, and 
have qualities that are unexcelled. Their rose combs, fitting 
closely to the head, are practically frost proof with ordinary 
protection. Their earlier maturity makes them lay a month 
ahead of the Rock in the fall, and this about counterbalances 
their being one pound smaller. Their laying qualities and 
well-rounded carcass when dressed make them the only serious 
rival the Plymouth Rock has as a general purpose fowl. 

In 1900 when moving from New England to southern 
New Jersey to start our present farm, I took with me a flock 
of 600 Barred, Buff, and White Plymouth Rocks, and White 
Wyandottes. That year added Buff Wyandottes to our flocks, 
and sold the White Rocks. 


154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


On account of warmer climate, my thoughts now turned 
to the Mediterranean varieties, and bought a flock of nearly 
300 Buff Leghorns, and some Minorcas. One winter’s ex- 
perience with these varieties was enough. They did not lay 
as well, with same attention, as did our other varieties, and 
the Leghorns were too wild and nervous to run in our yards 
containing oak trees. When time came for winter quarters 
we found it necessary to run them down daytimes, as a number 
of them preferred the tops of the trees as sleeping quarters to 
the comfortable coops provided for them. The Minorcas we 
discarded without quite as thorough trial, as they did not suit 
me personally, and wished to cut down breeds. 

That spring we bought over 1,000 Rhode Island Red eggs 
from the leading breeders and had quite a flock of them when 
fall came. They ran from light red through all shades of 
buff and yellow to pure white, and from dark red through the 
smoky shades to pure black. Selected the best birds and 
found them to be excellent winter layers and good hardy fowls. 
Did not find them ahead of our buff varieties in any way, and 
knew it would hurt our trade in fancy buffs to have a fowl on 
the place that was liable to breed specimens of a buff color, 
hence closed them all out the next year. 

During the past five years the Red breeders have made a 
wonderful amount of improvement in the uniformity of color 
in their flocks, as well as in excellence of individual specimens. 
They are a valuable general purpose fowl, and, while pins are 
a little darker than those of the buff and white varieties, they 
rival either in attractive appearance of the dressed product. 

During the past five years have made experiments with 
pens of Golden and Silver Wyandottes, White Leghorns, again 
with Brahmas and Langshans, and added the White Plymouth 
Rock once more. In turn they have been discarded, excepting 
the whites, and I now give my unqualified endorsement to the 
Barred, Buff, and White Plymouth Rock, and the Buff and 
White Wyandotte, as being the best all-round general-purpose 
fowl in existence, with Rhode Island Reds their nearest com- 
petitor. This is the result of my own personal experience, 
and not influenced in the least by the opinions of others. 

In choosing which variety of the above to give a trial, I will 
simply advise that you take the one best suited to your personal 
taste in color or form. ‘They vary so little in egg production, 


1905.] THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 155 


and in other desirable qualities, that hardly any two experi- 
ments or series of tests would bring the same variety out in the 
lead. We are all human, and, in a neck and neck race, most 
of us would be inclined to give a friendly push to our favorite. 
For this reason we are apt to do best with what we personally 
prefer. You will make no mistake in choosing any one of the 
five varieties named. 

In choosing a variety of ducks, we are not confronted by 
such a bewildering array as with chickens. We do not need 
to even consider the mongrel, or common puddle ducks, as at 
maturity they are no larger than the Pekins are at eight weeks 
of age. : 

Everyone knowing even the rudiments of duck culture will 
know that the Imperial Pekin Duck is raised by the thousand 
in America, while all other varieties combined are raised by 
the score. This is caused principally by the fact that, from the 
growers’ standpoint, they are an ideal duck. They are good 
eating, with plump, well-filled-out breasts; are quiet in their 
habits, with neither ability nor inclination to fly ; while they are 
splendid layers of hatchable eggs, hearty eaters, and put on 
meat and flesh more rapidly than does any other duck. A 
two-foot fence will retain them, so expensive yards are un- 
necessary. These many good points make them profitable to 
raise. 

The Rouen is colored very similarly to the Wild Mallard, 
and is more delicate in flavor of its meat than is the Pekin. 
They should weigh one pound more than the Pekin, but will 
hardly average as large. They will not grow as rapidly, but 
put on flesh very fast, it being quite hard to keep them in good 
breeding order. Several farms are making a specialty of 
growing them for private trade, and there is plenty of market 
for a larger number every year. 

The Muscovy, white or black and white in color, has many 
characteristics in common with chickens. They can fly as 
well, though probably not as far, as can the wild ducks. Our 
lake is about three-quarters of a mile wide opposite our farm, 
and our young Muscovies thought nothing of flying across and 
back for the exercise. Returning they would light in trees, 
on roofs of buildings, or on the ground, as their fancy dictated. 
Muscovies have been known to nest in hollow trees, up in the 
manger in the barn, and in other places where they are not apt 


156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. _ [ Jan., 


to be molested, just as hens will. I have never had a Muscovy 
egg fail to hatch, when set on by a Muscovy duck. Have also 
never lost a duckling when the mother duck was left with her 
brood. They are the most fearless variety of ducks I know 
of, and quite easy to tame and make pets of if one has patience. 
Other varieties are too nervous and excitable, the Pekin being 
notably so. Another pleasant feature, where one has near 
neighbors, is the inability to quack. The Muscovy talks in a 
hoarse whisper, and never makes enough noise to annoy any 
one. The loud quacking of ordinary ducks makes them objec- 
tionable to any one within hearing not having a monetary 
interest. 

As a market duck the Muscovy is excellent. Plump, full- 
meated breast, and the minimum amount of fat, even on AI 
market specimens. The defects in the Muscovy as an ideal 
market duck and that prevent its more general growth are three 
in number. First is the difficulty in yarding them. They will 
require quite high fences, and without crippling them when 
they are half grown no fence will retain them. This requires 
covered pens and excessive cost. Second, the difference in 
weight of males and females. <A flock at ten weeks old will 
not average as large as a flock of Pekins of same age. The 
Muscovy males will run overweight, but the females will be 
considerably smaller. Third, but not least, is the pugnacity 
of the male bird during the breeding season. He will tackle 
anything living, and with anywhere near an even chance will 
come out ahead. With his powerful wings striking with hard 
butts and sharp claws, he makes a formidable antagonist. 

Will never forget the first Muscovy drake I attempted to 
catch. I caught him by the neck, as I would have any other 
duck. Mr. Muscovy objected, however, brought both feet up 
quickly, and catching me at the wrist with his toenails, 
scratched clear to the ends of my fingers. It was several weeks 
before I lost the traces of my reminder, and you can rest 
assured I knew how to capture a Muscovy after that. 

The Cayuga should weigh as much as the Pekin, and so, of 
course is larger than our Wild Cayuga duck. They do not 
average anywhere near the standard weight and make a very 
acceptable substitute for the wild duck in the market. It is a 
beautiful bird in the sun, with its iridescent, greenish-black 
plumage, and will beautify any place. 


1905.] | THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 157 


The Aylesbury is the most popular market duck in England, 
and is grown there very much as the Pekin is here. It is a 
pound heavier than the Pekin, and pearly white in color, with 
flesh-colored legs and bill. The Pekin plumage is creamy 
white, and so differs from Aylesbury 1 in shade of color as well 
as in shape. The Aylesbury carriage is more horizontal, and 
body should be rounded without eet As with chickens, the 
American market demands the yellow legs and bill of the Pekin. 
The Aylesbury is a good layer, and aneniae quickly, is a 
very desirable duck. 

The new Swedish duck seems to be at a standstill, and not 
gaining in popularity. Indian Runners, too, have not taken 
hold well here. They may lay more eggs than the larger 
varieties, but their small size is against them. 

All other ducks are more or less ornamental. Any farmer 
whose land borders on a lake, or who has a brook or pool on his 
farm, can add an extremely attractive feature, as well as a 
money-maker, by building a pen and stocking it with Wood, 
Mandarin, or Call ducks, or some of the species of Teal. 

Any duck classed as practical, will prove profitable as a 
market bird, and will pay back a good income from a compara- 
tively small investment. 

Geese, turkeys, and Guineas are all sources of profit to the 
farm, and, more are raised in small flocks by farmers’ wives 
throughout the country, than are grown in any other way. 
There are few farms where unusually large flocks of either are 
kept, but a large number that make a good profit from their 
flocks. 

If one has a low, marshy meadow bordering on a stream 
he cannot find a way to make it more profitable than by turn- 
ing a flock of good geese loose to graze on same. 

The Toulouse is most popular, with the Embden a close 
second. The former are gray, laced with white on back and 
breast, solid gray heads and necks, and white underneath. 
They are a big, low, firm-set goose, and an invaluable variety. 

My choice is the Embden. Their pure white plumage, 
orange bill and legs, and clear, bright blue eyes make a very 
attractive combination of colors. Their carriage is a trifle 
more graceful than that of the Toulouse, and they are exactly 
as large and equally productive. 

The African is a good goose, and it is claimed will lay 
more eggs than do the Toulouse and Embden. 


158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


The China varieties, white and brown, are somewhat 
smaller, but of a good size for market, and extremely produc- 
tive. They are a profitable goose to keep. 

I had the pleasure of judging the geese at the World’s Fair, 
St. Louis, poultry show. Have never before seen so many 
good geese in the showroom at one time, and the quality of 
the winners was grand. It was very interesting to me to note 
which section of the country produced the best geese, and was 
surprised to find how little this big collection taught me along 
this line. Will simply cite the Toulouse class to show you 
how well the prizes were distributed. The winning old gan- 
der was from Minnesota, the old goose from Pennsylvania, 
the young gander from Illinois, and the young goose from 
Canada. 

We did not make a success with geese because we have no 
pasture for them, and it cost us too much to buy all their feed 
from shell to marketable age. Our soil is light and sandy, and 
will not grow a grass with a heavy enough sod. It pulls up too 
easily. Below us, on the salt marshes, they are raised in large 
numbers. 

Have never raised turkeys or Guineas, but know there is a 
good profit in growing both of them, and, as I said before, the 
large farms do not monopolize the trade. 

After we have started a flock of any thoroughbred variety 
we want to know how good they are, and ask ourselves if we 
have better birds than-our neighbors, who breed the same 
varieties. Naturally, we think we have, and, just as naturally, 
he prefers his own. There is a good opportunity given to 
have an unprejudiced third party decide this question at every 
fall fair in the country, and at winter poultry shows held in 
most every city in your State. There is no place where one 
can learn as much in a day about his favorite variety as he can 
at a poultry show, where he puts his birds alongside the other 
fellows and then studies out the strong and weak points in 
each bird. A little of this experience will soon teach him 
where to strengthen his flock, and the next year he will come 
back determined to do better, and will be able to show better 
birds. 

Even a local reputation of owning a winning flock will ena- 
ble a man to easily sell some cockerels for breeding, and also 
a few surplus pullets each year at prices well above the market 


1905. | THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. I59 


value. An advertisement in a neighboring agricultural or 
poultry paper will help find new customers and, if the man or 
woman possesses the true fancier’s spirit, it may be the start- 
ing point of a good-sized and growing fancy poultry plant. 

It will take considerable correspondence and office work 
to sell fancy poultry for the show or breeding pen, but, if the 
best birds you can spare each year are sold at good prices, it 
will help to increase your profits and be worth the labor. 

The ideal plant from a money-making point of view, 
whether a side issue on a farm or run as an exclusive poultry 
plant, is a combination of market and fancy poultry. One 
should not carry on all branches of the market industry, but 
should specialize on one or two, and combine with this the 
thoroughbred branch. On our own farm we raise several 
thousand ducks for market each year, and several thousand 
thoroughbred chickens. At broiler weight we market all the 
chickens we know will not make good breeders or show birds, 
and in the fall we market all that do not develop as well as 
they promised to earlier in the season. This leaves us about 
2,000 selected birds to sell each year, and we find no difficulty 
in disposing of them. 

The most important thing in starting any branch of fhe 
poultry industry is to approach it seriously. Treat it as a busi- 
ness proposition and consider carefully each step you take. 
If you have means and not sufficient knowledge hire the knowl- 
edge. We would not close our eyes and jump blindly into any 
ordinary business, yet that is exactly what many have done in 
the poultry business. Let us all remember that we must 
creep before we can walk, and start ina small way. If we will 
thoroughly learn each step and then work the business up to 
the point where our bump of precaution bids us stop, we are 
sure to be successful. 

If every beginner will use these precautions, the poultry 
industry would show no larger percentage of failures than does 
any other business, and the people will more fully realize the 
exact truth, that the raising of thoroughbred poultry for eggs, 
market, and breeding purposes is a sound and respectable 
business, and one that annually produces more dollars than 
any other product of our farms. 


160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


DISCUSSION. 

Question. What is the value of Guinea hens? 

Mr. DeLtAno. Since the interstate laws, the game laws, 
have gone into effect, Guineas have had a ready market. They 
are used by hotel proprietors in place of partridge and other 
game. They have a decidedly gamey flavor. It is against 
the law to send Guineas from one State to another all over the 
country. 

Question. What kind of grain rations do you give poul- 
try to make them lay eggs the year around? 

Mr. DELANO. We never mix grains of any kind. We use 
wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, and corn. Our birds get a 
corn ration twice a week. They do get corn in a mash food, 
in a cake which we bake, composed of corn, oats, middlings, 
and bran, then we mix that with beef scrap. 

Question. Which would you feed in the morning, grain 
or the soft feed? 

Mr. Detano. Hard grain in the morning and soft feed at 
night. I presume more farmers feed the other way around. 
There are a number of good reasons for following either course. 
The only reason I can see for not feeding the hard grain at 
night is that it will stay in their crop longer and not work 
through as quickly as the mash. On the contrary, after a hen 
is gorged with mashed feed it is very apt to go on the roost 
and sit down and wait for it to digest. It is the birds that 
work the hardest that lay the most eggs. 

The PresipentT. Do you always thrash it for them? 

Mr. DeLANo. We do not raise grain, simply buy it already 
thrashed. 

Question. How many birds do you think it wise to have 
in a flock together ? 

Mr. DeELANo. It all depends on the condition of the coop. 
If they have a large-sized yard, perhaps twelve or fifteen. 
You will get more eggs from fifteen than from twenty-five. 
If they have free range you can keep almost any number — 
forty, fifty, or a hundred. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 161 


Question. Why do you prefer to feed corn and barley 
without mixing? 

Mr. Devano. For the same reason that I do not want 
beef, mutton, and chicken all in one meal; I want variety. I 
have no other reason for it. 

The PresipENT. Do you give them all they want to eat? 

Mr. Deano. I like to keep them a wee bit hungry. If 
they get all they want to eat they get lazy and get fat. 

Question. If there is a market value for Guinea eggs, 
what are they for layers? 

Mr. DeLtano. I have had no experience with Guineas at 
all. I have never raised one, but there is a market for 
Guineas. They are never less than 75 cents a pair, and quite 
often bring a dollar a pair when half grown. 

The Presipent. Do you think that it is in consequence of 
the game laws? 

Mr. DELANO. Yes. 

Question. Is dry bone all right? 

Mr. Detano. All right, yes, but I think most of the feed- 
ing properties are taken out of it. Oyster shells answer the 
same purpose. 

Question. Hasn’t there been some discussion the past 
year over feeding mash without wetting? Do your fowls eat 
it in that manner? 

Mr. DeLANo. I never experimented with a dry mash. I 
can’t tell you whether it has any advantages or not. 

Question. I sometimes think that if you had a good deal 
of hired help there might be a possibility of their wetting it 
too much. 

Mr. Detano. Not if you are anywhere around to watch 
the help. Our chickens get dry food altogether. They get 
two meals a day of this cake which we bake that has milk 
baked in it. 

Question. If you had plenty of skimmed milk would you 
advise a dry feed? 


AGR.—II 


162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. DeEtano. I would give them milk in fountains. 
There is nothing better than milk. 

Question. But you don’t mix it in their feed? 

Mr. DELANO. We mix it in this cake which we bake, we 
mix that with milk instead of water. 

QuEsTIon. Do you consider it necessary to study the dif- 
ferent feeds —the use of protein or anything of that nature, 
as we do in cattle? 

Mr. DELANO. Yes; it is a very good point. I think prob- 
ably protein will be used more than clover as a basis to work 
mashed food on. In making a mash food we always use some 
clover hay because it contains a high percentage of protein, and 
I think makes a better food. 

QuEsTION. How about wheat screenings? 

Mr. DELANO. We never use them at all. We buy the best 
wheat we can get. 

Question. Do you prefer wheat to barley? . 

Mr. DeLaAno. I feed them both. I like to give the hens all 
the variety I can. We use five or six kinds of hard grain all 
the while, only we feed them one at a time. 

Question. Won’t a hen as a rule prefer barley to wheat? 

Mr. DetaAno. I think my hens like wheat better than any 
other grain, better than corn, but I think flocks of hens differ 
in that respect. I think they care as little for oats as anything, 
but if they are fed oats alone they have got to eat them. 

The PrEsIDENT. When we came to our oat harvest and 
carried our oats into the barn, the chickens came and picked 
them up, and we noticed that when hens hadn’t been laying at 
all they would begin to lay and keep it up as long as the oats 
lasted which had been dropped around. 

Mr. DELANO. Probably the main feed before that time had 
been corn and the oats acted as a tonic. 

Question. How about wheat screenings? 

Mr. DELANO. Wheat screenings are always full of elevator 
dust, and elevator dust will get into the throats of the chickens 
and irritate them and cause canker and various other things. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 163 


Question. I would like to ask why a hen doesn’t lay that 
is fed on wheat, bran, corn, oats, wheat, and oyster shells ? 

Mr. Detano. I think you have asked me a poser. If you 
will go on and describe their quarters, how they are kept, what 
kind of hens, how old they are, how many lice they have, per- 
haps I can tell better. 

QuesTION. When they have a good airy house, and warm. 

Mr. Detano. It is a very hard thing to get eggs in the 
off season from any flock of hens. 

Question. There is one mongrel that lays, a Rhode Island 
Red; she lays an egg every day, but none of the rest of them 
ever think of it. 

Mr. DeLano. Is that flock overfed? 

Question. I don’t know as to that; they are very well fed. 

Mr. DeLANo. Do you feed any animal food of any kind? 

QUESTION. Some. 

Mr. DELANO. How much? 

QuEsTION. Once in a while. 

Mr. DeLano. Increase the ratio. The hens can’t get many 
worms now. ‘ 

Question. You spoke of hens being too fat. How much 
do you feed them? 

Mr. DeLtano. I want them to turn away from the food a 
little hungry ; I don’t mean half fed. 

QueEsTIon: In the old country they often feed rye. What 
is the objection to rye? 

Mr. DeLtano. I have been told ever since I was a young 
man that rye was injurious to poultry. I have never fed it, 
never experimented with it ; simply took it on hearsay evidence. 

Question. I would say in regard to rye that I have fussed 
with poultry for several years. I was on a place once where a 
good deal of rye was raised. I had been feeding wheat, but I 
had the rye on hand and it was slow of sale, and I thought 
perhaps I could make the rye take the place of the wheat, but 
it seemed to be almost impossible for me to get the hens to eat 
the rye, it was something they didn’t seem to like. 


164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. Detano. I have heard it is the last grain they will eat 
if they are given ten or a dozen kinds, but personally I have 
never tried it. 

Question. What about apples, potatoes, and fruit for 
poultry? 

Mr. DELANo. You can’t do better than feed them, although 
there is very little value in potato except when used in a mash. 

Question. I think raw potatoes would’answer the same 
purpose. I fed them in the fall and they answered very well. 
Last winter I had plenty of turnips, and we boiled them and 
mixed them with coarse wheat bran, and the result from that 
or some other cause was that I sold quite a large number of 
dozen of eggs at fifty cents a dozen. 

Mr. DeLano. If you had gone a little further and added a 
little corn, oats, and middlings to your mash, and a little beef 
scrap you would probably have sold more eggs at fifty cents 
a dozen. 

Question. Right here I would like to ask you is it possible 
to feed barred Plymouth Rocks so that they will lay eggs the 
last of November and December, when they are worth fifty cents 
a dozen? 

Mr. DELANO. Yes, because I have had them do it. 

Question. I have tried it two or three years. I have 
taken the best possible care of them. Three or four years ago 
I had about thirty young pullets hatched about the 20th of 
March, the nicest ones I ever raised. I took the best possible 
care of them, and about the first of November I put them in a 
pen where they had plenty of room for exercise, fed them 
fresh meat, gave them a mash with pepper in it, but up to the 
first of January I couldn’t get but three or four eggs a day. 
About the first of January they began to lay and up to within 
three weeks or so they have been laying an egg a day. I have 
spoken with others that had Barred Plymouth Rocks and they 
told me it was pretty hard work to get eggs early. They had 
a large run in the orchard and yard, had plenty of fallen fruit 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 165 


to pick up, had plenty of skimmed milk; I have a good warm 
henhouse and everything to keep them comfortable. Neigh- 
bors of mine that have Barred Plymouth Rocks say they can’t 
get pullets to lay in November and December. I would like to 
know how to do it. 

Mr. DeLtano. Perhaps they are too large. I have found 
that the medium-sized birds are always the best layers. A big 
bird is not usually as good a layer as perhaps an undersized 
bird of the same breed. The barred Plymouth Rock will put 
on fat very easily and the egg production is always spoiled by 
fat. They are a very easy bird to fatten. 

Question. Is there any large bird like the Plymouth Rocks 
that you can get to lay in November and December ? 

Mr. DeLtano. Yes, there are. I don’t consider the Barred 
Plymouth Rocks impossible, although perhaps not quite as good 
a layer as other varieties. Personally I have found some of the 
other birds a little better layers. The White Wyandotte will 
lay in November, the Buff Wyandotte, and also the White 
Plymouth Rock. 

QueEsTIoN. Would the difference in climate make a differ- 
ence? 

Mr. DELANO. Yes, it would make a difference, but birds 
all over the country didn’t do well last year. 

Question. What do you think of artificial heat? 

Mr. DeLano. Better not let the birds out doors at all if 
you give them artificial heat. I don’t believe in artificial heat 
for laying stock. 

QuEsTION. One man told me today that they kick the hens 
out in the snow and let them run, and they lay 100 per cent. 
better than hens confined in houses. It is contrary to what I 
have been taught. 

Mr. DeLANno. You know whether you consider the man 
truthful or not. 

Question. There is an old farmer lives next door to us 
that has a flock of perhaps 30 or 40 mongrel hens, and he has 


166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


nothing but an old shed which has been built I00 years; 
cracks in it 114 inches wide all around the sides, the roof isn’t 
tight and the snow drifted in there during this last storm. Out 
in the yard he has corn lying there before them all the time, 
which is all the food they get, and those hens have been laying 
all winter, and they are still laying; he gets 20 eggs from 30 
hens. 

Mr. Deano. I think that is the exception that proves the 
rule. 

QuEsTION. He does it every winter ; always has done it. 

Mr. Derano. The fact of having 1% inch cracks all 
around the house probably explains it. | 

Question. I would like to say in regard to large Plymouth 
Rocks that I have a flock of 18 large Plymouth Rocks and a 
dozen Black Minorca pullets, and they are all fed on wheat 
screenings and beef scraps in hoppers. The Black Minorca 
pullets are laying, almost 100 per cent., but from the Barred 
Plymouth Rocks the most I get is two out of the 18. That is 
different perhaps from most theories, but I notice that poultry 
fanciers are taking up the hopper dry-feeding plan and find 
that it works very well indeed. 

The PresipentT. I see Mr. Stoneburn of the Connecticut 
Agricultural College, here, and I hope he will favor us with 
some remarks on this subject. 

Mr. STONEBURN. I always have a plenty of poultry talk 
on tap, but I don’t know what line you want me to take up. 
The subject has been admirably covered, but there are one or 
two things which came to me during this talk, and possibly a 
word or two along that line might be acceptable. 

In the first place the speaker asked the question, “ How 
good are they?” in reference to the stock a man should have. 
There are several standpoints by which we shall answer that 
question. In the first place, how good are they from show 
points, or as performers in the next box? I am inclined to 
believe that the average fancier — I am open to conviction here 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 167 


—I believe that the average fancier in breeding for show 
purposes, who notices only the head, the marking of the feath- 
ers, etc., and disregards the egg production and everything else, 
is making a mistake if he is doing it for thoroughbred stock 
on the farm. If he wants to put eggs on the market at fifty 
cents a dozen I think he is making a mistake. 

As an illustration: I was over near Syracuse the other day 
visiting a breeder of White Wyandottes, and he had most beau- 
tiful birds from a fancier’s standpoint. That man is working 
to build up a heavy egg producing strain and has birds with 
records of 240 eggs in 365 days. But it isn’t the show birds 
that are doing the laying. And so I say the man who is going 
to take up thoroughbred poultry must bear in mind in selecting 
his birds — must take into consideration what he is going to 
breed for. There is no doubt in my mind that the thorough- 
bred egg producer is the bird that makes the record, and when 
we decide the value of a bird by the number of points in his 
comb we are getting away from the farmer—the average 
farmer — I believe. 

Now, there is another thing. The average farmer, I am 
convinced from what observations I have been able to make, 
makes a mistake in the handling of these birds. I think there 
is a lack of knowledge regarding the proper way of handling 
poultry to get good results. The man who will not keep his 
birds high grade had better keep his old mongrels. If you 
have a lot of undersized birds that have been accustomed to 
roost in that old shed you will probably get better results from 
them than if you took high-bred birds and put them in the old 
shed and let their combs freeze. 

The speaker said that he had no use for the Leghorns. 
We keep nothing but the Leghorns. Why? Because we have 
a trade that demands a white-shelled egg. Further, we have a 
short summer season and the Leghorn will come on to egg lay- 
ing maturity sooner than any other bird that I know of. 

The question of variety will have to come down, as the 


168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


speaker said, to handling the bird that you like, but you evi- 
dently like the bird that will meet your requirements. 

The speaker also spoke of the ‘ 
the high-grade market poultry. We have a fattening house 
there and we have room for 750 birds. We put in perhaps 250 
birds each week and the birds gain from two to six pounds. 
We ship to some of the high-grade clubs in the Adirondacks, 
also have a very nice college trade at Columbia University. 
We are buying at this time poultry that costs us ten cents a 
pound alive. We put it in the crate for three weeks and it 
gains about 50 per cent. in live weight, and we sell it dressed 
at 20 to 22 cents a pound. The demand is far in excess of the 


“cramming” process for 


supply. I fully concur with what the gentleman said in this: 
that that is the method by which our high-grade market poultry 
is all to be finished in the future. It takes four men a little over 
an hour to feed that stock with our two cramming machines. 
Possibly some of you don’t know what these machines are. 
There is a receptacle in which the food is placed after being 
finely ground and mixed with milk —a cylinder in which there 
is a plunger, a long tube which is inserted in the bird’s throat, 
and by the movement of a lever the food is forced into the crop. 
That cramming process is used twice a day, in the morning and 
at night. Two men, one to hand the birds from the crate, the 
other to operate the machine, will cram from 300 to 400 birds 
in an hour. There is not a doubt that this is the highest grade 
of market poultry, and I believe that we of New England and 
the Middle States have got to come to it, as the west is now 
producing such high-grade market poultry at approximately 
the same prices received for eastern stuff. 

Now, just a word regarding turkeys. The time was, within 
the memory of many of the gentlemen of this audience, when 
every New England farm had its flock of turkeys, but’ you 
can’t raise them today very successfully. Why? Because of 
that fearful disease that we term “ blackhead.” It swept New 
England and decimated the flocks, and it is almost impossible 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 169 


to raise turkeys in New England. Keep your eye on the Rhode 
Island Agricultural Experiment Station. They are at this 
station devoting a large part of their available funds to work- 
ing out the problem of overcoming that disease and restoring 
the bird to its old place, king of table poultry, in New England. 

I know that all our experiment stations and colleges, sooner 
or later, are going to come to this investigation of poultry 
subjects and to the teaching of poultry culture, and the sooner 
that time comes the better for all concerned. 

Mr. Presipent. I would like to ask a little more about this 
cramming business, this cramming machine. Whether a per- 
son of average intelligence, fairly bright hired man, would be 
able to use the machine fairly successfully. 

Mr. StoNEBuRN. I can answer that from my own ex- 
perience. We are running a correspondence school for poultry 
culture, and we have a great number of students. We have 
what we call a “ residence course.” We have students on our 
farm at all times and these men are doing our cramming. It 
is a very simple process ; no trouble whatever. 

Question. I would like to inquire the price of these ma- 
chines. 

Mr. STtoNEBURN. They vary. There are several machines 
made. There is one made up in Massachusetts, I don’t know 
the address. It is called the King machine. 

Secretary Brown. I wish to say, gentlemen, before you 
leave, that there is an exhibit in the lower hall that is well worth 
your inspection, the exhibit of fruit, and the exhibit which 
Dr. Clinton has made in regard to the investigation of the 
potato diseases at the Connecticut Experiment Station and also 
by the Agricultural College at Storrs, all of which are not only 
interesting, but very instructive. 

Convention adjourned to 7.30 P. M. 


170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


EVENING SESSION. 
TuHurspay, December 15, 1904. 


Convention called to order at 7.30 Pp. M., Vice-President 
Seeley in the Chair. 

The PresIDENT. First we will have a song, “’Way Down 
on the Suwanee River.” 

Song. 

The Presipent. The subject of the address this evening 
is “ The Geology of Connecticut as Related to Its Water Sup- 
ply.” A year ago we had something of this kind and it cre- 
ated a great deal of interest. There is a good deal of interest 
taken in this question, especially in this State of Connecticut, 
and not only here but it extends to the State of New York, 
particularly in regard to her future water supply. We have 
with us this evening a gentleman who is going to instruct us 
still further upon this interesting question, Professor H. E. 
Gregory of Yale University, New Haven, whom I am pleased 
to introduce to the audience. 

Owing to the protracted illness of Professor Gregory, his 
article will not appear in this Report. 


MORNING SESSION — THIRD DAY. 


DECEMBER 16, 1904. 


Convention called to order at IO A. M. 
Vice-President Seeley in the chair. 


The PresipentT. I would ask the audience to rise and sing 
“ Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow.” 

Hymn. 

The Presipent. The program this morning calls for an 
address upon the “Care and Cultivation of Tobacco in the 
Connecticut Valley.”” We are to listen to an address on that 
subject by Mr. W. F. Andross of East Hartford, Conn., whom 
I will now introduce to you. 


CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. I7I 


THE CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN 
THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 


By Mr. W. F. Anpross, East Hartford, Conn. 


Many years ago, almost with the advent of agriculture in 
the Connecticut valley, whose fertile soils early attracted the 
attention of the settlers, the farmers of those days began, in 
a very modest way, to cultivate a plant adopted from Virginian 
soils. The settlers of Virginia received it from the island of 
Cuba, where it was discovered by the Spaniards under Colum- 
bus. It having been used for centuries by the native Indians, 
according to their statement, by whom it was called “ Uppo- 
woc,” and, receiving its first introduction to the civilized world 
through Sir Walter Raleigh, it soon spread and became a source 
of much revenue to the planters of Virginia, who in 1620, the 
time of the pilgrim fathers, were shipping to England large 
quantities of the leaf, where it was already a government 
monopoly. At just what time this plant was first cultivated in 
the Connecticut valley is unknown, but-at first it was only for 
individual purposes, or as a curiosity. It was a long time 
afterward before it became a commodity of trade. At first the 
methods of growing it were extremely crude and unsatis- 
factory; but from this small beginning the plant grew and 
thrived on the virgin soils of the valley until in agricultural 
importance it overshadows all others, and in its insidious way 
it crept all over the world. Its influence is felt in every country, | 
whether civilized or savage. Many strange things may be 
said of this remarkable plant. From this green plant, growing 
with mushroom rapidity, not very imposing to the eye, there 
emanates an influence felt the world over. There has been 
more literature produced on this subject than on any other ap- 
pertaining to the virtues of one plant, there being, in the library 
of nicotines in New York, over 300 volumes devoted to this 
plant alone. It will grow wider in extremes of climate, more 
legislation has been passed upon it, and more stringent laws 
prohibitive of its cultivation and use than any plant known. 
It is more universally known and used than any plant in 
nature’s category. Many governments have made its culti- 
vation or use a crime, and ended by making it a government 
monopoly. At one period at least it has been legal tender in 
the state of Virginia. An eminent savant has said that America 


172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Janz 


has furnished to the world two of the greatest curses known 
to mankind: tobacco and potatoes. Whether he would be in 
the minority or not, were a vote to be taken on this subject 
today, it is impossible to say, but strange it is that both the 
plants named belong to the same order. It is also said that 
the devil sowed the seed. Without vouching for the authen- 
ticity of this statement we would say that if he did he con- 
ferred a great favor on this valley with its small farms, many 
of which are unsuitable for general farming, and on the growers 
of 1904 in particular. As I remarked, it is uncertain at just 
what period tobacco first obtained a foothold in the Connecticut 
valley, from which it spread to adjacent parts also, but it was 
somewhere about the time of the Stewarts’ reign in England. 

At first it was only used for smoking, but its cultivation 
continued, mainly in Virginia, but in a small way in Connecti- 
cut, until 1835. Then it received a great impetus in this 
state, particularly in the vicinity of Hartford. It was then 
that it became popular as a field crop, or money crop. The 
civil war also marked a large increase; and since that time its 
progress has been steadily increasing, and it is now conceded 
that Connecticut leaf is the standard of the world for the pur- 
pose of wrapping cigars, or for blending with the king of all 
tobaccos, the finer grades of Cuba. 

From the time of its introduction to our soil many and 
varied methods have been applied to its cultivation, only the 
latest and most popular of which I shall speak. Particularly 
are there many and widely different varieties of the weed, as 
it is called, many of them the result of hybridization, and of 
purely local repute. But there are in reality but two distinc- 
tive varieties under cultivation, under general conditions in 
this state, of which the mechanical processes employed in pro- 
ducing a crop differ but little. These are designated as broad 
leaf and Havana seed. Of the former there are many sub- 
varieties. The Havana probably comes nearer to a standard 
of purity, as regards original stock, than any other. Soils that 
will successfully grow one will grow the other. Methods that 
are applied to one can be applied to the other also. Many 
whims, fancies, and notions that had their day have now passed 
into oblivion as exploded theories or non-essentials. 

The first thing necessary to consider in starting to grow 
a crop is the seed bed. Some warm, sheltered spot is selected 


CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. 173 


and properly enriched. Many methods are here applied, differ- 
ing according to individual opinion; also as to whether glass 
or cloth are to be used, or whether the bed is to remain open, 
whether dry or sprouted seed is to be used. All these things 
are merely matters of opinion; but, observing results and 
experiments closely, I am led to the conclusion that it makes 
but little difference in the final result how they are obtained, 
so long as they are obtained. I know that artificially forced 
plants are a few days earlier —an important consideration in 
some cases — but that they are more liable to contract disease, 
are more costly, and are obtained with the expenditure of much 
more labor and attention. Also that plants grown in an open 
bed, planted at the same time, with dry seed, will on the first of 
August be as far advanced and just as early as those that were 
forced, and less liable to develop calico and rust, though, as a 
rule, not so desirable for machine setting, where longer and 
more spindling plants are a necessity. 

This open bed system, the old fashioned way as it were, 
though almost obsolete for a few years, is fast coming back 
again into popularity among some of the oldest and most suc- 
cessful growers. Where extremely early setting is necessary, 
in order to prolong the season of that laborious part of the work, 
of course some method of forcing must be employed. With 
only a few acres to set it is different. The plants that are to be 
used for very early setting must of necessity be artificially 
forced, regardless of extra labor and care. A good way to 
obtain middling plants is to remove the cloth or glass after 
the first weeding, when the cold winds are somewhat abated 
and the frosty nights are over, and leave them off. This will 
retard the plants somewhat, but it will give stronger and better 
plants, as plants breathe and need plenty of air, something 
they are not always sure of getting. Air is as necessary to 
them as it is to an individual. The only reason for having 
extra early plants is when an extra large field is to be set and 
the grower wishes to extend the time of setting. Plants set 
from the 15th to the 20th of June as a rule give the best re- 
sults. Nature has its season for producing tobacco, even in 
Connecticut, and her plans must not be interfered with very 
much. 

It has been demonstrated that we can grow tobacco here 
under shade conditions. Tobacco has been known to grow 


174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


under an apple tree, but it does not compare with the open air 
plant, whose natural requirements are not interfered with. An 
apple can be picked very green and house-ripened, but it would 
be better to leave it on the tree until the sunshine had a chance. 
There will be something wanting in it after all. Nature can 
be swayed out of her course sometimes, but where she grants 
one thing she withdraws another equally desirable. But let 
each grower decide this plant bed point for himself, if he can 
obtain good, green stocky plants, no matter how he gets them. 
He can easily find some one that will disagree with him and his 
theory; but if he can get plants sufficiently early for his pur- 
pose, and apparently free from disease, he won’t mind the 
other fellow. 

As to the advisability of preparing the seed bed in the fall 
or in the early spring, observation leads me to conclude that 
it makes but little difference either way. One can get good 
results both ways, though perhaps it is best that nitrogenous 
fertilizers, if applied in excess, such as dry fish or castor 
pomace, be applied in the fall, as late as possible before winter 
sets in. These fertilizers should be used more sparingly if 
applied in the spring. The advantage sprouted seed has over 
seed sowed dry is a few days gained in earliness, and usually 
plants better adapted to machine setting, that’s all. Most con- 
stant and unremitting care and attention must be guaranteed the 
bed after sowing, especially if under glass or cloth. Frequent 
waterings and airings are necessary, as during warm days there 
is danger of suffocation, and people wonder what makes their 
plants rot. Plants grow very rapidly when nearly large enough 
to set. The old rulesused to be: when the plants are as large as 
a mouse’s ear begin fitting your land. There are different 
ways and opinions regarding this portion of the work, but, 
first, it is best to consider the fertilizing problem. Coarse ma- 
terial, like stable manure or tobacco stems, it is sometimes 
considered best to plow under in the late fall and stimulate with 
commercial fertilizers in the spring, just before the plants are 
set. The only thing gained by fall ploughing is the time, and 
sometimes cheapness of material; but it should be borne in 
mind that there is a continual loss of the essential elements of 
the manure from the time the ploughing is done till the time 
the plants take it up. This is especially true of stable manure. 
Some consider stable manure at $7.00 per cord the first of May 


CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. 175 


as cheap as $6.00 the first of October. Sometimes the mechani- 
cal effect is of advantage, sometimes the opposite in spring 
ploughing. There are some pieces of land that have been in 
continual use for tobacco for a period of seventy-five years or 
over. The soil does not seem to deteriorate under the treat- 
ment, showing conclusively that land is merely a machine. 
These lands have been highly manured all this time, mainly 
with stable manure, and it is only within a few years that com- 
mercial fertilizer has been generally used by the farmer in con- 
nection with this material. Formerly ten or twelve cords of 
manure per acre were used alone. Now eight to ten are used 
with a quantity of fertilizer, mostly of a nitrogenous nature, as 
a top dressing. Castor pomace and cotton seed meal are favor- 
ably received, some growers deeming them indispensable, as 
insuring the growth at the latter end of the season. Potash is 
an element very necessary to the proper development of the 
plant. This is too often lost sight of by the growers. Still, our 
tobacco lands are as productive as ever. It may be that the 
weights are not as heavy as formerly, but this is partly due to 
methods of cultivation, a finer leaf being the result. 

The rule seems to be to plough the land in the fall as soon 
as the crop is off, whether the manure is applied then or not. 
Plough again in the spring when the manure is applied (if 
not in the fall), and sometimes again just before setting. 
A good way is to apply the manure —if any is to be used — 
as early in the spring as it can be obtained, keeping the land as 
free from weeds as possible, with some kind of a harrow. Then 
apply the fertilizer at the next ploughing, or at setting. The 
broadcast way is best, and is absolutely necessary with ma- 
chine setting. Starters can be applied in the drill or broad- 
cast, as most convenient, according as to whether it is to be 
hand or machine set. The land should be made as smooth as 
possible with a smoothing harrow. This is especially necessary 
if the machine is to be used. The plants of suitable size hav- 
ing been removed from the seed bed in the early morning 
and kept in a cool place until wanted, the setting may begin 
at any time that is convenient, though afternoon hours are 
preferable. Here individual custom and convenience, with 
weather conditions, govern. Of course, the mechanical con- 
dition of the soil must be taken into consideration also. The 
machine, which can only be used to advantage when the ground 


176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


is comparatively dry, does its own watering, but it is some- 
times necessary in hand setting to water the plants by hand, 
a slow and tedious process. This should be immediately after 
the plant is set and again the morning following, care being 
taken not to wash any dirt into the bud so as to injure the 
chit. Two or sometimes one watering is sufficient. Immedi- 
ately after a shower plants can be set without any water. 
The rows, whether hand or machine set, are marked out the 
same distance apart. Formerly this was three feet six or eight 
inches apart, now three feet four inches is deemed sufficient ; 
but twenty inches in the row is adopted as best. The old 
way calls for about 6,000 plants per acre, but growers now 
prefer to set about 7,000. The larger number does not seem 
to increase the weight, but the quality is finer. 

In taking the plants from the seed bed care should be taken 
that no diseased or calico plants are saved, if any are manifest, 
as they never grow out of it at this stage. Calico usually 
manifests itself a few days after setting, when such plants 
should be removed and sound ones set in their places. It may 
be said here that the disease called “calico”’ is the most dan- 
gerous one that the plant has to contend with, yet no one 
knows what causes it, and no one knows of any remedy for it. 
Plants thus affected are sure to rust, and may as well be 
removed at once. This disease, developing at the later stage 
of the growth, does not always spoil the plant, as only the top 
leaves are affected. It may occur at any time during the 
period of growth, or it gets in the seed bed. It is less liable 
to be found among plants taken from an open bed, and is sup- 
posed to be more likely to show on land that is deficient in 
potash. It is not known whether it is transmissible or not, 
through the seed or the soil. Indeed many things indicate 
that itis not. In support of this theory I would mention known 
cases where plants have been taken, decidedly calicoed plants, 
ripened and saved for seed, for experimental purposes, setting 
a few rows of the plants in an isolated place, but not a plant, 
either in seed or elsewhere, was affected by calico. I have 
taken plants from another man’s bed, whose field was half 
ruined by this disease, moved them only across the street, and 
not had a sign of it. I have stopped setting at night, and com- 
menced the next day with plants from the same bed. The 
latter setting was half calico, while there was not one of those 


CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. 177 


set the day before. Any theory that has been advanced as 
to the cause has been exploded. Usually it comes in an early 
stage of growth, when it is possible to reset. High ridging 
has become obsolete, unless it be on certain lands, where there 
is a surplus of moisture. Level culture is now considered the 
best, especially for seed leaf. High ridging is mostly used 
in the cultivation of Havana. Of course, level culture is a 
necessity with machine setting, but among small growers the 
machine is not considered profitable, and the result is that one- 
third of the acreage is set by hand. The old prejudice that 
once existed, that machine set tobacco was more subject to 
disease, has been refuted by a demonstration. After the set- 
ting, usually about eight or ten days elapse before the hoeing be- 
gins. This is rather a delicate operation, it being necessary 
to use the first time some fine pulverizing tool, running very 
near the plants, smoothing the ground as much as possible with 
the hoe, and setting the missing plants. Plants are some- 
times killed by worms, or they die from other causes. This 
work is generally done immediately after the first hoeing, 
or after a shower of rain. Sometimes this is a work of very 
little importance, but it has been necessary to plough up the 
whole field and set over. The second hoeing is more rapidly 
done than the first, as the plants are much larger. 

A slight hill can now be made around the plant, as it 
helps to sustain them in case of a heavy blow, though any 
radical departure from a general level is not popular. The 
second hoeing immediately follows the first, with usually an 
interval of about a week. The plants are then five or six 
inches high. From this point the growth is very rapid, unless 
cold nights or dry weather intervene. Indeed, the superficial 
growth of the plant is made in good seasons in about six weeks. 
Still another hoeing is necessary, with cultivation also, to re- 
move the last standing weeds before the crop covers the ground. 
About this time the anxiety of the grower is very great. This 
anxiety will continue without abatement until the crops are 
harvested. The paramount danger is from hail, which is the 
most feared, heavy winds, too much or too little rain, rust, 
insects, etc. : 

When the plant shows a little color in the bud it is time 
to top it. It should be topped at a point as low as the leaves 
seem to be of proper size to save, or as low as one thinks 


AGR, —12 


178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the leaves left will mature. Generally a field has to be topped 
over several times before all the plants can be topped at the 
same height. Some, at first, only pinch out the bud, wait- 
ing a few days before topping to a standard or general level. 
Top suckers appear in a few days, and must be removed be- 
fore getting very strong. The general suckering of the plant 
clean to the bottom should be done a few days before cutting, 
though sometimes it is necessary to cut a row before suckering 
the next, on account of the large growth, — when a person can 
not do this work without considerable breakage. The period 
during which tobacco ought to stand between topping and cut- 
ting is dependent somewhat on the stage of growth it was in 
when it was topped. Also it is largely a matter of opinion. 
The old rule used to be ten days. This was twenty-five or 
thirty years ago. Now it is considered best to let it stand three 
weeks. Havana a longer time. The fact should be determined 
by a slight change of color in the general aspect of the field, 
showing the plants have reached a degree of ripeness that will 
warrant cutting. As long as the field remains of a healthy 
dark green color, and no rust appears, it is considered best to 
let it stand a little longer, as at this stage it is increasing in 
weight. Warm nights are now necessary. Cool nights re- 
tard growth, though they have a tendency to force the ripening 
of the plant. 

The green worm, which in former years caused much de- 
struction in the tobacco fields, has become almost a curiosity, 
so scarce have they become. The cutting or harvesting season 
seriously begins the roth of August. Cutting should not begin 
until the dew is off in the morning. This is done to the best 
advantage about two o’clock in the afternoon, if the weather is 
fair and hot. Wilting before stringing depends entirely on 
the weather. Wilting tobacco thoroughly is not only a con- 
venience in the handling, but a saving method as well, as there 
is much less breakage, and less liability of pole sweat if care- 
fully wilted before stringing. 

Lath has generally superseded twine in hanging tobacco, 
as a quicker, more convenient, and less costly method. Tobacco 
cures quicker on lath, the split stalks evaporating the moisture 
much more rapidly. The hanging capacity of a building is the 
same whether lath or twine is used. Tobacco will keep better 
when piled down on the stalk if it is hung,on lath. The 


CARE AND CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN CONN. VALLEY. 179 


plants should be thoroughly shook out when the hanging is 
done. This prevents pole sweat to an extent. Twine and the 
fittings necessary are more expensive than lath, besides the 
process is more awkward, both in hanging and taking down. 
Thorough ventilation, when the tobacco is hung in the shed, is 
of the utmost importance. The doors must be kept open days 
and closed nights if the weather is dry, or the reverse if too 
dry. At first it is better to keep them closed during a rainy 
spell. Care must be taken that high winds do not whip the 
leaves after the tobacco is hung up. Doors must be shut on the 
windward at such times. The sun shining directly onto tobacco 
after it is hung is also a detriment. It is said to be productive 
of white veins. It should be dry, or free from rain or dew, 
when carted into the shed, so the leaves will not stick together 
and sweat. But a moderately damp cure is preferable to a 
dry one. 

The number of plants strung on each lath depends on their 
size and growth. Ordinarily six is the usual number, but 
sometimes five is enough. Their distance apart when hang- 
ing is eight inches, unless the tobacco is very large, when 
five is enough. Sometimes, in case of a light growth, seven 
may be used. The period that tobacco should hang before it 
is sufficiently cured to take off the lath depends entirely on 
the weather and cure. In a good curing season early cut 
tobacco should be ready to take down in six weeks, but late cut 
tobacco requires a longer time. Be sure the stems are thor- 
oughly cured. ; 

Water should never be used on tobacco to dampen it. If it 
does not show at the time when used it will in the bale or case 
months afterwards, unless very carefully used. Much of the 
fineness and quality of the leaf seems to depend on the season, 
not only on the growing but the curing season also. The 
market at the present time demands light shades in tobacco. 
These colors are the most desirable as people now smoke, 
fashion governing the trade. The first requisite in a tobacco 
leaf is its color. Everything else is seemingly of secondary 
consideration. ‘This is liable to change at any time among the 
class of smokers who smoke with their eyes, and, strange to say, 
this class predominates today. The eye must be suited first, 
regardless of all other considerations. Real flavor and quality 
is relegated to the background. 


180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


There is no doubt that tobacco has improved in all essen- 
tials in the last few years, in spite of the constant reitera- 
tion that “ We don’t raise as good tobacco as we used to years 
ago.” The fact is the market did not at that time make the 
demands on us that it does now. Forty or fifty years ago, 
when farmers were delivering their crop in a one-horse wagon 
load, and the stripper made but two kinds, holding the princi- 
pal leaves in their hand as wrappers and dropping a few bottom 
leaves as fillers, taking the longest leaf in the bunch to tie 
the band, making only two kinds, does any one suppose that the 
leaf of those days would go now? What would the growers of 
1860 think of making 15 or 20 kinds and sizes? At this time 
there was a great cry made that it would not last, that the 
farmers would soon overdo the business of tobacco growing. 
Now it has increased a hundred fold, and still there is room. 
It is a mistake to think that all the land suitable for tobacco 
has been taken up. There are still many lands, sections, and 
parcels of land, still covered with a forest growth, that are yet 
to become good tobacco soils. 

To properly describe the various ways of sorting and cur- 
ing a crop of tobacco, as manipulated today, would take a 
volume of itself. Suffice to say a good crop will always sell 
without being assorted. Growers make no money sorting. 
This is only done from necessity. Many farmers are not aware 
that the bundle prices have averaged the best. 

Keep tobacco as clean of rubbish as you can when stripping, 
and it will shrink ten per cent. in sorting before it is de- 
livered. 

The bright outlook for the cultivation of tobacco in Con- 
necticut applies not only to the next succeeding crop but many 
more to come also. 


The Prestpent. The secretary informs me that he has been 
able to secure the attendance of Mr. A. D. Shamel, of the 
bureau of plant industry at Washington, who will address us 
now, after which we will have some music, and then a general 
discussion on this matter of tobacco culture will follow. 


1905.] IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED SELECTION. 181 


IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED 
SELECTION: 


By A. D. SHAMEL, 


Of the United States Department of Agriculture. 


Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Andross 
has made some suggestions as to the length of time it takes 
for a man to become familiar with the various processes of 
growing tobacco. I am afraid that you will think that my ex- 
perience in this matter is rather limited, which it is; but the 
thing I wish to present this morning is the question of seed 
selection and breeding, which I believe to be new, and | think 
that the result of the experience of the Department of Agricul- 
ture obtained in this valley during the past year will perhaps 
furnish some suggestions to you for the improvement of this 
crop. 

In all varieties of tobacco there are certain strains of seed 
which are looked upon by growers and buyers as possessing 
some particular merit and special value. Many of these strains 
have been produced by growers observing some peculiar or 
striking plant during the cultivation of the crop, and saving 
the seed from it for future planting. In fact, most of the 
varieties now under cultivation are the result of such accidental 
selection of seed plants. The improvements in yield and 
quality of the crop, made by such selections of valuable seed 
plants, indicates that much greater and more important results 
can be secured by applying the principles of plant breeding 
in a careful and systematic manner to the improvement of the 
tobacco crop. There is no general farm crop grown under 
such an intensive and costly method of culture as certain classes 
of tobacco, and by reason of the importance of soil, climate, 
and other influences on the character of the crop, the importance 
of seed selection and breeding has been neglected and not 
given much consideration. While in some districts one hun- 
dred dollars worth of fertilizer is used per acre, and other 
methods of culture are similarly developed, the methods of 
saving seed are the same as those introduced by the pioneer 
tobacco growers. The writer’s experience with the breeding 
of the several varieties of wrappers grown in the Connecticut 

Valley has shown that the improvement in yield and quality of 


182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


tobacco by seed selection, and probably by hybridization, is one 
of the most important means of increasing the value of the crop, 
and without additional cost of production. The general results 
of the experiments conducted by the Department of Agricul- 
ture with the breeding of different varieties of tobacco in the 
Connecticut Valley last season will be presented here, in order 
to offer some practical suggestions to growers for the improve- 
ment of their crop by breeding and seed selection. 


CHANGE OF SEED. 


There is a general impression that a change of seed from 
one region to another is necessary to prevent the “ running 
out’ of the variety. In other words, many growers believe 
that a variety of tobacco will deteriorate in quality if grown 
on the same farm or in the same locality for several years. A 
similar belief exists among the growers of other crops, such as 
corn and cotton, and many of those farmers follow the practice 
of obtaining fresh seed from some distant locality year after year. 
In corn and cotton it has been found by careful tests that when 
a variety has become adapted to certain soil and climatic con- 
ditions the yield may be increased by seed selection and breed- 
ing, and, instead of deteriorating by reason of continued grow- 
ing in the same locality, the value of the crop can be increased. 
In order to illustrate the effect of a change of soil and climatic 
conditions upon tobacco the experience of the growers of im- 
ported Sumatra and Cuban plants in this region will be re- 
viewed. In the seasons of 1902 and 1903 tobacco seed from 
Cuba and Sumatra was extensively used on the plantations 
growing tobacco under shade. The crops produced from this 
seed lacked uniformity to such an extent that several distinct 
types of plants could be found in every field, many of these 
types bearing no resemblance whatever to the Cuban or Su- 
matra varieties. The Cuban seed produced a large proportion 
of small, narrow leaved plants, the so-called “ freaks,” in some 
cases constituting about one-third of the entire crop. The 
Sumatra seed produced many long and pointed leaved types, 
which were practically worthless for any purpose, and were 
probably reversions to some early unimproved type of tobacco. 
This breaking up of type and lack of uniformity has been 
observed to follow the use of imported seed in other tobacco- 
growing sections of the United States, particularly when seed 


1905.] IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED SELECTION. 183 


from the tropics has been grown in the north. The change of 
seed from one state or locality to another has produced similar 
though less striking results, and has led to the general con- 
clusion that the tobacco crop should be grown from seed which 
is thoroughly adapted to soil and climatic conditions. In the 
case of the Cuban and Sumatra crops grown in this valley in 
1903 typical plants were selected for seed, and the seed pro- 
tected from cross fertilization by means of a paper bag enclos- 
ing the flowers. This seed produced uniform plants similar 
to the mother plants, and showed that by such a method of seed 
saving uniform crops can be secured one year after the variety 
is introduced into a locality. If it is desirable to make a 
change of seed the farmer should grow a few plants the first 
season for the purpose of producing the general seed crop for 
the following year. 


THE VALUE OF UNIFORM PLANTS. 


The value of the tobacco crop depends largely upon the 
uniformity in type of the plants, particularly the shape, size, 
quality, and number of leaves. The lack of uniformity in- 
creases the cost of sorting and growing the crop, and results 
in the production of a certain proportion of inferior tobacco. 
It costs about the same to grow the irregular and undesirable 
plants as typical plants of the desired type, so that it is highly 
important to grow uniform crops. An examination of the 
crops grown in this region showed that there was great va- 
riety in the size of plants, number of leaves per plant, the 
shape and size of leaves on the individual plants, the number of 
suckers, the earliness of maturity, the quality of the leaves, 
and other characteristics which go to make up the types of the 
varieties of tobacco. The difference in size of plants and 
rate of growth was most clearly seen during the fore part of 
the growing season, at which time the plants were found to 
vary in height from one to four feet. This variation in size 
is not shown clearly at the time of harvest except by careful 
examination of the tobacco stalks, by reason of the topping of 
the plants to about the same height. The number of leaves 
varied to a marked degree, some plants producing a large 
number while others bear only a few desirable leaves. The 
increase in number of leaves is not accompanied by a corre- 
sponding increase in the height of the plant, but the plants bear- 


184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


ing a large number of leaves are so arranged that the leaves are 
set closely together on the stalk, while the plants producing 
but few leaves have long internodes of spaces between the 
leaves. The increase in the number of desirable leaves borne 
by the individual plants means an increase in yield of the crop 
without increase in the cost of production. As a rule the 
plants producing the largest number of leaves are the most 
desirable type and quality for wrapper purposes. The shape 
of leaves is the most variable of all the characters of the to- 
bacco plant, and is one of the most important factors in the 
value of the leaf for cigar wrapper purposes. The long, 
pointed leaves do not cut as many wrappers as the rounded 
leaves, and the pointed tip is usually accompanied by a long, 
narrow base, which is of very little value. In every crop ob- 
served some plants were found having leaves with round tips 
and base, so arranged as to cut out wrappers very economically. 
The size of leaves also varies with the different plants in the 
field, so that in a given variety plants bearing leaves of almost 
any desired size can be found by careful observation. The 
time of ripening of the plants is not uniform in many cases, 
some individuals maturing their leaves several days earlier 
than the other plants in the field. In the same way many 
plants are late in ripening, and do not produce desirable to- 
bacco. The number of suckers, the quality of the leaves, and 
other characteristics vary to such an extent that the produc- 
tion of improved strains by the selection of improved types 
of plants is made possible, and the wide variation in tobacco is 
a desirable basis for such selection. This variability is not con- 
fined to any variety, but has been found to exist in all the 
varieties grown in this country. 


THE SELECTION OF SEED PLANTS. 


The selection of seed plants must be made before the plants 
are topped, and the most successful selections can only be made 
after a study of the crop from the seed bed to harvest. It 
is necessary to study the plants in all stages of growth, in 
order to judge of their fitness for the parentage of the future 
crop. In order to fully determine the value of the plants it 
is advisable to follow the leaves from the separate plants 
through the curing shed and compare the cured leaves from 
the selected plants. This plan of examination of the product 


1905.] IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED SELECTION. 185 


of the seed plants is extremely important, because the char- 
acter and the comparative value of the tobacco cannot be wholly 
determined by the study of the plants in the field. From 
the fact that it requires some care and continuous attention, 
in order to keep the individual samples in order and good con- 
dition, this test of the seed plants is usually neglected. The 
leaves from the seed plants are not ordinarily of as good 
quality as the leaves from the plants that have been topped, 
and this fact must be kept in mind during the comparison in 
the warehouse. 

In making selections of seed plants it is desirable to run 
over the entire field and mark the best plants for a second 
examination. This preliminary selection can be made just 
before topping, but it should not be done before the plants 
are pretty well developed, so that the type can be determined. 
A second, more careful selection should be made, and each one 
of the selected plants examined with regard to the character 
and features which are important in the variety of tobacco. 
The best plan for making such studies is to follow some regu- 
lar outline of points, such as are used in the plant breeding 
records of the Department of Agriculture. In this way the 
definite data secured as to the actual condition of the plants 
can be kept for use when the leaves are compared in the ware- 
house. The number of desirable leaves should be noted, and 
in counting them only the leaves useful for manufacture should 
be counted. The size of leaf can be pretty accurately deter- 
mined by measuring the middle leaf of each seed plant. The 
length should be measured from the tip to the point of at- 
tachment of the leaf to the stalk, and the width measured at 
the widest point of the leaf. The shape of the leaf is somewhat 
difficult to record, and the most effective means of making this 
note is to describe the shape as briefly as possible. The number 
of suckers is easily recorded, and the time of ripening of the 
leaves should be kept in order to throw some light on the time 
of maturity and the comparative earliness of the plants. In 
addition to these notes a record should be made of the quality 
of the cured tobacco when the cured tobacco can be examined. 

The number of seed plants to be saved depends upon the 
size of the tobacco fields for which they are expected to sup- 
ply plants. Each seed pod contains from five to seven thou- 
sand seed, and, as there is from fifty to one hundred and fifty 


186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


pods to every plant, the average seed plants produce from 
three to seven hundred thousand seed. It can be seen that in 
view of the large number of seed produced by the seed plants 
it is necessary to save but few plants in order to secure enough 
seed to produce plants to set out a large field. For a field of 
ten acres a dozen plants is all that it is necessary to save in 
the field, and after the examination of the cured tobacco it is 
necessary to save only the best two or three of these plants for 
seeding the following season. The fact that a minute tobacco 
seed, so small that it takes nearly half a million to weigh an 
ounce, produces a large, thrifty, and rapidly growing plant, 
and a progeny of five hundred thousand children in a season, 
is one of the wonders of plant life. Where only two or three 
seed plants are saved it is desirable to save the seed in sepa- 
rate samples, and divide the seed bed into two or three sec- 
tions, sowing each section with the seed from one seed plant. 
The seedlings from each section should be set out in separate 
portions of the field, so that the field can be made a test of the 
transmitting power of the seed plants. The selection of seed 
plants for the next year should be made from the selection of 
the field in which the plants are most uniform and of the most 
desirable type. In this way improvement in the uniformity 
of the type can rapidly be secured by the grower. 


SAVING SEED UNDER BAG. 


The tobacco plant is naturally self-fertile, that is, the seed 
is the product of a single parent. However, in the field bees 
and other insects carry the dust-like pollen from flower to 
flower and effect cross fertilization, as in the case of the clover 
plant. The tobacco flowers contain a sweet, syrup-like nectar, 
that bees, humming birds, and many kinds of insects feed upon. 
In passing in and out of the flowers they naturally brush 
pollen from the flowers over their bodies, and in this way carry 
the pollen from flower to flower, plant to plant, and field to 
field. This cross fertilization in the same variety is detri- 
mental to the yield, the quality, and the uniformity of the to- 
bacco grown from such cured seed. In this way tobacco is a 
marked exception to most plants, many of which show increased 
vigor of growth as a result of cross fertilization in the variety. 
Darwin has explained this condition by comparing the to- 
bacco plant to peas and a few other exotic plants which have 


1905.] IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED SELECTION. 187 


been inbred for so long that they have become accustomed to 
this kind of fertilization. 

In order to prevent this crossing in the variety the flowers 
should be covered by a light, strong paper bag. All of the 
sucker branches should be removed before the bag is applied, 
together with the small, useless upper leaves. The bag must 
be placed over the flowers before any of them open, or the 
entire benefit of bagging will be lost. Any light bag will 
answer the purpose, but the twelve-pound manilla bag with 
roof-shaped bottom, sold by most grocery stores, is the best 
kind of a bag under ordinary conditions. If the plant will 
not support the bag a stake should be arranged to hold it up. 
The bag should be moved up the stalk occasionally, in order to 
accommodate the extremely rapid growth of the plant at this 
stage of development. 

Seed saved in this way is larger, heavier, and lighter in 
color than the seed saved in the ordinary manner. The plants 
grown from the seed saved under the bag grows vigorously, 
and produces the best plants. The most striking effect of this 
method of saving seed, however, is the wonderful uniformity 
of the plants in the field, a condition which is not found in any 
other crop so far as is known. The number of leaves, their 
shape and size, the number of suckers, the height of plants, 
the size and nature of the venation of the leaves, the earliness, 
—jin fact all of the important characteristics are transmitted 
from the parents to the progeny of the tobacco plants with al- 
most absolute certainty. 


THE USE OF SPROUTED SEED. 


It is a common custom in the Connecticut Valley to sprout 
a part of the seed before sowing in the seed beds. This 
sprouting is usually done in rotted apple tree wood, or cocoa- 
nut fibre. When the sprouts have been well started they are 
thoroughly separated, and sowed with an equal measure of 
dry seed. There is no doubt but that this method produces 
the earliest plants, and the sprouted seed in the present ar- 
rangement of seed beds means a gain of several days in earli- © 
ness for a part of the plants. However, it was observed this 
last season that where plants from sprouted seed grew side by 
side with plants from dry seed, other differences could often 
be observed. In many cases the diseased and freak plants 


188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


could be traced directly to the sprouted seed. In other words, 
it seems probable, particularly where the sprouts are allowed 
to grow one-quarter inch more before sowing in the seed bed, 
that many of the young plants are injured during the process 
of sowing in the bed. This injury frequently results in ab- 
normal plants, which develop unusual and undesirable types 
of plants. If the seed is sprouted before sowing, it should be 
sowed before the sprouts reach a quarter of an inch in length. 
In fact, it is desirable to sow as soon as the young sprouts ap- 
pear, and any injured plants which are found at the time of 
transplanting should be discarded. 


THE INFLUENCE OF LARGE, HEAVY SEED. 


The small amount of seed necessary to sow a large seed 
bed, and the minute size of the seed, have resulted in a neglect 
of differences of weight of seed in the growth and development 
of the plants. It has been fully demonstrated by foreign experi- 
menters that the heavy seed produces the most vigorous and 
best type of plants and the largest yield of the best quality of 
tobacco. In the writer’s experience in the Connecticut valley 
it was found that by separating the seed and sowing the heavy 
and light grades in different sections of the seed bed the heavy 
seed produced the most uniform and vigorous seedlings. The 
light seed produced a large proportion of small, freakish, and 
undesirable plants, which were not ready to be set out for 
several days after the plants from the heavy seed. Every 
grower should carefully separate the tobacco seed, no matter 
how carefully the parents were selected, and use only the 
heaviest seed for planting. Owing to the small size of the 
seed it is very difficult to separate the light and heavy grades. 
A practical method is by the use of an air current, or air blast 
machine designed by the writer. In this machine the seed is 
lifted in a glass tube by means of a current of air, and the 
light seed blown out of the tube while the heaviest seed re- 
main at the bottom. Some authorities recommend throwing 
the seed into water, allowing the heavy seed to sink and skim- 
ming off the light seed. This method is faulty in that small 
bubbles of air prevent the uniform settling of the heavy seed, 
and after the separation it is necessary to either sow the seed 
immediately or dry it thoroughly for preservation. 


1905.] IMPROVEMENT OF TOBACCO BY SEED SELECTION. 189 


THE EFFECT OF AGE ON THE VITALITY OF THE SEED. 


The vitality of tobacco seed is preserved for several years, 
and is apparently as good for producing vigorous plants as 
when harvested. However, it has been demonstrated that very 
old seed has very weak vitality and produces weak and wholly 
undesirable plants. The effect of age on the seed depends on 
the condition of the seed when harvested, the manner of stor- 
ing and keeping, and the character of the seed itself. In Cuba 
the vitality of the seed is soon lost, especially when stored in 
the ordinary manner by the Cuban farmers. In fact two or 
three year old seed is of very doubtful value, in many cases 
having entirely lost its vitality. This loss of power of germi- 
nation in Cuban seed may be due to several reasons, and par- 
ticularly to two main causes: first, the practice of sowing 
sucker seed, and second, the moist atmosphere. The poor 
quality of the seed, combined with the unfavorable climatic 
conditions, tend to destroy the life of the seed very rapidly. 
In any case it is the best plan to use fresh seed every year 
when possible, and if necessary to use old seed a test of its 
vitality should be made by sprouting several samples before 
the seed is used for general sowing. 


SELECTION OF PLANTS IN THE SEED BED. 


One of the practical means of securing uniform crops in 
the field is by the selection of plants in the seed bed at the 
time of transplanting. At this early stage of growth the shape 
of leaf, the comparative vigor of growth, and the general type 
of the plants can be observed. If this matter is taken into con- 
sideration, and the plants pulled by some one who is capable 
of discarding the individuals of poor type, the benefit from this 
kind of selection will be very marked and noticeable in the 
crop in the field. It is supplementary to the selection of seed 
plants, and, by combining both methods of selection, the rate 
of improvement can be increased and improved types more 
rapidly developed. 


STRAINS RESISTANT TO DISEASE. 


In a field of tobacco grown in the Connecticut valley in 1903 
most of the plants were attacked and destroyed by a root 
disease. A few of the plants in different sections of this field 


190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


developed normally, and produced a desirable type of tobacco. 
The seed from some of these plants was sowed, as well as the 
seed from a few of the diseased plants which were not wholly 
destroyed. The seed from the resistant plants produced healthy 
and vigorous plants in 1904, which were set out in the field that 
grew the diseased plants the previous season. This crop was 
fully resistant to the disease, and produced a uniform type of 
tobacco. The seed saved from the diseased plants produced 
weak seedlings, which, when set out in the field, grew slowly, 
and finally the leaves began to turn yellow and the entire plants 
died before they had reached one-half of their full development. 
This clear and decisive case of resistance in tobacco is a good 
foundation for the belief that resistant types may be developed 
which will be immune to the attack of many of the fungous 
diseases common to tobacco. 


NEW AND IMPROVED HYBRID TYPES. 


One of the most promising fields for the production of im- 
proved strains of tobacco is the crossing of the native ac- 
climated varieties with the most valuable imported kinds of 
tobacco. In the Havana seed and broad leaf varieties there is 
a considerable portion of the leaves not adapted to wrapper pur- 
poses, but the large yield is such as to produce profitable crops 
in favorable seasons. In 1903 the writer made crosses of the 
Havana seed and broad leaf varieties with Cuban and Sumatra 
tobaccos. The Havana seed and Sumatra cross produced a 
type somewhat shorter than the Havana seed leaf, but with 
very round and broad leaves and very fine veins. The tex- 
ture of the leaf was even from tip to base, so that practically 
all portions could be used for wrappers. The broad leaf and 
Cuban cross produced leaves which were very round, with 
fine veins, of desirable texture from tip to base, and on the 
whole a great improvement over the broad leaf tobacco. As 
in the case of the Havana and Sumatra cross, this hybrid de- 
veloped thin elastic leaves, in which the greater portion could 
be used for wrapper purposes. 

The object of these crosses was to secure types of tobacco 
adapted to the purposes and market for which the Havana seed 
and broad leaf varieties were produced, of improved quality, 
so that a greater portion of the leaves could be used for wrap- 
pers. From the character of the hybrids thus far secured, it 


1905. ] DISCUSSION. IQI 


seems very probable that such improvements can be secured. 
In other words, by crossing the native varieties with the valu- 
able imported tobacco types can be secured combining the yield 
and hardiness of the native with the improved quality of the 
imported varieties. The hybrids were much more vigorous 
and productive than either the native or imported parent va- 
rieties, and gave every indication of increased yield and im- 
proved quality. 


The Prestipent. We will proceed to the discussion of this 
question immediately after the song which we are now to have. 

Song. 

The PresipeENtT. We will proceed now to the discussion of 
this question. These gentlemen have given us these excellent 
papers, and I presume are now ready to answer any questions 
which you put to them. 

To start the ball rolling, I would like to ask Mr. Shamel 
in regard to the matter of experiments with corn on these differ- 
ent varieties. What was the result of a cross in these leading 
varieties as you found it out? 

Mr. SuHameEL. In regard to that I will say that our best 
results have come, not from crossing leading varieties of corn, 
but from strengthening new varieties. Corn itself is naturally 
a cross-fertilized plant — wind-fertilized. The wind carries 
the pollen from one plant and deposits it upon the silk or ear 
of another. So in any case we get naturally cross fertiliza- 
tion, which gives, in the plants produced from these seed, 
much proof of striking variations and differences in the crop. 
In fact we have obtained too much variation. We have got 
big ears and small ears, poor ears and good ears. We have, 
in other words, a sufficient quantity of variation to make a 
selection from as the matter now stands, so that by crossing two 
individual varieties it simply intensifies and increases this 
variation to an undesirable extent; but with the selection of 
choice varieties in corn, and the planting of seed from these 
in individual rows in the breeding plot, and then saving the 


192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


seed from the best rows, we have-been able to improve not only 
the yield of the crop but to increase the per cent. of the 
protein, the per cent. of oil and the per cent. of solid, and in- 
crease both the feeding and commercial value of the corn. 

The Presipent. That rather refutes the old idea that was 
held when I was a boy, of picking out the best specimens and 
saving those for seed, and using that year after year. That 
wasn't correct. 

Mr. SHAMEL. No, sir; I do not believe it will give as good 
results as the selection of some strain and continually and 
systematically breeding up that single variety. 

Mr. Hate. While I am not a tobacco grower, I live in the 
midst of tobacco growers. I have been interested this morn- 
ing in listening to these two papers, one from brother Andross, 
who is a practical grower, and who has given us an excellent 
paper on the practical side of it, and then we have had the 
scientific matter from the last gentleman. It has been an 
exceedingly interesting analysis of tobacco growing, both 
from the practical and scientific standpoint. What I want to 
ask brother Andross is this: With a meeting of this kind, 
in the very center of the tobacco growing district, where there 
are thousands of tobacco farmers, situated on lines of trolley 
cars leading into this city, why we cannot get more people 
here? Why don’t the tobacco growers, as a whole, take more 
interest in just such discussions as we have had this morn- 
ing? They are not here. I remember when Dr. Jenkins gave 
this board an excellent paper on the subject of the scientific 
curing and care of tobacco some years ago, and I believe there 
were only two or three tobacco growers in the hall, and so far 
as I know there are not more than that here this morning. I 
don’t know, but I doubt if there are twenty-five in the hall this 
morning who are practical tobacco growers. It seems to me 
that there is something wrong when we have under considera- 
tion the improvement of such a valuable crop as this, a crop 
which amounts to millions every year, and a crop which re- 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 193 


sponds so readily to better culture and to a better understanding 
of the plant from a scientific standpoint. Why are the growers 
so little interested in that higher side of it, which really means 
dollars and cents to them? It is a matter I cannot under- 
stand. Mr. Andross probably knows. It has been so when 
the attempt has been made to hold other meetings for the dis- 
cussion of these higher methods for the improvement of tobacco 
culture. We have had just the same results before, and I can- 
not understand it. What is the answer to it, Brother Andross? 

Mr. Anpross. Mr. Hale has made a point that I have often 
noticed. There seems to be a great deal of jealousy among 
tobacco growers, and I have sometimes thought they were more 
blind to their own interests than most any other class of 
farmers. This is not only noticeable with these special meet- 
ings, but it is so in the meetings of the New England To- 
bacco Growers’ Association, and also the National. Very few 
get up to the point of taking a really active, intelligent interest 
in the proceedings. They do not care anything about our legis- 
lation, although it was of vital importance to them. Meetings 
like this are important, and would be helpful to them, but they 
seem to lose sight of that fact and do not come out. At this 
time of the year very few of them have anything to do im- 
portant enough to keep them at home, but somehow or other 
they would rather stay home by the fire. I think it is largely 
due to a certain amount of jealousy, that does not seem to exist 
among any other class of farmers. They are highly pleased if 
they can get a cent more a pound for their tobacco, but they 
do not seem to be ready, as a class, to study the means by 
which they could get considerably more than a cent. If they 
can get a cent or two a pound more than the other fellow they 
are happy; but as a rule they do not seem to be interested, and 
the only way I can explain it is that there is a certain amount 
of jealousy, as I have said. They will keep a buyer away from 
another farmer if they can. I have heard that complained of 


AGR. — 13 


194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


many times. I attribute it to a sort of jealousy which seems 
to exist in this branch of business. 

Mr. Hate. Another phase of the question I would like to 
inquire about, because it is something that has been asked me. 
Those of us who hope to succeed on the poor, worn out soils 
of New England find that we have to grow a good many green 
crops to maintain the fertility of our land and increase the 
fertility at certain seasons of the year, particularly in the 
winter. Now, I have observed all along the Connecticut val- 
ley, from Hartford down to Glastonbury, that the majority 
of the tobacco lands are barren. I have also observed that 
the tobacco growers plough their land in the fall, so that it 
shall be more bare. I have asked myself why it was over 
and over again, and I should like to be informed why they take 
that course. Why do the tobacco growers put so much money 
into fertilizers in order to keep the fertility of their tobacco 
lands up, and then in the winter allow those lands to be bare, 
and allow the very elements that they want to save and use 
in their crop to escape? Why don’t they set a trap and 
hold it? In other words, why don’t they grow some green 
crop on those lands in the fall and winter? Is there some 
reason that is peculiar to the tobacco plant, that makes that 
necessary? Is that the reason, or is it because they don’t 
think enough about it, or don’t care enough about it, or is it 
because the tobacco business is so profitable that they can 
let at least a hundred thousand dollars worth of plant food go 
to waste? 

Mr. Anpross. It is a lack of knowledge. They believe 
that anything growing on the lands, after the crop is removed, 
even weeds, affects the tobacco. They believe in that kind of 
a doctrine, and most of them live up to it without any kind of a 
demonstration that it is true. I know that many plough the 
land immediately after the crop is taken off. No one can 
give you a very good answer to that question, as to why it is 
done, except that it keeps out the weeds. That is about all 


1905. ] DISCUSSION. 195 


that can be said, but at the same time some say manure is 
cheaper at $7.00 the first of May. They seem to acknowledge 
it in one sense and refuse to believe it in the other. Few 
act from information gained by actual tests on the land. 

Mr. Hare. Have there been any actual experiments, 
brother Andross, which really established whether a cover crop 
wouldn’t be of advantage after the crop of tobacco was out, 
or some other crop that might die down in the winter? Have 
there been any experiments to show that that would be in- 
jurious to the quality of the tobacco? Is it injurious to the 
quality of the tobacco? 

Mr. Anpross. So far as I know it never has been known 
to be. I think there exists a prejudice against trespassing on 
tobacco land, so to speak. There may be a feeling that another 
crop would tend to weaken the land, although, of course, as 
most of us know, no such crop as brother Hale speaks of would 
take anything very essential out of the land. The most of it 
would be left there. 

Mr. Foote. Perhaps you do not all understand just the 
way this is handled. I do not profess to be a scientific man, 
or to know very much in regard to this matter. I live among 
tobacco people. Now, we want to look first at what we are 
raising tobacco for. We are all after profit. We do not 
care to work for nothing, and one great point in the business 
of profitable tobacco culture is to have a clean, perfect leaf, 
without flaws or damage from insects of any kind. Now, 
whether it is so or not, it is thought by the tobacco growers 
that the late ploughing of tobacco land tends to destroy all the 
insects which are detrimental to the tobacco leaf, not only 
cut worms, which are understood to be destroyed by late 
ploughing, but other insects which attack the leaf at the same 
time. Also the green worm, which at certain seasons does a 
great deal of damage. All these insects are supposed to be 
destroyed, to a greater or less extent, by the late fall ploughing. 
If you can destroy the flies which produce these insects, or the 


196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


eggs in the ground, a little matter of a few dollars worth of 
fertility, which may be lost by that, does not amount to very 
much. It is, of course, desirable to save all the fertility we 
can; but it is more desirable to get a perfect leaf, and thereby 
get a dollar where otherwise we would lose ten. This is some- 
thing we should consider. I, myself, practice covering the 
soil with some green substance. I usually sow right on my 
tobacco land. Not particularly as I know of to save the fer- 
tility, yet I believe it does, but because it helps me in other 
directions. | keep a large herd of cows, and I find it very con- 
venient to have that for fall feeding. I really believe that it 
would pay very well to sow some sort of feed upon the land, 
and thus protect the land; yet it is a question whether it pays 
to do this rather than to do what we can to destroy the in- 
sects, which are such a great damage and detriment to the 
tobacco crop. 

Mr. Hare. Mr. Foote, do you have more trouble from in- 
sects than your neighbors, or are you troubled more with the 
insects than they are? 

Mr. Foote. I will tell you. This last spring I aimed to 

get our plants in as early as possible, yet, of course, the manure 
must be gotten out and hauled onto the field. If we use stable 
manure that must be gotten out first, because I think the 
growth is better. I think it is altogether better to put it on 
first and then plough; so we must get the manure on first. 
This spring, before we could get the manure on, some of the 
rye that I had on that lot got too large to turn under, and we 
had to mow that rye. The spring work was pressing, and 
various other crops wanted our attention, and that lot lay 
there, about an acre of it, lay there without any ploughing, 
after the application of the manure, until the last ploughing, 
which was along the iast of May. Now, on that acre of ground 
I had more cut worms, and I had more trouble to get rid of 
the cut worms than I did on the eight or ten acres which I had 
besides. I think if a man properly attends to his crop that is 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 197 


no detriment, but with a new crop on the land, unless it is at- 
tended to properly, I believe it is a great detriment. 

Mr. Anpross. I think I can give a little practical in- 
stance about the way this works. A few years ago I took an 
acre in a field and ploughed it just as the crop was off and 
planted it. The next spring the crop was up about that high. 
I never ploughed only that first time, but my next neighbor 
said he should be all eaten up with cut worms. He had kept 
his land entirely free. He ploughs his land so as to kill the 
weeds. I never saw those worms on my acre. 

Another time I took an acre, a little like that, but it was 
meadow land, where we usually raise two or three acres of 
corn. When the time for cultivation came that was covered 
with water. A freshet came up and stayed on it several weeks, 
so that it was the 7th of June before I got through putting 
in the plow. That land was just as smooth as could be. I 
planted that piece to sweet corn, a piece, mind you, which had 
been kept perfectly neat and clean. I planted that with sweet 
corn, replanted it, and finally gave it up on account of the cut 
worms. 

Prof. Brirron. Mr. President, I would like to inquire why 
the tobacco grower doesn’t poison the cut worms. 

Mr. Anpross. Very few of them know of that process, 
although it is used by some. 

Prof. Brirron. Another thing: as I understand, they 
never use any poison upon their tobacco plants. 

A Memesber. I never, or at least very seldom, have seen 
that done. 

Prof. Brirron. In Kentucky poison is used upon the to- 
bacco plants. It is a good way of protecting the young plants. 
If you do not wish to use Paris green you can use lead, which 
would stay on a much longer time. If you will make a strong 
bran mash, with a little poison in it, we can get rid of a large 
proportion of the cut worms. This should be put on the field 
a few days before the plants are set, perhaps a week before. 


198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


That I think is a most practical way of getting rid of the cut 
worms, not only in tobacco, but in other fields that we have. 
You can use other poisons in the same way, with the bran 
mash, and it seems to be eaten very readily. 

A Mempber. How do you fix it? 

Prof. Britton. Just mix up some bran mash, just the 
same as you would for hens. Of course, if it is left near the 
house the hens may eat it and be poisoned, so it would be best 
to be careful and keep it away from the house. 

Mr. Potter. What proportion of Paris green to bran do 
you use? 

Prof.’ Britton. I should think about a hundred pounds 
of bran, or something like that, mixed up with one of Paris 
green. 

Mr. Nosie. This mixture has been used by a number of 
tobacco growers in my vicinity, but they have added some 
molasses with it. They mix up about a bushel of the mixture 
and sow it on broadcast, about a bushel to the acre, I think. 
It has been tried up there on some of our farms after the to- 
bacco was set, and they found there was more work there, but 
the cut worms got the tobacco in preference to the mixture. 
In other words, if it is sowed on after the plants are set the 
worms naturally prefer the tobacco to the mixture. If it is 
sowed on a few days before they like the molasses and the 
bran, and, of course, eat the Paris green with it, and that is 
the end of them. The sensible people in our vicinity have kept 
their tobacco lands clean, and that restrains the worms very 
much. Those same tobacco fields have had to be reset, and 
sometimes set again. Lately we have not been troubled with 
worms very much, and I think it is due in large part to the 
method which is now quite generally practiced, of throwing on 
that mixture before the setting. 

Mr. Foote. Some gentlemen inquire as to the quantity 
of the mixture. This mixture is being used to a more or less 
extent all through the tobacco section. Those who are finding 
trouble of this kind are pretty sure to use it. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. | 199 


The proportion of this in East Hartford is one pound of 
Paris green to two quarts of molasses and one hundred pounds 
of coarse middlings; not bran, but coarse middlings. They 
do not wet the middlings enough to be sticky, but so that they 
will mix easily, and mix a little loose, so it will lie up a little 
and be loose; not too thick. One hundred pounds of mid- 
dlings to one pound of Paris green, and about two quarts of 
molasses. 

Prof. Brirron. Mr. Chairman, we have all been very 
much interested in the paper given by Mr. Shamel, and we all 
know that the Department of Agriculture has been doing some 
wonderful work in plant breeding. It seems to me while we 
have him here we ought to ask him a lot of questions. This 
is a very interesting subject, and it seems to me that the farm- 
ers might do a good deal of selection in their own field crops 
and improve the yield of crops in this way. 

Now, I would like to ask Mr. Shamel what the prospects 
are for improving our general crops in this way, our farm 
crops. 

Mr. SuHameL. Mr. President, I am not entirely familiar 
with the crops that are grown in Connecticut outside of the 
tobacco crop and the corn crop, that is, to any considerable 
extent. I feel, however, from the results of the investigations 
and experiments which have been carried on by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture that there is no question but that the 
yield and quality can be improved by the selection of desirable 
seed. In the case of the department we are conducting some 
practical lines in breeding improvements that ought to have 
a strong influence in promoting the quality of many crops and 
horticulture in general. 

Some very interesting experiments have been carried on. 
For instance, the sweet orange is being crossed with undesir- 
able types of the old wild orange. Some of the trees, which 
are grown from the seed, produced in that way, have produced 
a desirable crop of oranges, and a type of orange tree which 


200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan, 


can be grown two or three hundred miles north of the orange 
belt in Florida, which can be grown as far north, for instance, 
as Memphis, Tenn. These oranges, some of them, make 
particularly good lemonade, and there is a great demand all 
over the South by the farmers for these oranges in their door 
yards, for family purposes, to take the place largely of lemons. 

Other lines of work have been inaugurated in the South in 
the way of improvement of cotton. We have a number of 
breeding farms for this purpose in South Carolina and in 
Georgia, in Mississippi, and in Texas. In Texas the work is 
particularly interesting, or has been, especially in the last two 
or three years, on account of the attacks of the boll weevil 
upon the cotton. This insect seemed likely at one time to 
largely injure the cotton crop in Texas. It has been found by 
the selection of early varieties, and by the selection of plants 
which are resistant of the boll weevil, a strain can be de- 
veloped which is in a large part immune to the attacks of the 
boll weevil. In fact, this is one of the most interesting things 
we have developed in recent years, and this work is very sug- 
gestive of what may be accomplished in the line of growing 
strains of different crops which are immune to insect attacks. 
In the case of the cotton it has been found, so far as the boll 
weevil is concerned, that certain plants are not attacked by 
the boll weevil in the general manner in which the majority 
of plants are destroyed. By saving the seed from these plants 
which appear to be partly immune, and sowing it the following 
season, an immune strain is being secured, a strain which can 
be planted earlier, and which apparently resists the attack of 
the insect. So that in the case of cotton, and also to a less 
extent with some other general farm crops, strains are being 
developed which are comparatively immune to these attacks 
from destructive insects, or partly so at least. 

Take it in the case of tobacco; in North Carolina and South 
Carolina, where thousands of acres have been destroyed this 
last season, we found, on examination, certain individual 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 201 


plants in those fields which were resistant to the disease, and 
were able to produce a desirable type of plant which was re- 
sistant, while the majority of the crop was wholly destroyed. 
Now by the selection of these individual plants in a field we are 
developing resistant strains of a type, or a seemingly resistant 
strain, to the root diseases which attack the tobacco crop. 
That is a matter that we have been working on a great deal. 

Along the line of corn, as I said before, our most extensive 
improvements have been carried on in the West, and have 
shown that substantial improvement could be made in the yield 
by the selection of ears which produce a vigorous strain of 
corn, and by the selection of seed containing a larger per- 
centage in protein and other valuable qualities. Some corn 
that is grown in the West contains too high a proportion of 
starch in order to make it a well-balanced ration for feeding 
purposes, and we found there was a great variation in the per 
cent. of protein and in the per cent. of yield, and by the selec- 
tion of ears, which were high, we have been able, in the course 
of four or five years’ selection, to produce a strain carrying a 
percentage of protein nearly double that of the crop when we 
started. In other words, we have been able to increase it 
from a little over seven per cent. to a little over fifteen per 
cent. in the varieties which were treated in this way. In the 
same way by the selection of the seed ear a change in the pro- 
portion of starch was also brought about. 

The development of nitrogenous bacteria, which are more 
active in the securing of nitrogen from the air and putting it 
into condition where it is usable by the farm crop, has been 
an interesting feature of the work in plant breeding during 
the last two years. It was found that by crossing the bac- 
teria, or the organism which forms the nodules on the roots 
of clover and other leguminous plants, and putting them into 
a condition where they could not secure any nitrogen from the 
air that it was possible to produce strains of these organisms 
or bacteria which were more active in the development or in 


202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the securing of nitrogen from the air than the strains of these 
organisms are that now exist in the fields. In other words, 
these organisms, grown in rich soil, get lazy, and instead of 
taking their supply from the air will take it directly from the 
soil, but if they are put where there is no nitrogen for them 
to feed upon except in the air all those so lazy that they will 
not work perish, and only the ones that will work by active 
effort will live. Improved strains have been developed which 
have given very marked results in the increase which they 
secure in the general crop. 

In speaking of the crops which are to be grown in the fall 
in this section I will say that I believe that vetch, which is a 
crop that has been introduced into this country more exten- 
sively of late than before, will give satisfactory results as a 
cover crop, or a crop for that purpose. I have seen some of 
this vetch in the Connecticut Valley in two or three places this 
fall, and where it is sown early enough it has produced a large 
plant of fairly good size and developed a large tubercle on the 
root of these nitrifying organisms. I believe this crop will 
make a satisfactory addition to the number of green crops 
and to the kinds of green crops which may be grown in this 
latitude under these climatic conditions. It needs to be tested 
further, however, before any statement can be made in regard 
to its value. This, however, can be said, that it is not detri- 
mental to the quality of the tobacco when used upon tobacco 
fields, and it is one of the best fertilizing crops that we have. 
It can be sown after the tobacco is harvested, will make a 
vigorous growth in the fall, and comes up green and good in 
the spring, so I think it can possibly be used quite beneficially 
by tobacco growers, either alone, or with rye. 

I think these are along the lines of the most important ° 
practical work, the most important lines of practical work, we 
are taking up in the department. 

I wish to add that the work we have been doing in tobacco 
bids fair to give us more practical results than the work on 


1905. ] DISCUSSION. 203 


any crop that we have carried on. The results are more 
quickly secured. In other words, by using seed of tobacco 
grown under bags and protecting them from cross-fertilization, 
in this way we are able to secure a uniform plant, and by cross- 
ing the types which we now have, and maintaining the purity 
of the seed of the best types thus secured, we are able to im- 
prove the crop very materially. The fact of the matter is that 
the improvement of the crop along these lines, by breeding and 
seed selection, seems to bid fair to give us very good results, 
and seems to be very practical, and in fact the most practical 
of any of our work which we have yet carried out. 

A GENTLEMAN. You spoke of getting good, large, fully- 
developed seed. Is there any difference in the seed that grows 
on the edge, or on the extreme top of the plant, over that 
grown lower down? 

Mr. SHAMEL. I think possibly that grown in the central 
cluster of the flower produces larger seed than the buds, which 
are grown in other locations, and I believe that seed should be 
saved from those buds, rather than from others, if a prefer- 
ence is to be given. 

Mr. Foote. I would like to ask about the covering of the 
seed with the bag. Is there any particular kind of bag which 
would be particularly advantageous for this purpose? 

Mr. SHAMEL. No, sir; I don’t think that it is necessary 
to use a bag which is impervious to water altogether. The 
ordinary manilla paper bag will shut the water out, or it will 
not admit the water freely into the bud, and will dry out 
rapidly after a shower is over, after the sun comes out. In 
fact, so rapidly that we have had no difficulty with the mil- 
dewing of the seed under the bag. As a matter of fact the 
seed that stays under the bag is freer from bacteria than the 
seed on the outside, such as I have here on the table. This 
last year I had some Japanese bags which were absolutely 
impervious to water. The way they were prepared, they were 
very light and very strong, but they did not seem to give us any 
more satisfactory results than the ordinary bag. 


204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. Foote. I didn’t know, but if, for any reason, by 
dampness or by accident, the bag should be broken it should 
be repaired. 

Mr. SHAMEL. It is necessary, of course, to cover the seed 
in order to prevent cross-fertilization. 

Mr. Hare. In speaking of corn breeding, I would like to 
ask Mr. Shamel if he knows anything of the method pursued 
by Col. Wood. 

Mr. SHAMEL. No, sir; I do not. 

Mr. Hate. I was telling a party of his method of selec- 
tion. Mr. Collingwood in the Rural New Yorker has had 
considerable to say about it. His method of selection is this: 
To select the strongest stalk in the field, and the stalk having 
the greatest number of ears, and to always get the small ear. 
He has shown that by pursuing this method he gets a very 
strong, vigorous stalk, and by breeding it up he is able to get 
a variety having quite a large number of ears. Ordinarily 
I think we usually have varieties that bear only two or three 
ears to a stalk, but in this variety he gets from five to eight 
ears from the stalk. 

Mr. SHAMEL. I have no reply to make. I should think 
that the greater number of ears that can be grown on the 
stalk the more it would vary. I have no doubt of that, and in 
fact I have seen varieties which naturally have grown from five 
to eight ears of corn, but for feeding purposes I think that one 
ear to the stalk, perhaps, gives the best results in the quality 
of the corn. As indicated by Mr. Hale here, it would be more 
beneficial if we could secure a greater number that were up to 
the standard, but so far we have not been able to secure more 
than one good ear to the stalk. 

Secretary Brown. I should like to ask Dr. Britton to say 
a few words along the lines of his work during the past year. 
What he will say may have an important bearing upon the 
insect pests of tobacco, and incidentally throw light upon the 
subject of the discussion here. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 205 


Prof. Brirron.. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: Of 
course you know that a scientific man cannot do anything but 
talk shop, and when the secretary asked me to say a few words 
I thought it might be interesting to say a few things about the 
occurrence, or absence of insect pests during the past season. 
Many of you have made observations along those lines, but 
before starting in I thought I would like to say that I consider 
this question of plant breeding one of the most promising 
lines of work for us all to take up, that we can engage in, not 
only as regards the yield of crops, but also in the larger in- 
formation which will come to us in regard to plants which 
will resist the attacks of insects, and of various diseases caused 
by bacteria and fungi. Perhaps the insects cannot be kept off 
quite as well as the other thing, but I believe there is a great 
chance in work along this line for us to increase our ability 
to keep off certain diseases to plants caused by bacteria and 
fungi. In fact, at one time I was engaged in some breeding 
experiments. I worked along lines somewhat different from 
what a good many do, but along the same lines that Mr. 
Shamel has indicated. Mr. Shamel has told you about the 
selection of heavy and light seed of tobacco. We went to a 
great deal of trouble to select out heavy seed. We began with 
seed purchased from seedsmen, and the first generation of the 
plants gave us some very striking results. We got earliness 
in the crop from light seed, with a heavier yield and a larger 
growth of leaf and stem from the heavy seed. But after a few 
generations this difference seemed to disappear somewhat, 
and there was not so much difference except that the plants 
from the light seed seemed to mature earlier and gave us a 
larger weight. Finally we got in diseases. After several 
generations our results were entirely destroyed from one of 
those diseases, which we could not combat. Now I fully be- 
lieve that if we had gone on with it and selected seed from 
plants which resisted that disease we might finally have 
reached some very valuable results. As it was we have all 


206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the notes, but they have not yet been published, and probably 
never will be. 

Now, as you know, last winter was one of the most severe 
for many years in Connecticut. It is, therefore, interesting 
to notice the effect of that cold weather on insect life. One of 
the most important things is the fact that the San José scale 
insect was killed out to a large extent. Not entirely, but in 
many parts of the state a large proportion was killed outright. 
In examining specimens where we were carrying on spraying 
experiments we found that the cold weather had killed as high 
as fifty per cent. of them at the end of the winter. In some 
places seventy-five to eighty per cent. were killed. We can 
attribute this to nothing except the severe winter, because there 
was no evidence of other causes for their death. A great 
many trees, as you know, were killed outright by the winter, 
and, of course, when the tree dies the scale is also killed. 

Other insects suffered in the same way. Butterflies were 
not abundant during the season, and certain earwigs and other 
insects, which were common the year before, were very hard 
to find this season, and that is to be accounted for by the large 
number which were probably destroyed from that cause. Prof. 
Verrill of Yale has asserted that certain species of earwigs, 
which were quite abundant heretofore, have been very difficult 
to find. He hunted over some lands where they had been 
common for specimens, and could not find one. 

I tried to study tobacco insects, or those insects which at- 
tacked the growing crop. Of course, the worms were abun- 
dant both seasons, and especially the last season, but the insect 
which attacks the plant later, the green worm and the flying 
beetles, and the sucking bugs, were so scarce that I had hard 
work to find any who were in the tobacco fields, so that I really 
did not get along very fast in studying the tobacco industry 
from that standpoint. 

On the other hand, aphis has been extremely rare. A 
year ago this was very common,—exceedingly abundant. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 207 


Last winter we tried to find eggs upon twigs and found almost 
none. At the meeting of the Pomological Society it was 
thought that the aphis would not probably be abundant, but 
this winter I found some of the eggs on a tree, and we will 
probably have some aphis next season. 

A year ago last summer the potato beetle was not abundant. 
A great many growers were not obliged to use poison. This 
season, of course, they started in with the hope that it would 
be scarce, and many of them did not poison their plants. Early 
in the season this insect was not abundant, but late in the 
season it seemed to increase, and the potato beetle could be 
seen crawling everywhere, all over the garden and on potatoes 
and other things. We can expect, therefore, that there will be 
a great many of them next year, so potato growers should be 
prepared to fight them. 

One characteristic thing which was very noticeable on 
apples the past season was the great injury from the plum 
curculio. The plum curculio makes a puncture in the skin 
of the apple and probably lays eggs in it. As a rule, people 
do not pay much attention to it. The apple does not fall to 
the ground like the infested plum, but after an attack from 
this insect it simply makes it a little irregular in shape. If 
an apple has only one or two of these punctures it doesn’t 
hurt it much, but when the curculio attacks it so frequently, 
so that each one of the fruit has ten or a dozen of these holes 
in it, it does injure the shape and growth of the fruit. And 
that is one reason, I think, why so many poor apples were 
obtained along the southern part of the state, near the coast, 
owing to excessive attacks of the plum curculio. This, of 
course, can be prevented to some extent by spraying our 
apples early with poison, or soon after the blossoms fall. 

Among some of the insects which have been abundant the 
past season are the onion maggot and the cabbage maggot. 
These have done more harm than usual, especially in the 
onion-growing districts of Connecticut. In many places from 


208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


one-third to nearly one-half of the crop was ruined by this 
insect. It does its work early in the season, and does not 
keep it up as late as the cabbage maggot. The dryer portions 
of the field seem to suffer worse than the moist part. It 
seems to stop work along in June or early in July, and not much 
injury results after that. Some growers say that they can 
combat it, some with kerosene, and some with various other 
remedies of that kind. Our experiments show that those 
things are almost useless in fighting the maggot. 

The pear scylla has also been abundant on many trees. I 
think, however, I can say it was much less abundant on trees 
sprayed with the mixture which kills the San José scale. At 
least my observation leads me to make this statement. This 
may not be generally true, and yet it is quite probable that 
spraying, especially late in the season, would kill this insect, 
because the eggs left on the twigs through the winter hatch 
very early. They hatch usually before the leaves come out, 
and so spraying with the lime and sulphur mixture just before | 
the leaves appear would undoubtedly kill many of these in- 
sects. Of course we did considerable spraying work to kiil 
the San José scale. Over four thousand trees were subjected 
to treatment in our experiments in different localities in the 
state. The lime and sulphur mixtures were used chiefly, that 
being prepared for fifteen different farmers. The boiled lime 
and sulphur mixture, containing from fourteen to twenty pounds 
of lime, fourteen of sulphur, and forty gallons of water, has 
given as good results as anything we have tried, although 
some of the experiments, which were made up without boil- 
ing, were almost as good. A mixture which has been made, 
containing lime, sulphur, and caustic soda, gave fair results. 
A mixture which we made up ourselves, containing lime and 
sulphide of sulphur or soda, also gave excellent results. These 
were both prepared without boiling, simply weighing the ma- 
terial to see that the proportions were correct. After the ma- 
terial is put in it should be stirred vigorously and kept warm, 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 209 


The heat from the lime helps to dissolve the sulphur and the al- 
kali present, also aids in its dissolution. After the lime has 
ceased slaking the whole mixture should stand, with a very little 
water added to it, so it will not dry up. We allowed it to stand 
fifteen or twenty minutes, or perhaps half an hour. It is not 
well to add too much water, because it is desirable to keep it 
just as hot as possible. That dissolves more of the sulphur. 
Then we added to that water and applied it to the trees. 

We also used caustic soda and water, which did not give 
very good results. 

Aside from this work I have been engaged to some extent 
in making a study of the mosquitoes of Connecticut and their 
breeding places. As some of you know, this is a great deal 
more important than we used to think, because it has been 
proven that mosquitoes are the only agent that we know of in 
the transmission of certain diseases, such as malarial and ty- 
phoid fever. Malaria is a common disease in Connecticut, and 
the reports of the State Board of Health show that during the 
past ten years over a thousand deaths have occurred in the 
state from malarial diseases. We have generally looked upon 
malaria as a disease that makes a person feel uncomfortable, 
but which is not dangerous. There are a great many more 
cases where persons do not die than there are where death 
occurs, but if there were one thousand deaths there were prob- 
ably a hundred thousand cases in the state. 

The malarial mosquito breeds in about the same places that 
the others do, in stagnant water and in holes and places where 
stagnant water accumulates. It is known that it does not breed 
anywhere else. Along the coast we have what is known as 
the salt marshes, where mosquitoes are very abundant. The 
most abundant kinds do not carry malaria. They are simply 
pests and nuisances. The malarial mosquito breeds around 
these salt marshes in about the same kind of places as the salt 
marsh mosquito lives in, but these are very much rarer. We 
began along the coast in Connecticut an examination of these 


AGR.—14 


210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


places, and there are quite a number of them. Connecticut 
has got quite a large area of salt marshes, over 34 square 
miles, or more than 22,000 acres. We found, however, only a 
very small proportion of these marshes is breeding mosquitoes. 
Most of them are fairly well drained, either naturally or 
artificially. The large Quinnipiack marsh of 3,600 acres is 
quite fairly well drained for the purpose of getting the salt 
marsh hay which grows there, and affords almost no breeding 
place in the whole tract. Furthermore, many of the pools of 
water are stocked with fishes and insects, which prevent the 
breeding of mosquitoes. Wherever we have finished an exam- 
ination of the salt marsh a report has been made to the health 
officer of the town, and also a map has been given to him with 
the breeding places located on it, and a report regarding the 
conditions found, and also recommendations as to what shall 
be done to get rid of the pest. 

Then we have been more or less engaged in the general 
collection of Connecticut insects. A list of insects in New 
Jersey was published four years ago, which contained some- 
thing over eight thousand species. In Connecticut, probably, 
there are as many insects as in New Jersey, although Con- 
necticut is not quite the same as to mosquitoes. We probably 
have just as many species, but our collection at present is only 
beginning, and comprises about two thousand species. 

Before closing I wish to call your attention to the fact that 
we may at any time get the Gypsy moth and the brown tailed 
moth in Connecticut. These two insects have caused great 
destruction in the eastern part of Massachusetts, and after a 
million of dollars was spent in the effort to exterminate them the 
work was dropped in 1900. There has been some talk about 
the government lending a hand in fighting these insects, but 
they will probably never exterminate them, and they will be 
like the San José scale, always with us. The important point 
in fighting all these insects, like the San José scale and the 
Gypsy moth, is not extermination, but to hold them in check 


1905. | QUESTIONS. 211 


in such a manner that we may save our crops, our trees, our 
health, and so on. If we can hold them in check to this extent 
there is little use in trying to wipe them out entirely. Now 
the Gypsy moth has already become established near Provi- 
dence, R. I., and it seems wonderful that it has not been 
brought into the State of Connecticut before this. Perhaps 
it has been, but wherever it has been reported, and the matter 
has been followed up, it has proven to be some other common 
insect, which the people did not know, and which they thought 
was the Gypsy moth. It is always well when we find these 
things to submit them to some one who does know, and it is 
always well to do that before it is published in the newspapers 
that the Gypsy moth has been found. The Gypsy moth feeds 
on the foliage of most all kinds of shade and fruit trees, and 
many garden plants. 

These insects have been quite common in eastern Massa- 
chusetts, and we have been highly fortunate that they have not 
worked into Connecticut before this. They seem to have been 
working northward along the coast of Massachusetts, through 
southeastern New Hampshire and Maine, and so on into New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I think it would be well for us 
to be on the lookout for these insects, because they may be 
found here at any time, and the sooner we know it the better. 

Secretary Brown. I thought, Dr. Britton, you could give 
us some general description of the difference between the ma- 
larial mosquito and the common kinds. If you could I am sure 
it would be very useful information. 

Prof. Brirron. Those of you who observe mosquitoes can 
tell the difference on a very little study. The malarial mos- 
quito has wings which are spotted, and its proboscis is usually 
more nearly in one line, one straight line, than the common 
mosquito. When it has lived quite a while the axis of the 
proboscis becomes more nearly perpendicular than in the com- 
mon mosquito. The common mosquito has its proboscis 
nearly at an angle of 45 degrees with its body, and the body is 


212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


nearly parallel to the surface. In the larval stage the malarial 
mosquito lies horizontally, and has a very short breathing 
tube, while the common mosquito holds: its head down when 
it comes to the surface, and has a very long breathing tube. 
It would be easy enough for an observant person to tell them 
apart after very little study. 

The Presipent. The hour is, getting late, and we must 
now adjourn these proceedings until afternoon. 

The convention will stand adjourned until two Pp. Mm. 


THIRD DAY — AFTERNOON SESSION. 


Convention called to order at 2 P. M. 
Vice-President Seeley in the Chair. 


The PresIpDENT. The audience will please come to order. 
Music is the first thing on the program. 

Music by the North Haven quartette. 

Mr. Gotp. Before proceeding with the regular exercises 
of the afternoon I will request the privilege granted me to 
present some resolutions with regard to the recent death of a 
former member of this board, and one who was well known 
throughout this community. I refer to L. Sedgwick Wells. 
“Be ye also ready, for ye know not the day nor the hour.” 
The sudden death of our friend and former associate Mr. 
Wells of New Britain, on the 12th instant, reminds us of our 
mortality, and some notice of his death from this assembly 
would seem to be highly proper. 

Resolved, That we desire to put on record our testimony 
that from long association with Mr. Wells we can speak of 
him as an honest man, a patriotic citizen, ready to aid in every 
good word and work, and one to whom the agriculture of 
Connecticut is especially indebted for his wise counsels and 
efforts in its behalf, and one who by precept and example en- 
deavored to extend the blessings of improved husbandry to all 
classes of the community. 


1905. | RESOLUTION. 213 


If any one was ready, within our knowledge, to meet the 
last call that man was Mr. Wells. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be placed on our records 
and furnished to the press, and that they also be presented to 
the family of the deceased. 

The PresIpeNT. You hear the resolution; is it seconded? 

Mr. Kirkuam. Mr. President, I consider it a privilege 
to rise here and second this resolution. I claimed Mr. Wells 
as a friend; do now. He was my companion when I first took 
the responsibilities of business in times past. He lived not a 
great ways from me. I was within easy communication with 
him. I knew him by a great many deeds of kindness. We, 
unfortunately, became connected in a mistake. We both of 
us knew it, and it was the only mistake of judgment that I ever 
knew Mr. Wells to make. We both signed a fraudulent note 
nearly thirty years ago. It was not for such a great deal. 
Mr. Wells was thrifty, well off, but he was so put out, and so 
ashamed of his own failure to recognize the fraud before he 
signed the papers, that he took it to heart, and he says: “ Let’s 
face it; we will fight it. It is a fraud that has been going over 
this state fooling the farmers for a great many years. Let’s 
stop it.” Well, he was a quiet, but a determined man. We 
went to work and we found just as many as we could of those 
who had been swindled, or who were to be swindled, and in that 
organization with Mr. Wells I was connected with him for 
about seven years before the last note was outlawed. During 
that time we were much together, and I think I knew him 
personally better than any other man outside of his own rela- 
tives and family. Many a deed of kindness did he do. Just 
to show what kind of a man he was I will cite that the law 
concerning commercial paper was defective at that time, as 
most lawyers know. I asked him if he could not help us. We 
changed that law in regard to the evidence in such cases. It 
was a very ticklish thing to do, but we had the sympathy of 
the whole community, because very many had been swindled. 


214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


A member of the legislature that year from Litchfield, a bright 
man and a lawyer, a member of the Judiciary Committee, took 
it up. He had lost his case every time when called to defend 
those men. He saw the mistake in the law. When he drew 
his bill he submitted it to then Governor Richard D. Hubbard, 
and Governor Hubbard finally told him that if it passed he 
would sign it. Well, it did pass, and great benefit was con- 
ferred upon the state. , 

Now, as showing the disinterested unconsciousness of the 
man whose death all deplore I want to just cite one instance 
and then I will sit down. He was nominated for the legisla- 
ture one spring. He saw his opportunity. He wanted to be 
elected on account of serving, but there was an adverse meas- 
ure against him. He lived just over the line from me, and I 
was nominated at the same time. He said he thought I should 
be elected. Well, said I, “It is doubtful.’ There was always 
a doubt about it. We were both elected, Mr. Wells on the 
sheer popularity of his personality. He had been the first 
selectman of the town of New Britain for ten years, and the 
best, I was told by several at his funeral, that they ever had. 
What Mr. Wells said went in everything. I found out after- 
wards that that man used to slip over the border into my town 
and request votes for me, leaving his own town to take care of 
itself. JI never heard of such an instance before. We were 
opposite in politics, but Mr. Wells did not think about that. 
He had but one thing in mind, and that was the good of the 
state. I did not know anything about Mr. Wells’ efforts in 
my favor until long afterwards. He did not consult me about 
it, and it was highly indicative of the unselfish character of 
the man. 

In this Board of Agriculture he did not make any show of 
himself at all. He never rose to speak but he gave us all 
advice and counsel which was of the soundest kind and which 
was always for the best interests of the board. His advice and 
counsel was always followed. 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 215 


The PresIpENT. You have heard the resolution and the 
comments which have been made by Mr. Kirkham. The mo- 
tion has been made and seconded. What is your pleasure in 
regard to it? 

Mr. STERNBURG. I move you, Mr. Chairman, that the vote 
be taken by rising. 

The Preswwent. It will be so understood if there is no 
objection. 

(Resolution passed by a unanimous vote.) 

Mr. J. B. Noste. Mr. President, before we commence 
with the regular exercises of the program can we not have one 
more selection from that quartette? 

The PrestipentT. I am not sure that we can. I will tell 
them that it is very earnestly desired by everybody in the hall. 
I have just seen them and they did not say a word, but they 
looked good-natured, and I think they will be here in a few 
minutes. 

Music. 

The PrEsIDENT. We will now proceed with the work of 
the afternoon in connection with the program. The first 
matter upon the program for this afternoon will be an address 
on “Agriculture in the Public Schools”? by Mr. Fred Mutchler 
of the Connecticut Agriculture College. I am happy to intro- 
duce that gentleman to you. 


AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 


By Mr. FRED MuTCHLER, 
Of the Connecticut Agricultural College. 


Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: It certainly 
is a delight to me this afternoon to come after some years 
again before this representative body of agricultural people. 
For the greatest part of my life I have been more or less in- 
timately associated with agricultural and farming interests, 
but I am sure it will do me good as a teacher to be back here 
today and confer with you, not so much to give you ideas of 


216 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


my own, but rather to get ideas of yours. I got a few of them 
this morning that are quite good, and they will help me in my 
work. It is a tendency among school teachers more than any 
other class of people to become exceedingly dogmatic in their 
manner of thinking, or in their ways of thinking. We are not 
accustomed to have people come and say to us, You ought to 
do this, You ought to do that, because ordinarily people do not 
come up to us and question the facts in the case when we are 
speaking about them. Therefore, I say there is a strong ten- 
dency for us to come to believe that the things that we say 
are just a little better than those of anybody else, or better than 
the opinion that anybody else holds. I want you then, as 
farmers, as people interested in agricultural interests, and also 
as people who must have and who surely do have an interest 
in the public schools, to keep in mind the fact that you ought 
to help us as a class, as school teachers, to keep away from 
dogmatism, and to help tis to learn to be open-minded. To 
this end let us call ourselves into council this afternoon for a 
little while, by way of an address and discussion. Let us find 
out about these things, whether they really be things that we 
ought to pay serious attention to, and whether they really are 
true. Now it will be impossible for me to inaugurate or even 
to attempt to outline in detail a course of study to be followed 
out in the public schools if I wanted to do it, but that is not my 
business here. It is for me to speak concerning the things 
that are being done in the public schools, by way of agricul- 
tural study, nature study, or to speak of it under any name 
which you choose. It has been suggested that, if possible, I 
speak upon some things that seem to me to be important and 
that ought to be done, and which our interest in this great 
subject-matter should prompt us as needing to be done. 

Now suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and for- 
tunes of every one of us were some day or another to depend 
upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don’t you think 
that we should all start rather promptly to learn at least the 
names and moves of the pieces, and then to think of the means 
of giving and getting out of check? If that were so do you 
not think we should look with aversion, amounting to scorn, 
upon a father who allowed his son to grow up without know- 
ing a pawn from a knight? Yet it is a very plain and 
elementary fact that the life and fortunes and happiness of 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 27 


every one of us, and more or less of those who are connected 
with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules 
of the game in order that we may play our part with credit in 
that far more difficult and complicated game than chess, which 
has been played for untold ages—the great game of life — 
every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a 
game of his own. The chess board is the world. The pieces 
are the facts of the universe, and the rules of the game are what 
we call the laws of nature. The Player on the other side is 
hidden from us, but he is one that is playing his game in a 
manner that is always fair and just, but we also know to our 
cost that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest 
allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the high- 
est stakes are paid with that sort of generosity with which the 
strong deal out to the strong, and the one who plays ill is 
checkmated ; without haste, but without remorse. The prin- 
ciple found here stands out to the open-minded person in 
large, immensely large, bold type. Life is no joke. It is a 
constant fight. We go up to victory or down to defeat, de- 
pending on the moves we make. The moves we make depend 
upon our knowledge of the game. It, therefore, becomes a 
question of equipment. The law of the survival of the fittest 
hangs over your head and mine. This is the theory of the 
public school, to equip for life, that is, to make the people know 
how to play the game, and not to teach them how to shun the 
game. Their purpose is not to put the mantle of protection 
around a man so that nothing can get to him. That is not the 
principle. Animals that do that go to the wall quicker than 
any other. The great object and the purpose of education is 
to make a man able to stand in the firing line. 

Back in the middle ages the black death spread over the 
continent of Europe, decimating the ranks of the people to the 
extent of twenty-five millions in a single year. Imagination 
fails to picture the dread, darkness, and despair which such a 
pestilence creates. Such a thing could not happen today, be- 
cause the people are prepared to meet such great emergencies. 
Now there are two phases of this equipment about which I 
wish to speak, and with these two phases we are concerned in 
the public schools, as well as with many others, of course. 
The first one is this: To form the habit of working; to fall 
in love and be irretrievably lost in love with your work. I 


a 


218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


think that other things being equal individual success will be 
most nearly taken care of by a man learning to do some work 
which he is willing to do, and likes to do, and which he does 
in the best manner possible. I met an individual some few 
weeks ago who was very much disappointed. He says: “I 
can’t get anything to do.” I said: ‘‘ What would you like 
to do?” He said: “Show me something by which I can 
make some money quickly.” I pointed out to him various 
kinds of work that he could do, and he says: “I can’t do any 
of those things; I don’t like to work. I want money.” Now 
that is far from being the proper spirit. The farmer’s boy 
comes up under auspicious circumstances so far as this matter 
of work is concerned. All things with which he is surrounded 
make him a good worker. He gets up in the morning. He 
goes out to the barn and feeds the horses and pigs and various 
other kinds of live stock. Gets his pair of horses ready to 
work. Goes back into the house and eats a hasty breakfast, 
and then says: “ Father, which field today?” He finds out 
what is wanting to be done, and he goes to his work as a matter 
’ of course. The next day he does the same thing. The habit 
of work becomes established with him. The habits of work 
are instilled in him that are far different from those which are 
instilled in any other type of individual. Think of the boy 
who grows up in the city. Can you think of him getting up 
in the morning to do those things? He would be likely to get 
up at seven or eight o’clock, perhaps nine o’clock, and wonder 
what he was going to do to pass the time during the day until 
night comes. Nothing but play largely; not altogether, but in 
the main that conveys a fair idea of the way he passes his time. 
How is it possible for a boy trained up under such circum- 
stances to become accustomed to a habit of industry, without 
which success is almost impossible? An instance came to my 
knowledge a year or so ago which well illustrated this. Two 
boys came from college who had grown up in the city and who 
had been on the nine and in the football team. They were 
healthy, strong, able-bodied men. Their father had suffered 
losses in business, and they were forced to give up their home. 
One of these boys came to my room, where he was often fond 
of being, and he says: “I don’t know what I will do now. 
We have lost everything. I wouldn’t care, but I don’t know 
how to care for father and mother. They are old.” Imagine 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 219 


a farmer’s boy coming up to manhood on a farm, where there 
are sO many ways in which work can be done, and not knowing 
how to get up enough energy to take care of his father and 
mother. So I say that the circumstances and surroundings of 
the farmers’ boys are those that are conducive to good work. 
“ Blessed is the man,” says Carlyle, “ who has found his work. 
Let him ask no other blessedness.” 

The second phase of this subject, and one which I wish to 
discuss more closely than any other, is that of putting our- 
selves into proper relation with the things that are about us, 
so as to utilize those that are helpful, and rid ourselves, if 
possible, from harmful influences. We are tempted with many 
influences in our complex, organized society, and it is perhaps 
well that we are, for if we view those things rightly they all 
have a usefulness in developing character. These influences 
may be moral, social, and spiritual. It is about the first named, 
the moral influences, that I wish to direct my remarks. The 
other two depend, to a large extent, upon this one. It con- 
cerns influences that make the views of life higher and better. 
In the public schools the study of the vast array of facts and 
phenomena in the universe, and the force which they exert, 
have a great power for weal or for woe. The world of nature 
is fraught with influences, the effect of which upon life is 
bound to be very great upon all who come in contact with 
them. It is the province of the public school to put people 
into the right attitude towards the things he is living with, 
and to teach him who are his friends or enemies, as the case 
may be. Is agriculture a subject that will do this? If rightly 
taught I think it is. I think it is safe to say it will lend itself 
to this end in equipping for life. It all depends upon the kind 
of agriculture that is taught. I would like to comment a little 
at this point upon what I mean by the kind of agriculture that 
I think would be the most helpful. It is not technical agri- 
culture. I should say that that ought to be kept out. While 
I agree that there are certain features of agriculture which 
should be taught in the public schools, and which can be taught 
with advantage, it is not technical agriculture. It is not the 
province of the public schools to make farmers any more than 
it is to make preachers or lawyers or doctors, or teach any 
other profession. It is the province of the public school to 
equip for life, no matter what business or what profession we 


220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


may go into. There is a seasonable kind of work, I think, 
that can be done in the public schools that will help measurably 
in this matter of equipment for life. There are a great many 
things, there are a great many phenomena, there are a 
great many facts and things about the farm that everybody 
ought to know. There are a great many of the insects that 
were spoken of here this morning that everybody ought to be 
familiar with. It is along that line. There are thousands of 
things in farm affairs, in nature, that act upon the life of the 
individual, and that phase of it, I think, is what we want to 
bring out; what we want to take up in this work. I would 
not call it elementary agriculture. Call it nature study if you 
will. That is what they call it in some places when they don’t 
know what else to call it, and under which there is almost 
everything under the.sun done. Now a great many times the 
things that are taught are not at all to the point. Later on I 
will designate some of the things that I think should be 
brought out more clearly in such a course, and if you will bear 
with me I should like to relate a few of the things that I have 
seen taught in the school under a course of so-called nature 
study, or elementary agriculture. It has been pointed out by 
many authors, and by many people, by lecturers everywhere, 
and by public school teachers, that bird studies were exceed- 
ingly fine; that the value of birds to the farm is something of 
very great importance. I agree thoroughly with them. But 
on account of this some people take advantage of it and they 
say we must teach birds therefore. Just tell whatever we can 
find out about them. Therefore, instead of going to the birds 
and finding out something about them, they content them- 
selves with relating stories that are written about them. Could 
anything be more erroneous? One day I met a little girl com- 
ing home from school. It was about three o’clock, and I met 
this little girl, whom I knew, hurrying home from her school, 
and she says: “ Oh, we just had a fine talk in the nature study 
class! We had such a delightful lesson. It was about the 
red-headed woodpecker.’ And she says: “ Now, let me tell 
you about the lesson.”’ And then she went on to tell how the 
red-headed woodpecker got his red head, and proceeded to 
relate the story of the old woman that lived out in the woods 
and had a great many evil characteristics, and with that pe- 
culiar disposition she went on to do more and more mean 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 221 


things, and every time she did a mean thing she got smaller 
and smaller. She kept on doing mean things, and the little 
girl told me of the mean things that that woman did. And 
she says: “ Just see, she was turned into a bird, and the little 
red hood that she had still stays as the red head of the wood- 
pecker.” (Laughter.) I said to her: “Did you find out 
anything about the bird, anything about its feathers or 
tongue?” “Oh, no, no. The teacher didn’t say anything 
about that.” “ Did you find out what the woodpecker eats?” 
“Oh, no, we didn’t learn anything about the woodpecker at 
all, not in that way. We didn’t learn anything about it, only 
how it got its red head.” So it is. It is unnecessary for me 
to comment upon that method of teaching. 

I agree that we ought to teach the children the things of 
nature. We ought to carry them close home to nature, in a 
way that would make it worth something to him in after life. 
It is all right to tell stories, but put them where they belong. 
I don’t know where that is, but I am quite sure they do not 
belong in this phase of the work. 

Over in the State of Illinois there was a little bulletin put 
out by a teacher there concerning trees. The whole thing is a 
waste. Among other things the book went on in this way: 
It spoke of how the trees must feel when they are taken out of 
their native woods and planted along the public streets in the 
city. “Oh,” she says, “ how the trees must feel when they are 
taken out of their beautiful surroundings, in their native woods, 
and taken into the town where everything is hurry, this way 
and that. How the trees must feel when that occurs.” And 
she says: “I can imagine the great big wail which the trees 
pour forth into the ears of the wind.” It is against such work 
as that that I would like to have public opinion turn its atten- 
tion, for many good citizens are paying taxes to support the 
school teachers, who will waste their time and the taxpayers’ 
money in serving out such twaddle as that. I would like to 
get such work as that out of the way. 

I have before me a little book which I wish all people could 
examine who are interested in this subject. It is a little bulletin 
that has been put into the hands of teachers, expecting that 
they shall follow out these lessons. I want to call your attention 
to this: If the codling moth lays fifty eggs on fifty apples in 
a single day, and then lays fifty more eggs, how many apples 


222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


will be destroyed by one codling moth in a year? And then to 
this: If the downy woodpecker eats one codling moth every 
day during the six months from October to April — 180 days 
— what will be the value of one such bird to an orchard? 

Well, I will guarantee if the children will work out prob- 
lems like that they will have more respect for the woodpecker. 
When you come to substitute a problem like that for some of 
the stuff, it gives a boy or girl the germ of an idea that is valu- 
able. That is not the way to teach it, however. We want to 
give them in every school something that will come close home 
to them, which shall not only interest, but which shall convey 
instruction which will be of practical value. 

Then there is a good lesson which follows. Some of this 
is important. Some of it is good material. Some of it should 
be left out. Take Lesson 13, in reference to domestic animals; 
that is a good lesson. Then there are twenty-two pages in 
this book on how to tie knots. Finally there is a lesson on 
feeding calves. 

That is a sample of some of the nature study that is pre- 
scribed. It is done all over the country. Public school teach- 
ers, who have no idea what to do, do those things that in most 
cases they ought not to do. There is not an exercise in there 
that is not worth something if it is properly handled. I won- 
der sometimes whether the individual who wrote the book ever 
saw a farm or a farmer boy, or, if he did, what his idea must 
have been; whether he had any real practical knowledge of 
farming operations, or whether he thought that the farmers 
of today were living back thirteen or fourteen centuries. 

Think, if you please, of the people who are going into the 
colleges of this country. What proportion of the children of 
the public schools ever get to the college? Only a very few 
of them, comparatively speaking, get into the high school, and 
a very much smaller number ever get into a college, and of 
those who do get into college how many of them ever get into 
the study of the natural sciences, or physical sciences, where 
these things are brought up? There are some things that are 
so important that everybody ought to know them, and that is 
the purpose of the public schools. There are those things that 
make so much for weal or woe in the life of every individual 
that it is a public obligation to see that they find them out, and 
that they find them out properly. Very much good can be done 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 223 


in this kind of work if it is conducted in the right way. I was 
always very much interested in a case that occurred in the State 
of Massachusetts, some ten miles north of Worcester, in con- 
nection with a peach orchard there. The man’s entire income 
was from his peach orchard. His children were sent to school 
from the money derived from that. Their home was dependent 
upon it. An individual, who was interested in peach growing, 
and who understood peach trees, walked in there and told the 
farmer one day that his trees were infested with the peach 
borers. The man says to the farmer, ““ Why don’t you get rid 
of those borers? They will kill your trees.” The farmer 
said, “‘ I can’t do anything with them. I can’t get them out of 
the way. It is impossible for me to do anything with them,” 
and the visitor said, “ You can punch them all to death if you 
want to. If you will take care of those trees you can save 
them, but if you do not this orchard will die.” “ Well,” the 
farmer says, “I can’t doit.” His little girl happened to be not 
far away, and she came over, and she said, “ What was that 
you said about getting rid of the borers that are going to kill 
our peach trees?” And then the man turned around and told 
her. She went to work; interested the family, and they all went 
to work on that peach orchard, and they practically got rid of the 
borers that they had. They saved the peach orchard, and by 
saving the peach orchard they saved their home. They saved 
that girl’s high school work. They saved that girl’s education 
in music. They saved that girl’s usefulness, to a great extent, 
in the community, and benefited everybody else that was de- 
pendent on them. That is the kind of work that ought to be 
brought close home to the children in school every day. We 
ought to teach the value of birds to the farm. And that is 
one of the most important phases that can be brought out; the 
value of bird life. Only a few years ago it was found out that 
during the craze for birds as ornaments there was taken from 
Russia a certain variety of bird, which was highly prized for 
that purpose. I cannot say how many of them were taken out 
in a very short time, but in less than two years the other coun- 
tries had to send food in there for the people, so that they could 
live. Their crops were being destroyed by noxious insects, 
which had become established in a very few years. By the 
annihilation of the birds there had come almost a famine. Of 
course, this estimate of bird life is a thing of great importance, 


224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


and should be brought out in all the public schools. Now so 
much for the sake of the birds. They are interesting for their 
beauty, but they are exceedingly interesting and important 
from the standpoint of what they do and of their value to agri- 
culture and to man. What is a robin good for? What is the 
chipping sparrow good for? How many plant lice does a 
chickadee eat during the winter and spring? What is a quail 
good for, other than to be served up on toast? Of course, I 
can’t go into a discussion of these things. My time is too 
limited. But I speak of this simply to suggest that there is a 
line of work, which, if carefully worked out in detail, would 
give the teacher a whole year’s work, and which will be impor- 
tant as having an effect, and a beneficial effect, upon the life of 
the people. 

Then as to the growing trees; that would be an important 
phase of work to take up — how to grow trees. I would teach 
a child how to grow plants in the schools, especially in the city 
schools, where they have never grown plants at all and know 
nothing of the enjoyment and instruction which comes from 
their cultivation. You will find many children that have never 
grown a plant in their lives, and it does seem to me that a 
child will derive great benefit by such instruction ; by watching 
them grow they will procure not only enjoyment, but will 
always experience a thrill of pleasure from seeing a thing grow 
that really belongs to them. They take an interest in a thing 
like that to a greater degree than in many other pleasures. I 
was at a flower show last season, a year ago, in which I was 
asked to judge some flowers, and afterwards I was to make the 
speeches of presentation of prizes in a school. In the first 
grade I simply asked how many children ever grew a plant 
before. They came from some of the homes that were not the 
best in the city, and only two or three little hands went up in 
that room of about forty children. They never had grown a 
plant. When I got into the second grade I asked how many 
of them had ever grown a plant, and quite a number of little 
hands went up. You see some of them had had instruction 
upon that line from some source. If you can get a child to 
plant a tree, or to grow a plant, which they own themselves, it 
will develop in them the instinct of ownership, such as was ~ 
referred to by the speaker. My time will not permit me to 
speak at length upon this point. There can be no question, 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 225 


however, but what it is a subject of large usefulness to the 
children in our public schools, and will be of great benefit to 
them in after life if it is properly handled. 

Then, too, take the subject of the taming and domestication 
of animals. That is something of vast importance — how to 
treat an animal; how to look after it; to know what kind of 
teeth they have, and many other essential points which might 
be enumerated if time permitted. The taming and domestica- 
tion of animals should not be overlooked, because it is some- 
thing which a child ought to learn in order to know how to live 
with them. They have to live with these things in their lives, 
and they ought to know how to do it in such a way as to make 
the best of it. 

Furthermore, an understanding and acquaintance with a 
great many of our insect eating animals that we have about the 
farm is a matter of importance —toads and frogs and that 
class of animals. I was thinking this morning in connection 
with this subject, of a story that is told, in which two men in 
Worcester went down town and bought some strawberry plants. 
Each man got a dozen, took them to their homes and put them 
out. A few days afterwards one of them came over to the 
house of the other and asked how his strawberry plants were 
getting along. He said, “ They are all eaten up with the cut 
worms. All gone.” The other one said to him, “ Why, how 
did it happen? Mine are all right.” ‘“ Haven’t you lost any 
of yours?” “ Why, no.” Then he wanted to know the rea- 
son, and his friend said to him, “ Go out there and look.”” So 
he went out to the garden and there he found several huge fat 
toads sitting around on the plants, and, of course, every time 
a cut worm showed up it was promptly put out of the way. 
The man who had lost his plants promptly took the hint. He 
says, “ I will just fix that.” He went back home and replanted 
his strawberry bed, and took pains to see that there were some 
toads around the patch, and after that he had no trouble. In 
that way he saved his strawberries. If we had toads enough 
to put on the tobacco fields you would not be worrying about 
keeping the cut worms away from the plants. It will take 
some time to get them, but we and our children ought to know 
these facts, about the force in nature that controls this, that, 
and the other thing, or ought to know that there is a balance 
somewhere, and when that balance has been destroyed it is 


AGcrR. — 15 


226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


because the equilibrium has been destroyed. The world of 
nature is so designed that one destructive thing is kept in check 
by the operation of another thing, and our children ought to 
know the necessity of keeping this balance maintained. 

I was thinking of another very important fact that was 
suggested this morning, and that was the question of malaria 
and the relation of insects to the health and comfort of animals 
and of man. Every child ought to learn in school, in this day 
and age of the world, that the mosquito is responsible for 
malaria. He ought to learn how he can best protect himself 
from it, how he can keep away from the ill health that is caused 
by it. The schools are doing this in various places. There 
have been crusades organized at many schools at different 
places where they go out and examine the mosquito, and trace 
its life history from the larva to the mature development of the 
insect; teach the children all about it. Our Department of 
Entomology in this state will not have very much work to do 
when the public school teachers generally call attention to the 
fact of what can be done in this line. Furthermore, that is 
something that every child ought to know. When they do 
know it, it will help us immensely to get rid of this nuisance. 
You will not have to pay for it as you do now. 

The problem of the preservation of the public health is an 
exceedingly important one, and for that reason some of the 
essential points of public hygiene ought to be taught to the 
pupils in our schools. A few days ago’one of my friends was 
buried as the result of an attack of typhoid fever which he 
contracted from eating raw oysters. Not very many people 
would care to forego the pleasure of eating raw oysters. A 
great many of us would not forego them, unless, of course, we 
knew they were tainted, or knew that they carried typhoid fever. 
The important fact, of course, is to teach a child that such 
things may carry disease. ‘Then, if the child knows it and 
then turns around and deliberately eats raw oysters and gets 
typhoid fever, a child or any one else that will do that is to be 
pitied. 

There is another important phase of this subject, which, in 
this age, we cannot well afford to ignore. It is a matter which 
I cannot now, for lack of time, take up in detail, but it is the 
matter of the taxes that are laid upon the people of this country 
by noxious insects. A child in the public school ought to learn 


1905. | AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 227 


what the San José scale is, and why it is that people have to 
fight it. He ought to learn what the peach yellows is, and 
why it is that he must be careful that it is not distributed. He 
wants to learn a great many of these useful things. He wants 
to learn as many of them as can be put before him. I think 
that our public schools are at fault in not giving more instruc- 
tion on many of these things. It is a duty which they have to 
perform to the State. It concerns not only the individual wel- 
fare of the pupil or the child in after life, but instruction along 
some of these lines concerns the welfare of the whole public. 
Our public schools have a very important work to do in bring- 
ing about, and in bringing to the proper place, instruction upon 
these matters, which are of such vital interest to the masses of 
the people. That instruction should be put where everybody 
who needs it can obtain it. It is absolutely necessary in order 
to correctly solve many of the problems of life and of living that 
we have before us, and it is a fact, if I may be allowed to state 
it, that the Board of Agriculture and rural people everywhere 
in connection with this organization should demand of the 
public schools of the State education of this kind. Not techni- 
cal agriculture. You can demand that if you like, but I would 
not suggest that; but sentiment ought to be worked up by 
which throughout the schools of the State more attention may 
be given to these things that affect to such a great degree the 
life, health, welfare, the wellbeing and the welldoing of so 
many people who live in the different communities. It is not 
very difficult if the matter is properly handled. I would put 
before a child in the public schools those means by which he 
can make his own livelihood, by which he can live easier and 
more comfortably, and by which he can do it easier than he can 
any other way. I would put before him everything that is pos- 
sible to put before him that is worth something in making his 
life conditions and his home conditions easier and more attrac- 
tive. I would put before him, first of all, those things most 
important in making those conditions easy and profitable for 
him. (Applause.) 


The PresipentT. I happened to listen to some poetry a lit- 
tle while ago that this quartette has composed, and I proposed 
to them that they give it to us after we were through with this 


228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


paper. I don’t know what it is, or how original it is, but I will 
ask them to repeat it for your pleasure. 


Music by the quartette. 


The PresipENT. This discussion is now open, and is to be 
led by Mr. Henry C. Burr of the Normal School at Willimantic. 

Secretary Brown. Mr. Burr has not arrived. 

The PrestpENT. Well, if he has not arrived probably he 
will be here later. Very likely you have questions to ask and 
more sentiments to offer on this important question. I pre- 
sume that our last speaker will be ready to answer any ques- 
tions you may put to him. 


Mr. Burr was unable to be present but sent the paper he had 


prepared for the occasion, which is here inserted: 


We may admit that it is proper to make use of the ele- 
mentary school in any way which will best serve the interests 
of society. We no longer feel bound, in theory at any rate, to 
devote the school time wholly to the traditional studies. We 
stand ready to welcome the introduction of any subject that will 
make our work more effective. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the present demand for 
the study of agriculture is based upon a real social need. Much 
of our efficiency in this country has been due to the fact that 
children have combined a home training in handling real things, 
in meeting real problems in the daily work of life, with a school 
training in the essentials such as reading and writing. Chil- 
dren in the city no longer get this home training. They are no 
longer brought face to face with real problems. They are no 
longer forced in their daily experience to recognize and deal 
with the laws of cause and effect in nature. The child is not 
only deprived of a very valuable portion of his education but 
is led into distorted views of the values of things. He is no 
longer properly impressed with the dignity and importance of 
the labor of production. 

Partly for this reason we have broadened our curriculum. 
We try to develop manual dexterity and inventive skill through 
hand work of various sorts in the lower grades and systematic 
manual training in the upper grades. We treat of natural laws 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 229 


in elementary science and nature study, not so much by talking 
of them as by observation and experiment, and we try to show 
the application of these in our daily lives. Of late we have 
begun to develop the idea of the school garden as a central 
feature of our nature work. We find that it pays. We believe 
that the school garden will become the parent of many home 
gardens. We know that it leads to a more intelligent interest 
in growing things and appreciation of their value, and that it 
lets a ray of light in on the working of natural laws that 
illuminates all our science work. 

The problem in the country school is equally pressing but 
quite different. The ideals of this part of the country have been 
turned away from the country and agriculture toward the city 
and business. Very many of the more ambitious young men 
feel that farm work is unprofitable and monotonous. 

I believe it is the opinion of those who have studied the mat- 
ter that very many of our farms may be made, by modern 
methods, to yield a much larger return than they do at present. 
If this is so it ought to be made known to the young people of 
the country and definitely illustrated by experiments and inves- 
tigations with growing plants, soils, fertilizers, etc. The 
thoughts of older people become crystallized and their habits 
of work fixed. It is not easy for them to adopt new methods. 
We may work most rapidly through the children. If the young 
man can be made to see that there is a profit to be made from 
working the home farm this will go a long way toward induc- 
ing him to stay there and develop it. 

Farm work is often done by rule of thumb methods. Tra- 
dition has settled the main problems. For this reason farm 
work often seems mere drudgery. Its monotony is at once 
relieved by a realization that the problems are alive — that it 
requires a considerably higher intelligence and a broader knowl- 
edge to run a farm to the best advantage than to fill most office 
or factory positions. The boy who is led to see that there are 
problems worthy of his highest effort waiting to be worked out 
on the farm will be given the strongest incentive to remain and 
meet them. 

It is hardly intended, I suppose, that I should attempt to 
outline a course of study here. The State Board of Education 
has published an excellent pamphlet by Mr. H. N. Loomis 
entitled ‘Lessons on Plants.” The teacher who will follow 


230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


the work outlined in this pamphlet will go a long way toward 
developing a course of study in agriculture. The State board 
sends out to those who request it a box of materials for per- 
forming the experiments suggested. The pamphlet contains 
also a list of the books which will best serve as aids in this 
work. To this list should be added “Agriculture for Begin- 
ners,’ published by Ginn & Co. 

It is well to recognize that certain difficulties will attend the 
introduction of the subject into the schools. In most places it 
will not be successfully developed unless the sentiment of the 
community or at least of the school committee is actively favor- 
able. The subject will be a difficult one for the young women 
who teach the country schools. It lies outside their interests 
and experiences. Burdened as they are with much other work 
it should not be expected that they should develop a radically 
new subject unaided. The committee should, in consultation 
with the teacher, definitely outline the work to be accomplished 
and should see to it that the teacher is furnished with the 
materials to work with. I feel confident that valuable work 
may be done, and effectively done, wherever the community 
desires it and will support it. 

Henry T. Burr. 


Mr. Horman. Mr. President, I was hoping to say a few 
words after Mr. Burr had spoken. I remember writing to 
the Agricultural College, and at the same time to the principal 
of the Normal School at Willimantic, in regard to this subject. 
I had come to feel the great importance of the subject. I 
hoped very strongly that Mr. Burr would put in an appearance, 
and that we should hear from a practical teacher in the public 
schools how he proposes to train public school teachers to do 
this kind of work. At the time I wrote these letters I remem- 
ber I suggested that the Normal School at Willimantic and 
the Agricultural College at Storrs take counsel together, and 
should work together in solving this question, so that it would 
be of value to the state. The importance of this subject has 
come to me from my life in the country and from my interest 
in the responsibility for the schools of the community. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 231 


First, I think we may ask what are we going to do about 
it? I was out at St. Louis this summer and spent a little time 
in looking over the educational exhibit. I found two or three 
things there which were new to me. I spent a little time in 
looking at the Missouri exhibit in that department, and in 
connection with that I had submitted to me a little pamphlet 
showing how the children of Missouri at the State Agricultural 
College are taught about the grasses which grow in that state. 
I also noticed an exhibit made by one of the normal schools 
of Massachusetts, where the children in the training class were 
encouraged to keep poultry. Photographs were shown of 
poultry coops, and considerable information given in regard 
to the value of such a course. One thing in particular was that 
this spirit or pride of ownership, which has been referred to 
this morning, was secured and developed in that way. 

Now, what are we going to do about it? I say our Agri- 
cultural College and our normal schools, especially the Normal 
School at Willimantic, can combine and get out a course of 
study which could be issued by the State Board of Education 
and thus bring the matter to the attention of our schools. I 
think we could not do a better thing to advance this line of 
study than this. 

In that visit that I paid to the educational exhibit at St. 
Louis I was greatly interested in what was stated to me and 
in what I saw there of the schools of Indiana. In that state 
they are bringing the boys and girls from the sparsely settled 
surrounding farming districts into one center and teaching 
them in one central school building, with perhaps fifteen rooms. 
In that way they provide a good graded school. In such a 
building as that special facilities can be provided for first-class 
instruction, whereas in many of our little country schools, 
where there are but six or eight scholars, you cannot get 
teachers for the money that is paid in those districts who know 
these things. In this central school building high school work 
was done, and they could have scientific teachers, and were . 


232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


able to give instruction in a great many things which are of 
immense advantage to the children, but which, of course, it is 
utterly out of the question to teach in our little country district 
schools. For instance, such subjects as cooking and sewing 
and many other practical subjects which might be mentioned. 
But what I want to suggest is not so much that, but thought 
something on that line might be done in Connecticut with 
great advantage. Some of our small towns cannot give their 
children proper educational advantages unless they have a 
larger grant of money. In many of these towns they have to 
close the district schools earlier than they ought, whereas if 
they had one school in the center of the town, employing com- 
petent teachers, where boys and girls of school age could con- 
gregate, not only many of the studies which it is now imprac- 
ticable to take up in the small schools could be given, but 
instruction in plant life and many of the other things which 
have been suggested here today could be added. One diff- 
culty, I suppose, is in the right kind of teachers. I don’t know 
but what the graduating classes at our State Agricultural 
College could be drawn on for this purpose. If we could 
make an arrangement by which these boys and girls could then 
go down to Willimantic to the Normal School and take a term 
or two there it seems to me that then they might go out pretty 
well equipped to do splendid work. There is no use whatever 
in putting out a course of study devised to carry these ideas 
into effect and put it into the hands of many of the teachers 
like some that we have in ‘Connecticut. The teachers in the 
country schools of Connecticut, as we all know, are not what 
we would like to have. I should say that they are decreasing 
in the State of Connecticut, because I think the movement is 
upward toward insisting upon a better grade of teachers, but 
in many places they are still not what they ought to be, and it 
is not because of the responsibilities of their positions so much 
as it is because of the conditions under which they work. We 
need better school privileges, and that is one of the most im- 


1905. ] DISCUSSION. 233 


portant problems which we must solve if we are to keep up our 
country life in the State of Connecticut. For ten years in my 
own community every year a few people have moved away 
because the school was not up to what they desired, and they 
were just the people whom we could least spare. 

I think we can do no better thing this afternoon than to 
pass a resolution asking our State Board of Education for the 
enlargement of the course of nature study in our public schools 
along the lines suggested here. 

Mr. McLean. Mr. President, I speak as one who came in 
here this afternoon interested in the work of teaching and to 
find out a little as to what was coming in the future. I had 
a curiosity to know what was being proposed in this line. 
After listening to the lecture I felt as though I had been read- 
ing one of Browning’s poems. I don’t know exactly where 
Iam. If I understood the speaker he did not advise at first 
doing what he advised us to do near the close of his lecture. 
If we were to do many of the things that he advised we should 
certainly come pretty nearly into the line of technical agri- 
culture, and that is something which I did not understand him 
to recommend. 

But the poor teachers; I wonder if any of us really think 
what a wonderful being a teacher must be at the present time, 
and even more so in the future. The time has been when we 
had our colleges, our art schools, our conservatories of music, 
our agricultural and technical schools, but now, if I under- 
stand him aright, many of the things which it has been their 
particular province to teach have got to be combined in one 
little tired head of a country school teacher. The school 
teachers all dread it. They don’t know today how they can 
possibly do what they are being asked to do. Every circle 
of people having certain things that they are particularly in- 
terested in think they should be taught in the public schools. 
Some people are sure that drawing must be taught in the 
common schools. Others are very sure that music should 


234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


be taught. Others that it is especially important that civil 
government and political economy should be taught. Even 
in the district schools many of them are very sure that hy- 
giene and physiology and anatomy, to a certain extent, should 
be taught. Nearly every one now agrees that botany should 
be taught. Others still claim that the elements of chemistry, 
entomology, and physics, together with a great number of 
other ologies, should also be taught by this teacher of the 
village school or of the public school. Now we are to add 
to all that agriculture and nature study. We are to teach the 
pupils the best means of feeding calves, of punching borers 
out of peach trees, and how to attend to the teeth of domestic 
animals; how to estimate the size of strawberry boxes, and 
how to fill them; in catching toads and placing them under 
cabbage plants, and a great many other useful industries are 
to be promoted in this manner. It is all to be added to the 
work of the teacher, in addition to the usual routine work of 
the school, which, of course, nobody thinks of laying aside. 
It makes me think of the poor little girl who was crying over 
her long example in multiplication. Her mother came along 
and asked her what was the matter. ‘Oh, my,” she says, 
“T do wish that I was an Australian rabbit.” ‘ Well, why 
do you want to be an Australian rabbit?” “ Why, I read 
in the geography this morning that they can multiply rap- 
idly.” Almost every teacher would begin to feel if this 
ereatly increased burden was placed upon them that he or 
she had got to multiply into innumerable persons, or into a 
person with innumerable heads upon them, in order to master 
all these things. 

Now, I think they will try to do it if you ask them. I do 
not agree with the gentleman who last spoke that our teachers 
are a disgrace to our state. I think they are a great honor to 
our state. The teachers that are teaching in Podunk Hollow, 
in Stony Lonesome, and Rattleium, and everywhere else over 
these hills, what they have to do they are trying to do well. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 235 


They are trying to do it under conditions that are sometimes 
very difficult. Today they are doing the most important work 
that is being done, and more rests upon the sense of respon- 
sibility, conscientiousness, and ability of the country school 
teachers of today than rests upon any other body of people in 
our commonwealth. More of the future rests upon them. I 
speak of this not because at the present time I have fifty of 
them under my special care, but as one who, as a coworker 
with them in this work, knows something of their feelings and 
of their willingness to do their best in the great work laid out 
for them to do. I think they will try it. They are a brave set. 
They are not afraid of labor. They will try to do most any- 
thing that you ask them to do, but don’t ask too much. If 
you want these things done, if you really think that they are 
necessary and should be engrafted into the work of common 
school instruction, then put it in some way where it can be 
done well. With all respect to our great and wise legislators, 
they do sometimes ride a good many hobbies. For instance, 
our wise legislators say that the eyes of every child in all our 
schools must be tested, and instead of letting the towns pay 
for having this work done by somebody that is qualified to do 
it, every little school teacher has got to try to understand the 
structure of the eye sufficiently to do this. It is not reasonable 
to expect our teachers to do such a work as that and do it 
properly. It will not amount to anything. Of course it can- 
not amount to anything. Now, if you want to do this do it 
intelligently. You know very well that you cannot expect 
every teacher, aside from all the other things which he or she 
is expected to know — you cannot reasonably expect that they 
shall master the science of breaking steers, raising calves, 
studying out trees, and all the intricate and interesting secrets 
connected with entomology, fungus, and fungicides, and all 
those things. If you must have this done send somebody into 
the towns that is qualified to do it. Let them give lectures 
weekly or monthly, that shall be born of knowledge and ex- 


236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jang 


perience, so that our teachers may be able to take up this work. 
These lectures may be designed for the teachers, as well as for 
the pupils, and designed in such a way that the teachers can 
take up the topics and carry them out without adding too 
much to the great work which many of them are carrying at 
present. If that is done, then something may be accomplished 
which shall be practical and beneficial. (Applause.) 

Mr. STERNBERG. The subject, Mr. Speaker, under dis- 
cussion appears to me as a very important one, and it also 
appears to me that we should get right straight at the facts. 
We do not come here today to devise or advocate means of 
burdening our teachers with additional duties. We do: not 
come here to express our sympathies for overworked teachers, 
but the subject of the discussion is simply this: Can we in- 
duce in our children an interest that pertains, or that should 
pertain, to agriculture? Now, it seems to me it can be done 
with very small labor. In fact it is being done. It may not 
be well known, but in this city is a school which is adapted en- 
tirely to the teaching of horticulture. The school is largely 
supported by some wealthy gentlemen of this city. The chil- 
dren are put through a regular course. They are taught how 
to grow plants. They are taught how, after a plant has come 
up, to cultivate it, to develop it, and make it grow to the best 
advantage. In fact they are taught how to raise flowers. 
Now this same system is being carried on in quite a number 
of our prominent towns of the state. The town I have the 
honor to represent, and in which I live, the town of West 
Hartford, has carried on this system for a number of years, 
and has done so with good results, which you see around every 
schoolhouse as you travel through our town. You will see the 
little beds of flowers well taken care of by little fingers. They 
have been taught to raise flowers, and to raise vegetables to a 
small extent, and we believe it will be noticed that as a result 
of that instruction our children are today entirely in love with 
horticulture and agriculture. And there is the solution of the 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 237 


whole question. Ifa child is in love with any one thing you 
do not need a teacher, it will teach itself. If the interest of 
the children has been aroused in these things they soon develop 
an enthusiasm for the work and carry it on themselves. 

For fifty years I have been engaged in raising fruit of all 
kinds. I try to keep myself informed in regard to fruit rais- 
ing, but for information I do not burden the teacher ; I consult 
the papers and the magazines devoted to that business. I well 
know where to get my information. I attend meetings of this 
sort, where I can derive a great deal of information, and I buy 
and read the farm and fruit papers. So it is with the children ; 
let their attention once be directed to these things, and their 
enthusiasm aroused, and the means are at hand whereby they 
can carry on and develop their knowledge. 

The State of Connecticut has already done something in this 
line. In our exhibit at the Louisiana Exposition the State, 
under the direction of a committee, of which Connecticut may 
well be proud, has spent several hundred dollars in that kind of 
work. Not only that, but something in this line is being car- 
ried out in other towns, as well as my own. It is all going to 
bring forth good results. I see evidences of work of this kind 
being done throughout our State, and it will be of great benefit 
in inculcating into the young minds of our children a love of 
agriculture. I think, on the other hand, Mr. Chairman, that 
instead of overburdening our teachers we might well eliminate 
some of the studies that are taught today. With the advance 
in the literature which we are able to obtain in these days, and 
with the publication of many encyclopedias at a very moderate 

‘price, there are many things which we can read up about in a 
very short time, and over which our children in the public 
schools pore a good deal with very little value. There are mat- 
ters in geography and history, over which our young minds 
pore for years, which, in my judgment, result in very little bene- 
fit, and the time spent is of very little value. The time is 
largely spent for naught, because later on, if information is 


238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


required about those particular subjects, we naturally go to 
sources from which we can obtain complete information. Our 
papers and our magazines provide us with the very best of 
information about a good many things which in times gone by 
we all of us here have spent considerable time upon. That 
time was largely lost. I have no need to discuss that part of 
this matter in detail. I think that some of the time, which, as 
I say, is now devoted to subjects which might, with profit, be 
eliminated, could be devoted to the study of some practical pur- 
suit, like agriculture, or at least to the study of enough of it to 
arouse in our children a love of agriculture. The prosperity 
of the State of Connecticut depends upon agriculture. It de- 
pends upon disseminating knowledge among our young people 
in our country towns, in order that they may make a respectable 
and successful living in agriculture, and in order to retain them 
upon the farms. In my judgment a portion of our educational 
work should be directed in that line. 

I was glad when the cities of the State introduced instruc- 
tion in manual labor in their schools. They needed it. It was 
badly wanted. You do not need that in our country schools, 
because our boys are engaged in manual labor. From the time 
they first exercise their muscles on farm labor, as long as they 
stay upon the farm, they are getting all of the manual exercise 
which they need. In the summer they get it in the routine of 
farm work. In the winter they get it on the wood pile which 
is to be worked up, and about the farm. But that was some- 
thing which was needed in the cities, and I was glad to see it 
adopted. 

Let us devote a part of our work of education to agricul- 
tural instruction. I think it will be an important element to the 
future prosperity of the State. Let us eliminate a part of the 
instruction now given in our schools and devote a certain time 
to the study of agriculture. 

I was pleased to hear from the gentleman upon my left in 
speaking of what has been done in Indiana. That very thing 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 239 


has been done in the State of Connecticut. In our town we 
have three large “buses conveying the children to a school 
where we teach all branches. Our board of education has tried 
year after year to get the country towns to adopt this system, 
believing that it was the salvation of the country towns, and 
so to have better schools, but some towns have not seen fit to 
adopt it. We have worked hard in our town to improve our 
educational facilities, and in every town, so far as I know, 
where this system has been adopted, the schools have improved. 

It seems to me that the real question here this afternoon is, 
what can we do in a practical way to create a sentiment and 
create sympathy on the part of our young people to study 
agriculture? 

Secretary Brown. I wish to say, right here, that Mr. Hine 
was engaged to lead the discussion upon this subject, but later 
he found that an engagement previously made would take him 
out of the city this afternoon, and he called up, at my request, 
Mr. Burr, principal of the State Normal School at Willimantic, 
who agreed to act as his substitute. Later, I received a letter 
from Mr. Burr confirming our conversation over the ’phone. 
I cannot explain Mr. Burr’s absence this afternoon. Mr. Hine, 
however, wished me to say, and to say with emphasis, that he 
was in favor of the teaching of agriculture in our public schools. 

I think the greatest obstacle that we would encounter in 
teaching agriculture in the public schools would be the one 
which President Hadley intimated that they encountered in the 
teaching of English. He said that the great difficulty in teach- 
ing English was that they could not find teachers to teach it. 
The great difficulty we would have in teaching agriculture in 
the public schools would be in finding teachers that could adapt 
themselves to the conservative position which I think our first 
speaker, in the opening of this discussion, very properly took. 
It seems to me that instruction in the fundamental principles 
of animal and plant life is one of the best things that could be 
taught our children, and there is no better place in which to 
begin to teach them than our public schools. 


240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


Mr. T. S. Gotp. Mr. Chairman, I want to improve this 
opportunity, as there is no one else here to speak perhaps upon 
this subject, to say a few words, if you please. I have had a 
good deal of experience in little efforts in that direction. 
Probably more than any of those around me. I began our 
Cream Hill Agricultural School in 1845, and taught for 24 
years. I had boys in my house and boys all around me; boys 
with me, indoors and out. My course with regard to instruc- 
tion in agriculture was not so much to teach those boys scien- 
tific agriculture as it was to teach them what city boys are often 
very anxious to learn about — common things ; to teach them to 
use their eyes and their ears ; everywhere they want to use their 
hands and their feet, and to notice things to some purpose. We 
had a plot of ground in the garden which each boy was taught 
to prepare, to plant the seed, and cultivate the plants, and so 
learn the history and mystery of the germination of seed. The 
boys thus found that some plants came up just as the minister 
did, wrong end up; that they would not stay in the ground; 
that they had a habit of their own. Those were curiosities to 
them, and we found that some boys who did not care about 
books were very often extremely eager students of nature. 
When you get a boy’s mind and his eyes open to seeing natural 
things he sees things more readily in the books. He learns 
more in books, notwithstanding the time he spends in learning 
the practical part of nature. The time devoted in the school- 
room to this agriculture, and to general natural history instruc- 
tion, was the last half hour in the afternoon. Usually it was 
one of the most unprofitable and trying half hours in the teach- 
er’s duty in the schoolroom to keep them on their books, keep 
them in order, and all that sort of thing. 

In agricultural instruction I had a little catechism — John- 
son’s “Agricultural Catechism,’ which was a little text-book 
which I used, and aside from its use as a text-book I used it 
a good deal to draw out, and as something to excite talk upon 
the subjects it treated of among the boys. We also taught 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 241 


botany, mineralogy, entomology, whatever they were able to 
learn of those subjects, in a small way, and if they showed a 
disposition to go on further with those subjects they were fur- 
nished with books suitable to them. In that way we laid the 
foundation for a great many impressions, which they remem- 
bered through life, and which they needed to have. 

We used to try some experiments, such as showing the boys 
how they could blow through a stick of wood endwise. A 
good smart boy can blow through a long stick of oak timber. 
If any of you have ever tried the experiment you know what it 
is, and that is enough to wake up the most dull boy. We used 
to do considerable of that at times, because it afforded the boys 
amusement, as well as useful instruction. So on with all these 
little matters that came up on the farm from day to day and 
from week to week. They took readily to it. They learned a 
great many of these things. I didn’t try to teach them every- 
thing, but I did try to open their eyes, and to impress upon 
their minds facts and information which would be of use to 
them in after life. There are plenty of things to show them 
and to teach them, to engage their eyes and to use their hands. 
We always tried to teach them something about practical agri- 
culture. The foundation principles of agriculture were taught. 
All of those things were taught to the best of my ability. And 
we succeeded, as we thought, in demonstrating that we could 
teach as much arithmetic, as much geography, as much history, 
and all those common studies besides, but most of all we 
believed we succeeded in calling their attention and awaking 
their interest in common things. We believed that we suc- 
ceeded in impressing as much knowledge of those practical 
studies taught in our common schools as we could have done 
if we had had a teacher the whole time to teach arithmetic, 
geography, and history. And we carried it on for 24 years to 
our satisfaction, and we believe to the satisfaction of our 
patrons, and we believe it can be done today in the common 
schools on very much the same plan. By showing a boy today 


Acr. — 16 


242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


something that attracts his attention, by the shape of a stone, 
or the history of a stone, or about a plant, you can open his eves 
in three minutes to more than he ever thought to see. I be- 
lieve if any teacher can do that they will open their eyes and see 
and study what is in nature. That is the kind of teaching that 
you want at present, and you want the kind of teachers who 
will work upon that plan. 

In this matter of the opportunities for agricultural instruc- 
tion we want, first of all, sound instruction, and we want that 
of a primary character, and that depends upon the habit of see- 
ing a little. A teacher that sees things in nature and under- 
stands their import and importance, if that teacher has the 
faculty of imparting that information to her pupils, she can 
accomplish much. Some people go through this world blind as 
bats. Others find amusement everywhere, and instruction, as 
they go about the fields and woods. Some cannot settle down 
anywhere, but they see something to enjoy, and such people are 
filled with the enjoyment of living and the profitableness of life. 
I commend to everyone the cultivation of the habit of learning 
to see and learning about common things. 

Mr. McLean. Ex-Secretary Gold has outlined what he 
thinks should be the instruction in this line in the common 
schools, and I want to add to that, that I think if we could only 
have Secretary Gold in every one of our schools the problem 
would be solved. If we could have Mr. Gold we would have 
no need of legislation or agitation. 

Mr. KirKHAM. Mr. President, I was glad that Mr. 
McLean voiced what I had in mind, but I am sorry that he said 
that it should not be technical education in this case, for it 
seemed to me to cut the ground all out from under the feet of 
those who would have the study of agriculture made more 
prominent in our public schools. It has been suggested and 
urged here that some action ought to be taken by this board. 
Well, it is all right for us to express our opinion. As my friend 
from West Hartford said, ‘‘ We should do something,” but I 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 243 


don’t think that any positive action by this body would do any 
good. I have had a little experience in these matters. [Fifteen 
years ago I introduced a resolution instructing the secretary 
of the board of that year to request the State Board of Educa- 
tion to introduce an amendment into the education laws to the 
effect that botany should be taught in our public schools. 
There were three or four that spoke in favor of it, and it passed 
unanimously, but that was the last that was ever heard of it. 
The trouble is not that botany is not a good thing to teach, but 
it is in getting teachers who understand botany. We must 
have teachers who not only understand botany, but in order to 
make others get the full benefit of the study the teachers have 
got to love nature too, and must be able to adapt their teach- 
ings to the child’s mind. 

Over in our town last summer there was a competition 
among five schools as to how many wild flowers should be 
brought to each teacher. There was a prize for the school that 
got the most, and the number ran up somewhere from eighty 
to a hundred, I think: They had to know the names, and as 
many as possible the botanical names. I was much handi- 
capped in that respect, for I did not know anything about it. 
After I got married I found that I had married a nature-lover, 
one who loved plants and the trees, and whenever we went out 
they attracted her attention. I knew comparatively little about 
such things, and I had to ask her what this and that was ; even 
as to the grasses that grew in my meadow. I did not know the 
names of them, nor their quality, nor whether they were an- 
nuals, biennials, or perennials. Well, I was proud. 1 did not 
like to ask my wife every time. I wanted to know the thing 
myself. I felt my smallness. It led me to introduce that reso- 
lution years ago, I did not want others to be in the same situa- 
tion that I had been in. I wished that I had been instructed, 
when I went to school, in those things. You must instruct the 
children, if you are ever going to, when they are young, and 
particularly as to the botanical part of it. I felt when Mr. 


244 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


McLean spoke as if, possibly, we were loading another burden 
onto the teachers, but after thinking the matter over I think 
that most of them are capable of teaching a good deal that we 
want now, especially in simple studies of plant and animal life. 

As my wife was a nature-lover, my boys and girls have been 
taught the name of every tree in the fields and woods, I sup- 
pose. My youngest child can teach me the names and the 
natures of, I presume, twenty trees that I do not know any- 
thing about. 

I am heartily in favor of doing what we can to extend the 
study of nature in our public schools, but I doubt whether we 
will accomplish anything by taking action as a board, anything 
further than its being the mere expression of our opinion. 

Mr. Stimson. Mr. President, perhaps I ought not to have 
anything to say at such a long meeting as we have had this 
afternoon, but I have been exceedingly interested in this discus- 
sion, and as I have listened to it for the last fifteen or twenty 
minutes I have felt that I ought to explain, perhaps, what we 
are doing at the college on this subject. 

Now, this whole thing of teaching agriculture in the public 
schools has come down, as I look at it, to a question of feasi- 
bility and of ways and means; namely, have we in Connecticut 
any influence or means from which we can expect some new 
life, enthusiasm, and interest on this subject to go out into our 
public schools, something which will direct the work of the 
public schools in this direction, and something which will put 
life into the instruction, into the teaching, and rouse enthusiasm 
and interest in the work? I believe we have. I will tell you 
what we have done. Three years ago we raised the question 
with ourselves at the college as to what we could do in the rural 
communities to get the boys and girls from the rural communi- 
ties into our college in order to profit from the educational 
courses which we offer. How could we raise an interest in this 
very matter that we have been talking about? Should we 
attempt to teach the children that came to us to love agriculture 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 245 


and then go out and teach these things? That seemed too 
slow. Lots of us would be dead before the children would be 
old enough to teach anything. So would some of our teachers, 
who we believed were thoroughly equipped for just this sort of 
work. Should we attempt it in our older classes? Under the 
best view that could be taken of it, it would be at least two or 
three years before teachers that we trained could get into the 
schools and begin to do something. So we said to ourselves, 
why not test this matter? Why not ask the public school 
teachers themselves if they will be interested to learn something 
about feasible methods of teaching practical agriculture? Not 
technical agriculture, but the simple, every-day practical facts 
that all ought to know. Not how to hoe or plow, or how to 
plant and raise crops, but instruction as to the facts of practical 
agriculture, very much upon the lines that have been indicated 
here. We determined to try an experiment. We sent out our 
papers to the teachers of the State, announcing that we had 
established a summer school devoted to nature study; and it 
was to be a summer school made up of teachers actively 
engaged in the profession. Dr. Mutchler, who gave us the 
first address this afternoon, had the honor one year ago last 
summer of teaching over sixty public school teachers who came 
to our institution to learn what practical agriculture might be 
taught in the schools, the kind of instruction that could be used 
successfully now, of individual benefit to the pupils, not ten 
years hence, or twenty years off, but immediately. Dr. Mutch- 
ler may not be able to be with us as he has been, because he is 
a man that is in much demand. The Boston Normal School 
has been after him, and other schools are after him, but he will 
be with us in our summer school, ready to infuse into our 
teachers these principles of practical agriculture. 

I want to say another thing: that the question has been 
raised as to what we are going to ask these teachers to learn 
in order to know how to teach these topics. Let me say in 
explanation that we do not ask anybody to come to our summer 


246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


school who is not interested in nature. That is what we start 
with. That is the first question we ask, are you interested in 
nature? If you are not interested in nature and in nature studies, 
you will receive practically no benefit from coming to our 
school. We do not teach music; we do not teach mathematics ; 
we do not teach drawing; but we teach nature studies. We 
teach practical agriculture. Are you interested in this subject? 
Then we go further than that. We ask what class of nature 
study are you interested in? Insects? Very well, we will 
teach you about insects. Birds? Very well, we will teach 
you birds. Plant life and botany? Very well, then we will 
teach you botany. Are you interested in farm animals and 
domestic animals of the various sorts? Very well, then we will 
teach you in regard to domestic animals. And it is a signifi- 
cant thing about our policy, or the thing that we have ob- 
served, that these nature teachers do not stay very long in any 
one school. Now suppose in a location you have a teacher 
that is an adept at any one of these topics. You may have one 
that is interested in one particular topic and learns how to 
teach that well, and you may have the next year a teacher that 
is interested in botany, or the next one that is interested in 
animals, and so on in the course of a few years you will get 
all of these subjects touched upon by people who have the in- 
terest in the general subject very closely and warmly at heart. 

Now it seems to me that that is pedagogically solid, and 
the results we are going to get are going to be pedagogically 
pedagogue” in 


(as 


practical and good. I do not use this term 
quite the sense that it was understood in the old days when 
they called a man a pedagogue who, in the course of time, 
could not do anything else but teach. Generally our first 
teachers were busy fitting young men for college, and they 
were pedagogues if they still continued to be teachers at forty 
or fifty years of age. I use the term “ pedagogue ” in a differ- 
ent classification. When I say that a thing is pedagogically 
solid I mean from the standpoint of sound principles of educa- 


1995.] DISCUSSION. 247 


tion as applied to the practice and province of teaching. So 
I think this part of our policy is shown to be pedagogically 
sound. 

Next summer we shall offer another summer school of 
four weeks. This policy has been definitely established by the 
management of the college, and the results already indicated 
are so good that we shall continue these summer schools. 

Mr. Pratr. Mr. President, I want to say a word or two 
in approval of the plan of President Stimson, of holding this 
summer school at the college for teachers, in which they teach 
them something about nature. I do not know anything about 
it myself further than this: That one of the teachers in the 
New Haven schools, and a bright and successful one, too, 
went up there and spent a few weeks at this school. On her 
return she said her eyes had been opened to a great many 
things which she had not known about before, and which had 
been taught her there. Ideas were given her there that would 
be of use to the scholars in her school. So that I say that that 
one teacher that I happened to fall in with feels as though she 
wanted to approve of this plan of holding these summer ses- 
sions for the training of school teachers at Storrs. 

Mr. Hotpen. Mr. President, I have just one word which 
I want to say in explanation, perhaps, of what I said before in 
regard to our school teachers. I think that Brother McLean 
looks at it from one standpoint, while I have been looking at it 
from another. The conditions in Simsbury, where Brother 
McLean is located, are very different to what they are in many 
other parts of the state. I know personally that that is so. 
I know of teachers teaching in the public schools of Connecti- 
cut, within a very short time, who do not understand the com- 
mon ordinary principles of school teaching. That is a fact. 
I say this not because I want to discourage them or to unduly 
criticise, but only because I want,.to wake up the people to the 
opportunities that exist for improvement. I am not saying 
that there are not good teachers. Any such statement as that 


248 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


would, of course, be incorrect, but I do say that in some of 
our schools, in the back towns, the condition is very bad. We: 
have something to learn from the progressive school systems 
of the West. 

In Indiana they not only have better schools, especially in 
some places, but their schools do not cost them so much, 

Now in order that we may take some definite action I want 
to offer this: 

Resolved, That the State Board of Education be asked to 
endeavor to secure such courses of study in our country schools, 
including agriculture, as are adapted to the needs of the state, 
and that they be asked to secure, so far as practicable, the 
cooperation of the State Agricultural College in this move- 
ment. 

I offer that as a motion. : 

Mr. Kersey. Mr. Chairman, is this open to debate? 

The PrestpENnT. It has not been seconded. If it is sec- 
onded it will be. 

(Resolution seconded. ) 

Mr. Ketsey. Mr. President, I believe this is a movement 
in the right direction, but I would like to offer some further 
amendment. Perhaps it would be best to incorporate it in 
another resolution, or if deemed advisable, perhaps we can 
amend this. 

I was born in this state on a farm, and I hope to die on a 
farm. I have also had thirteen years’ experience in public 
school work. As some of you know, I have traveled and lec- 
tured a great deal. In my travels I have found that this move- 
ment is growing and is gaining great momentum, and, like the 
momentum of a falling body, will continue to gain and spread 
until it becomes generally adopted. We have a long session 
this afternoon, and I do not think we have the time now to go 
into a discussion of that, I{ we had I should like to describe 
to you something of the history of the movement, in order to 
show what it has accomplished already. But let us take the 
conditions as they are and make the best of them. 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 249: 


In order to show just a little of the widespread demand 
that there is for teaching upon this subject let me say this: 
One week ago yesterday it was my privilege to be lecturing in 
the State of Maine. I have in the past two years spent several 
weeks in that state, and repeatedly this question has occurred. 
Two or three times it has been called for as one of the regular 
set subjects for discussion. Last year I was in Vermont, and 
the first lecture I made was on this special topic. 

I was also in the State of New Jersey, and every week for 
several weeks that topic was discussed. Three years ago I 
was in the State of Ohio, and it was frequently called for 
there. You know perhaps what has been accomplished in 
such states as California, Missouri, Wisconsin, and other states 
which have been mentioned, and it behooves us to keep pace 
with the procession, and to do all we can to help inaugurate 
the principles of this system of public instruction into our 
public schools. We have everything to gain as farmers by as- 
sisting in the inauguration of this movement. 

In the State of Maine some years ago there was consider- 
able agitation on this subject. It came up before the legisla- 
ture, and some twelve years ago they passed, in a hasty, blind 
way, a law upon this subject, making it compulsory. I think 
it was a law that agriculture should be taught in the public 
schools, but without any text-books, without any normal in- 
struction previously, without any special teachers having been 
trained to teach in the schools, the law, of course, could not 
accomplish what it should. The teachers had had no prepara- 
tion for doing this kind of work, and even if they had it was 
doubtful if the people at that time were ready to pick up such 
a movement. I think even in Connecticut we should begin 
this work by education of the people and discussion of this 
system before the people whenever we have opportunity. 

The amendment I wish to offer is this: That some printed 
matter, either emanating from the Board of Agriculture or 
from the Board of Education, or from both, or from the Agri-~ 


250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jans 


cultural College and the normal schools codperating together, 
should be prepared and sent out. That printed matter should 
discuss this question, should contain helpful suggestions and 
information in regard to this movement. I believe it would be 
exceedingly profitable to have such printed matter sent out. 
It will rouse interest in this subject, as perhaps can be done in 
no other way. It will take two or three years to get ready for 
this, and then there will be two or three years, necessarily, of 
work in the normal schools in order that the teachers that are 
sent out may be properly prepared. 

The teachers must not only be properly prepared to handle 
this subject-matter to the best advantage, they must not only 
have the instruction where they are willing to receive it, but, to 
a certain extent at least, popular sentiment in the school dis- 
tricts must favor this movement, and that needs to be developed. 
We need to stand behind them. 

The Prestpent. Did I understand you to offer that as an 
amendment to the resolution? If so, it ought to be written, 
had it not? 

Secretary Brown. I would like to say to the last speaker 
that the very literature which he suggests being sent broadcast 
over the State of Connecticut we are preparing here this after- 
noon, and the debate in which we are engaged will be printed, 
five thousand copies of it, and the books sent out to every town 
in the State of Connecticut. That is one of the educational 
advantages of this meeting. It is one of the purposes in select- 
ing the subject which we are debating, in order that informa- 
tion concerning it may be sent broadcast over the state. The 
information which we gather and concentrate here this after- 
noon will be published together for the use of the public. I do 
not know of any more feasible way of reaching the people 
that it is intended to reach than through the course which this 
board has adopted of reaching the people in this manner. So 
I do not see the object of having any special literature pub- 
lished and sent to the people outside of what will reach them 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 251 


through the publication of the proceedings in this debate, in 
the annual report of the board. 

Prof. Stimson. Mr. President, I think it has been custom- 
ary in past years for parts of the general proceedings at these 
meetings, which have been peculiarly interesting, to be printed 
in separate form and distributed immediately. I would like 
to ask how many copies of the proceedings of this afternoon 
could be printed separately and sent out? I think you have 
all noticed that the volumes of the former proceedings of the 
Board of Agriculture consist of three or four hundred pages 
when printed, and it makes a pretty bulky volume. Anything 
of special interest is quite likely to be lost in it. It is too big, 
and people sometimes do not like to pick up so large a volume 
and pick out what is of special interest to them. If the pro- 
ceedings upon this subject could be printed in a separate 
pamphlet I think it would appeal very strongly to those who 
are, perhaps, beginning to take an interest in this subject- 
matter. I arose to ask the question as to how many copies of 
such a pamphlet could be printed. 

Secretary Brown. You can have one thousand or ten 
thousand copies printed in separate form if there is a demand 
for them. It is not good economy to print a few copies. If 
‘there is to be a demand, and this is wanted in the State of Con- 
necticut, we can print whatever is necessary. 

The PrestipENT. The business before the meeting is this 
motion, and I would like to ask the gentleman to read his 
resolution again. 

Mr. Hotpen. Resolved, That the State Board of Educa- 
tion be asked to endeavor to secure such courses of study in 
our country schools, including agriculture, as are adapted to 
the needs of the state, and that they be asked to secure, so far 
as practicable, the codperation of the State Agricultural Col- 
lege in this movement. 

Mr. CHapMAN. I would strike out that word “country ” 
and insert the word “ state,” so that it would read ‘in our 
state schools ” instead of being limited to the country schools. 


252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


Mr. Hotpen. I have no objection to that amendment. 

Mr. Murcuter. I am intensely interested in this phase of 
the work, not so much from the standpoint of agriculture, if 
you will allow me to make that statement; not so much from 
the standpoint of increasing interest in farm life in any com- 
munity; not so much from the standpoint of making more 
farmers in the State, but I am interested in it intensely because 
I believe it does everybody good, no matter where he comes. 
from or where he goes in after years. The thing that we want 
is education in this line, ladies and gentlemen, that is the one 
great thing. We want education in the common everyday 
things of life. We need to put before the individual the com- 
mon everyday things that he has to live with every day, no 
matter where he is or what he does. For that reason I am 
intensely interested in that phase of work of this kind, and for 
that reason I would not teach technical agriculture, but the 
common, everyday, useful facts about agriculture. No more 
would I advocate the teaching of technical entomology, or 
technical medicine, but I would have such a course as is reason- 
able and sensible. I would have it limited to those things that 
every boy and girl has got to meet with and should know about 
in their everyday life. How to grow a plant, for instance, and 
all those things which have been discussed here over and over 
again. For that reason I am intensely interested in this, and 
hope that some action will be taken tending to promote and 
expand this movement, because I thoroughly believe it is for 
the public benefit. It is not because Connecticut will be 
specially benefited, but because it will tend to help uplift the 
whole country, and because it is going to be useful and helpful 
everywhere. If I had any urging to do I would ask you to 
pass a resolution of this kind for the good of the public school . 
system. 

The Prestwwent. You have heard the resolution and the 
motion made and seconded. Are you ready for the question > 
All those in.favor of passing this resolution will signify by rais- 


1905. | DISCUSSION. 253 


ing their right hand. Those opposed by the same sign. It 
is a vote, and the resolution is passed. 

Now, in closing this debate I hope you will allow the chair- 
man just one word, because he is a farmer by occupation and 
interest, and has been for many years, and he has been intensely 
interested all his life in this very subject. He has been to 
various schools, and has been engaged in teaching schools. 
‘Couldn’t teach but little, because he did not know but little. 

Now, I want to ask you here this afternoon why it is that 
you should debate this question? Why you are considering 
this question here of having this matter of agriculture taught 
in the public schools in this State, anyway? What is the use 
of it? What does it amount to? What is the basis on which it 
rests, the basic principle? Let me tell you. If you will study 
Mr. Wilson’s last report I think he will tell you to your com- 
plete satisfaction. When you read that report and find that all 
the money in the banks, and all of the manufacturing indus- 
tries in this country, do not begin to equal the agricultural inter- 
ests of this country, I think you will then have some matter 
before you which will give you a reason why we should, some- 
how or other, reach the agricultural interests of this country, 
and the agricultural people of this country, with the means of 
education. It is a great industry that is well worthy of develop- 
ment. And do you know that the perpetuity of this govern- 
ment, the perpetuity of this nation, and through it the im- 
provement and development of other nations of the world, 
depends upon the success and prosperity of these very agricul- 
tural principles which you are talking about today, this very 
thing that we are speaking of, this very thing that we are 
thinking of today? I do not care in what form you put it, 
whether the truth has been told about it, or whether the criti- 
cisms have been true to a greater or less extent. It is all right. 
It all tends to give us a broader, general idea of this great and 
important matter. But do not forget this, as has been said, that 
man made the town and God made the country. When you 


254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


stop to think that in the last analysis of things you have got 
to get right back to mother earth, and that the real prosperity 
of this country and of other nations springs, in the first place, 
from mother earth as the source of most all wealth, then you 
will understand why we are talking as we are talking here 
today; why this matter has come up, and for my part I am 
very thankful to this man for bringing it up in the manner that 
the subject has been presented before us today. 

Our time has fully expired, and if there is nothing further 
this meeting will stand adjourned until 7.30 P. M. 


THIRD DAY — EVENING SESSION. 


Convention called to order at 7.30 P. M. 
Vice-President Seeley in the Chair. 


The PresipEntT. That banner that hangs on the wall indi- 
cates that Connecticut was awarded the grand prize on tobacco, 
a gold medal on farm products, a gold medal on butter, three 
silver and seventeen bronze medals on individual exhibits at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Now, we have with us to- 
night the Hon. Charles Phelps of Rockville, who will speak to 
us relative to this subject. 


THE LOUISIANA: PURCHASE EXPOSITION: 


By Hon. Cuar_es PHE tps, of Rockville, Conn. 


\(Who spoke extempore.) 


Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: That epoch of 
history which marks the transfer of the Louisiana territory 
was so distinctive for its great activity, both this side of the 
Atlantic and the other, in the commercial, diplomatic, and 
scientific world, that it is well worthy of thoughtful study. 
That period, and the one immediately preceding it, has fur- 
nished some of the most interesting chapters of history. It 
was a period filled with important events. Great things were 
being accomplished. And such a feature as the acquisition of 
the Louisiana territory, which was the transfer of the greatest 


1905. | ° THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 255 


extent of territory ever accomplished by peaceful means, should 
not be passed over without proper explanation. In England, 
_ George the Third was passing through his long reign of sixty 
years. He was surrounded by men and events of surpassing 
ability and importance. Four of the greatest debaters of the 
world were discussing political economy and social and con- 
stitutional questions, Chatham, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan. 
Many of the progressive ideas of the age had been given voice 
in poetry, of which Coleridge, Byron, Wadsworth, and Sir 
Walter Scott were the chief exponents. Their writings were 
arresting the attention of the literary world. Chemistry and 
the steam engine were revolutionizing the methods of man. 
Great reforms had taken a sudden impulse. Among them the 
most important was the abolishment of capital punishment for 
minor offenses. Great reforms in the legislative departments 
of government had been accomplished. In India, Warren 
Hastings was accomplishing the consolidation of British rule, 
and the wealth of the Indies was pouring into England, the 
story of which could hardly be exaggerated in the tales of the 
Arabian Nights. Hastings, at the same time, was in the midst 
of those events which led up to those charges which were made. 
against him later, resulting in that famous trial covering a 
period of nine years. In France, Napoleon had been swept into 
power on the waves of the French revolution. He had become 
the dominant power in France, and during those years of which 
we speak he was practically dictating the policy of Europe. 
He had become First Consul. In America, Thomas Jefferson, 
that great author of the Declaration of Independence, occupied 
the presidential chair. He was surrounded by such men as 
Livingstone and Monroe, the latter afterwards becoming Presi- 
dent. Such were the events, and such were the men in and 
preceding the period when the Louisiana purchase was ac- 
complished. Like all great events this transfer had its origin 
in a very small beginning. While the French owned in fee 
the land in and about New Orleans, the Spanish authorities 
were still dominant, and they had become so irritating to the 
navigators of the Mississippi River that it occurred to Presi- 
dent Jefferson to see if some negotiations could not be entered 
into whereby relief might be obtained. He, therefore, pro- 
jected the idea of the purchase of the city and island of New 
Orleans, and immediately sent Livingstone to France, through 


256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


whom the attempt was made. To the utter amazement of our 
representatives at the Court of France, Napoleon welcomed 


their idea, and instead of acceding to their request made, as he - 


is quoted, the famous remark: “‘ They asked me for a prov- 
ince, I gave them an empire.” He asked them to purchase the 
entire Louisiana territory for fifteen millions of dollars. They 
at once saw what it meant to this country, and they immedi- 
ately set about the negotiations which accomplished that end. 
Therefore the entire tract of the Louisiana territory passed 
under the control of the United States for fifteen millions of 
dollars, an immense sum then, but comparatively nothing now, 
for the city of St. Louis alone pays in revenue to the United 
States government, annually, more than fifteen millions of 
dollars, and more than the original cost of the entire Louisiana 
purchase territory. No truer words were ever spoken. “ They 
asked me for a province, I gave them an empire.” Roughly 
speaking, this territory extended from the Dominion of Can- 
ada on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and from 
the Mississippi River to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. 
It was greater in extent than the entire original thirteen states 
of the Union. It covered more than a million square miles in 
extent, and was larger than the combined areas of England, 
France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, and 
Spain. These figures seem incredible, but I have only to refer, 
for their substantiation, to the book which was published by 
Mr. Charles M. Kurtz, Ph.D., who was assistant director of 
arts at the St. Louis exhibition. Such an event as this, the 
transfer of such a territory from the old world to the new, by 
peaceful means, meant everything to the United States. People 
have discussed, and philosophers and statesmen have attempted 
to explain what motive moved Napoleon to surrender to the 
new world such a magnificent piece of territory, which had not 
its equivalent upon the face of the globe, a territory which, in 
resources, in richness, in mineral wealth and agricultural de- 
velopment, had no equal, and no equivalent in the same amount 
of territory anywhere on earth. Three reasons have been 
given why Napoleon acceded to this request. Some state that 
he was such a farseeing statesman that he knew that the allied 
powers would move against this valuable tract, and that he 
never could successfully defend it in the new world. The 
days of steam navigation of the Atlantic were far in the future. 


Se 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 257 


He also needed a vast amount of treasure to equip his armies. 
He is reported to have said that if the young republic secured 
this territory she would, in the future, ‘begin a commercial 
revolution which in the end would hard hit his great rival, 
England. It is very likely that all three reasons were at work 
upon his mind. At any rate it was accomplished, and he gave 
us an empire for fifteen millions of dollars. The managers 
of the St. Louis Exposition and its projectors, having in mind 
the magnitude of this enterprise, saw that a proper celebration 
of that event must be equally great in magnitude. Therefore 
no enterprise of this kind has ever been projected anywhere in 
the world on so great a scale as this celebration just closed at 
St. Louis. You ask if there is no criticism to make. I say, 
yes. It was too large; larger than it should have been, per- 
haps, for convenience, and yet correspondingly it had very 
many great advantages. Those of us who were in Chicago 
will remember what a beautiful white city that was, how large, 
and how extensive. We never expected to see anything along 
those lines of greater magnitude or greater import than that 
beautiful celebration. Yet Chicago covered 633 acres, St. 
Louis 1,240. That exhibition was greater than the combined 
fairs of Paris, Chicago, and Buffalo. I was told by a member 
of the national board of managers, who had figured it up, that 
to get the buildings of the St. Louis Exposition upon the Pan- 
American grounds they would have to be put so closely to- 
gether that one could hardly pass between them. The fair 
was projected upon these immense lines because it was to 
celebrate an event of immense national importance. It is 
probable that this country never could have saved the Union, 
or protected itself, and never could have taken its place among 
the world powers, without this territory, but with it it has 
become great, and it is steadily increasing, until today, as we 
all know, America is a world power. 

The general scheme of the St. Louis Exposition was very 
much like that of Chicago, or the Columbian. The buildings 
were grouped something similar. There were two features 
in the grand central scheme that called to mind the beautiful 
Court of Honor at Chicago, although larger and more ex- 
tensive. Chicago was beautiful in that respect, yet the ter- 
ritory was flat. The Administration Building and the beauti- 
ful Peristyle at the further end of the Grand Basin, as all who 


AGR. —17 


258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


saw it will recall, was probably the most beautiful sight of the 
kind, up to that time, that any one had ever seen, but you will 
remember that it was all on a flat surface. Not so at St. 
Louis. The Festival Hall at St. Louis, which corresponded 
to the Administration Building, and the Colonnade of States, 
which corresponded with the Peristvyle at Chicago, was ele- 
vated. The same difference would exist if our beautiful 
Capitol yonder on the hill, instead of surmounting the crest of 
the hill it should stand upon a dead level. How much more 
beautiful it is elevated upon that crest. The Festival Hall at 
St. Louis was situated very much the same. On either side 
was the Colonnade of States, representing the states carved 
out of the Louisiana territory. Twelve states and two terri- 
tories were formed out of that single tract of land. This 
colonnade extended a quarter of a mile from the beautiful 
central piece. Festival Hall, located on this eminence of 52 
feet, rose above it for 200 feet more, surmounted by a beautiful 
dome. The Colonnade of States extended about a quarter of 
a mile, ending at each end in a beautiful structure surmounted 
with a circular dome, which corresponded in architecture to 
the main dome in the center. These colonnades were sur- 
mounted with statuary symbolical of the states which they 
represented. From a point in front of the Festival Hall the 
Cascades flowed down over the stair work into the Lagoon, 
which passed on through porches and under bridges and 
arches clear down through the grounds. So that on a fine 
evening one could get into a boat, and going up past the Cas- 
cade, from which the full beauty of the waterfall could be 
seen, passing up under the arches and under the bridges, up 
and down the Lagoon, one could see the white light, and red 
and green lights alternating. No sooner did one fairy scene 
burst upon you than in a moment it was changed to something 
almost equally beautiful. It was indeed a fairy scene. The 
curved lines of the colonnade suggested the majestic approach 
of St. Peter’s at Rome. As you passed down to the right and 
to the left there extended the large buildings, which were 
built for exhibition purposes. There was but little difference 
between those and the ones at Chicago, except that they were 
very much larger. 

The real genius of the St. Louis Exposition, however, was 
in its landscape gardens. This country has never seen such 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 259 


a wealth of ingenuity and skill and taste, and such an ex- 
penditure of money, coupled for a given purpose, as was repre- 
sented by these gardens in the St. Louis*Exposition grounds. 
Not a shrub, not a tree was allowed there without reference 
to its environment and without some suggestion as to its fitness 
with regard to the surrounding buildings and architecture. 
It was the genius of the fair. Whoever have seen the Sunken 
Gardens, or whoever saw those beautiful beds of flowers, with 
their grouping on the hillside, clear back toward the center of 
what was called the forest before that was destroyed in order 
to erect the building, will say they never have seen anything 
more beautiful, more unique, and more consistent. 

It would, of course, take time to speak of the exhibits. 
In such a fair they are the world over similar to a large extent, 
but there were a few that demand special notice. Japan and 
Germany seemed to vie with each other. Their exhibits were 
great, lavish, and unique. You could go into one building and 
see Japan, and then pass into another, and so on through the 
Manufacturers’ Building, or into the Palace of Liberal Arts, 
and no matter where you went, wherever Japan had an exhibit 
it became a source of wonder as to how it was that they could 
send so many goods, with such a variety, and have everything 
carried out with such detail. The exhibits all through were 
especially excellent for the reason that there was a system and 
symmetry all through the fair. It was a serious fair. It 
seemed as though that was one of the chiefest things that the 
wit of man had given attention to, the study of the symmetrical 
and the proportionate. 

There were three departments at St. Louis that rendered 
that exhibition unique in itself. No one of those four depart- 
ments had ever been exhibited before anywhere on earth. 
The first was the United States Mint. Of course there have 
been coin machines and other machines shown of that kind, but 
this was the first time that there ever was a complete installa- 
tion of the entire outfit. The United States Mint was shown 
in detail from the time the metal passes from the crude 
ore. right through the whole process to the finished coin. If 
you followed what the lecturer said one could not fail to get 
a very good idea of it. I had a special letter of introduction 
to a gentleman who introduced me to a man who had coined 
more money than any man on earth, and under his guidance 


260 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [| Jame, 


we passed from the crude ore through every stage of the 
process, to the giving us of a coin as a souvenir. It was 
copper, of course. The machinery was especially interesting. 
Some of it was so finely made that it could be adjusted to a 
thousandth part of an inch, so that a bar of copper being put 
through a roller would be changed a thousandth part of an 
inch. I cannot stop to dwell upon these processes, but they 
were as interesting as anything could possibly be. I said to 
one of the gentlemen connected with that exhibit: “ How 
does it happen that all this part of the building is given over 
to a representation of the United States Mint? How is it that 
Uncle Sam can spare all this machinery?” “ Why,” he said, 
“there is about to be installed in Colorado an auxiliary mint 
of the United States government, and it happened that this 
machinery was perfected just about the time that the exhibition 
opened. So this machinery was sent to St. Louis and set up, 
and after the fair closes it will go to Colorado to be installed, 
and will not again be on exhibition.” It was indeed a happy 
circumstance that the installation happened to come just about 
the time of the fair. 

Passing on a short distance from the mint we came to an 
exhibit of the wireless telegraph system. There was a lec- 
turer in attendance, who was one of the brightest men I ever 
met. He gave us in detail the entire history of the wireless 
telegraph apparatus. I was told at the time the particular 
difference or distinction between the transmitting medium 
which they are obliged to use in the wireless system and that 
used in the X-rays. As you pass through the lecturer on the 
X-rays explains the various details, and so you go through the 
entire process, witnessing all of the illustrations, and being 
subjected yourself to those tests. This gentleman, who was 
our special attendant, said that when he was illustrating the 
X-rays he always liked to get hold of a lady’s pocketbook. 
He said he found everything in it but money; that there was 
always plenty of tickets, books, checks, and samples of cloth, 
etc., but very seldom money. We tried it on the ladies in my 
party, but they did not have a pocketbook. He put a rubber 
band around my hand, and by holding a pin on the inside, like 
that, was able to locate where it was. So that if a pin was 
really in your hand the surgeon could locate it exactly, or any 
other foreign substance. X-rays have been considered as 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 201 


detrimental to the human flesh, but they have discovered an 
invention which quite counteracts that evil, as there is a method 
which they now use and which they claim will protect the 
patient from any evil effect from the use of X-rays. 

So we went on through the entire building. Of course I 
cannot spend time to take up each interesting subject in detail, 
but there were these three things shown, which have been 
developed and have greatly progressed since the last world’s 
fair, and are now up-to-date, and in fact the latest things, and 
as interesting and more real than the tales of the Arabian 
Nights. 

Some one has said that the particular study of mankind is 
man. If I were asked what one feature of the St. Louis Ex- 
position was predominant on its educational side I should say 
it was the study of man. When the St. Louis Exposition was 
being constructed its managers found, unfortunately, that they 
were going to have barely enough room for the large buildings 
and for what they had projected. You will remember that 
Washington University was just being completed. The build- 
ings included a magnificent great stone building in the paral- 
lelogram, covering some 40 to 46 acres. As the fair pro- 
eressed, the bounds were increased, and finally this was all 
taken in and rented for use during the fair. In that building 
was located the administrative department. They fitted those 
buildings permanently, so far as the museums were concerned, 
so that there we found all the relics that could be gotten to- 
gether, representing prehistoric man and his implements and 
tools. This scientific department was very carefully made up, 
thoroughly equipped, and systematically and carefully classi- 
fied in the regular catalogues, so that one could go through 
there being sure that such men as Prof. Frederick Starr, Dr. 
Clinton, and all of those men who are pronounced authorities 
on the subject, had given it careful attention, and could have 
the benefit of their researches, their books, their data, and their 
statistics. In there one could find a very complete collection 
from the mounds in Ohio, collections which had been gathered 
as the result of long investigation with reference to the mound 
builders and early prehistoric man. It is said that they found 
140 skeletons in two low subterranean terraces. They were 
first discovered about 1846, and they have been discovered 
from time to time since. All those were carefully classified, 


262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


together with the implements, especially the copper and stone, 
which have been found with these relics, and also with the 
fossil remains, sharks’ teeth, shells of the ocean, etc. In going 
through that building one got wonderfully interested, but I 
haven’t the time at present to describe it in detail as I would 
wish. One could not help, however, in becoming wonderfully 
interested regarding our own country, and in asking the ques- 
tion: “Are we new or are we old?” One tires, however, 
with looking at mollusks and fossils and stone, timber, copper, 
and other metal. One wants to see something that is newer 
and full of life. So by stepping out of this building, of Wash- 
ington University, and within a very short distance, we see a 
group called the Ainu Family. They are representatives of 
the aborigines of Japan, and were brought from their native 
island by Prof. Frederick Starr. They are very celebrated 
for their handsome tattooing, especially on the ladies. They 
are rather light skinned, and they are celebrated for their re- 
markable ceremonial habits, “social and religious.” It is a 
subject of intense interest to study and understand from whence 
spring their life-habits and all these intense ceremonial habits, 
“social and religious.” There they were, living just as they 
live on the island of Japan. They brought their equipment, 
their utensils, their songs, their sports, and their serious life, 
and they ate and slept, and had their recreations and their 
visits just as they did in their native land. 

Just beyond them you passed to the Patagonian Giants 
from southern Argentina, remarkable for their strength and for 
their magnificent feats of horsemanship, and for their courage. 

You passed then to the tent of the Batwa pygmies. These 
little people came from the upper Kasai valley of Central 
Africa. They are representatives of the aborigines of Africa, a 
race which is being rapidly displaced by men of larger mould. 
They are the smallest known variety of the human species, and 
are remarkable for their great subserviency, and for their 
imperfect development of language. The representatives of 
these races of people were the only ones that had ever before 
visited the shores of the United States. They left their native 
haunts and have all been returned. An interesting scene took 
place with President Francis of the Louisiana Purchase Expo- 
sition Company when the pygmies came to bid him good-by, 
preparatory to their long journey back to Africa. He gave 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 263 


them all a little present, but their eyes seemed to become fixed 
on his coat, where he had some society badge. They wanted 
that more than anything. He finally gave it to them, and they 
carried it back to Africa. 

This brief and incomplete statement in regard to these peo- 
ples serves to illustrate what I wanted to bring out, which is 
that the St. Louis Fair differed from all the other fairs that we 
have had, in this principal particular. 

Just as you leave these tribes you come to fifteen different 
villages of Indians, representing every grade among our own 
inhabitants, both here and in Mexico. There was the wigwam 
and the squaw, and the Indian chief and the scalping knife, 
represented just as they are represented to be when at home in 
their native haunts. There they were, living, eating, smoking, 
and shouting, just as they do at home. 

I had a very interesting experience one day. President 
Francis of the Exposition Company made up a party, and I, 
very fortunately, happened to make one of it. The party was 
to pay a visit to the Philippine village. Upon that occasion it 
was my fortune to see a chief of one of these painted, beaded 
Indians going to make a first visit to the Filipinos, and if I 
ever saw one person look down upon another, it was this Indian 
chief, as he saw the poor, degraded Filipinos. They were 
giving their war dance and going through some of their exer- 
cises, showing what their national sports were, and as he stood 
and observed them he wrapped his blanket around him and 
looked down with the most dignified condescension you ever 
saw. The Philippine village covers about forty acres of land. 
There were six villages, and they represented something which 
was entirely new in this courtry. They represented different 
tribes and families of every class and every grade of the Filip- 
inos, from the lowest to the aristocracy. Some of them 
showed a good deal of intelligence, and, of course, the more 
intelligent ones will not have anything to do with the others. 
The lowest were the Igorrotes, called the head-hunters, and 
they believe in themselves just as firmly as the high-grade ones 
believe in their habits and institutions. They have one goal, 
towards which every one of their tribe sets his face. It is their 
ambition, and you can at once test their standard of civilization 
by knowing what that one goal is. It is to kill three men under 
different circumstances and to place their heads upon a pole in 


264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


front of their huts. When they have accomplished this then 
they have reached the highest point of honor in their code. 
Like the Roman Senator who, having performed a great serv- 
ice for his country, and having been thanked publicly in the 
Roman Senate, is thereafter entitled to retain his seat, and no 
one can supplant him. These head-hunters were pure savages, 
and although rather small in stature, and rather degraded in 
looks, yet from their earnest eyes and general aspect they 
showed vigor and power and intelligence if only directed in the 
right way. I never shall forget one instance that occurred dur- 
ing our stay. We were there in April, about two weeks, at the 
dedication of the Connecticut building, and again three weeks 
in October. In April everything was new. The savages were 
out with the worst kind of instruments, kettle drums, and pans, 
and dancing the most grotesque dances imaginable around a 
few embers of a fire burning in the center. Men and women 
alike. It was a scene which I had heard described, but which 
I had never seen. I thought then that they represented the 
worst and the most degraded elements of the Philippine Islands. 
In October I passed through this same village. I visited their 
schools. At that time I saw seven of these same degraded 
children of the Filipinos sitting upon a log, partially clothed, 
and attempting to sing “America.” They were not on the key, 
I assure you, but you could tell what they were attempting to 
sing, both in the music and the words. I declare it was a reve- 
lation. They had seen for the first time civilization in all of its 
departments. They had seen something better. They had 
seen the exact discipline as given out under the government of 
Uncle Sam, and they were true to the lesson. I never saw such 
a thirst for knowledge and such intense desire to learn as was 
pictured upon the faces of some of those children of the Filip- 
inos in their school. I thought what a revelation it was, what 
an object lesson for America. 

From the top of the Ferris wheel, or the tower, one could 
look over and beyond any one of the large buildings, and 
could locate the old St. Louis slave market, where only a few 
years ago, as we know, the institution of slavery was in exist- 
ence and practiced ; yet in sight of that old slave market beings 
a hundredfold more degraded than were the slaves, beings who 
had never sat at a table, who had never eaten anything except 
with their fingers, and whose highest ambition was to slay 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 265 


human beings and hang their bloody heads on a pole before 
their huts, were seated, clothed, upon a log singing, or at- 
tempted to sing, “ My Country, ’Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of 
Liberty.” I thought if Abraham Lincoln could have been 
where that scene could have passed before him and thought 
of his martyrdom, he never would have regretted it, for the 
beginning of the marvelous work which he accomplished was 
here being plainly carried out, not only among the former 
slaves of the South, but among people of those sunny islands 
in the far East. 

The Philippine villages would entertain any one for weeks. 
I was reading that when President Roosevelt visited them it is 
said that he spent twenty minutes more than the scheduled time 
allowed in looking at them, and thus threw out of gear his 
program for the entire day. 

They lived there in their villages just as they live at home, 
with their houses and all their paraphernalia, showing how they 
slept, ate, and lived, and altogether were one of the most inter- 
esting and instructive things shown at the St. Louis exhibition. 
But I must not delay upon this scene. 

I ought to speak a word of Connecticut and of the Connecti- 
cut house at the exposition. I do this with some embarrass- 
ment, because I see before me so many that know so much more 
about it than I do; but in order to hedge I will say that no 
one can successfully dispute me tonight, because I have just 
received a letter from St. Louis stating that all the books, data, 
and records are packed up and have been shipped aboard the 
cars bound for Hartford. I do know, however, for I have been 
through all the departments, and some of them twice, that the 
universal expression is that Connecticut made one of the very 
best showings of any State in the Union. Her exhibits were 
varied, and they were extensive. They were well classified, 
and they were presented with a good degree of intelligence and 
to good advantage. My attention was called today to an entry 
made in one of the visitors’ books by a gentleman who has spent 
a great many years in California. He went, I think, from 
Connecticut when he was very young. After he had written 
hishname he ‘said this: “Came from Santa Barbara, Cal. I 
have seen the Connecticut exhibits, and I desire to say that 
Connecticut can produce some fruits and vegetables of greater 
excellence than can be produced in the State of the Golden 
Gate.” 


266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


I also read a letter from Mr. L. S. Parker, one of the lead- 
ing citizens of St. Louis. It was addressed to Governor 
Chamberlain, and was an acknowledgment of an invitation sent 
him to meet some members of the St. Louis party at his home 
last night. He said that it was conceded that Connecticut had 
made a better and more impressive showing at St. Louis than 
any single State. 

I received word from the secretary that in regard to the 
award of prizes Connecticut had received a special on farm 
products, dairy, and tobacco. Most of them received gold 
prizes, tobacco, as I am informed by a letter, being granted 
a grand prize. I do not wonder at it, because I happened to 
be at the department when Mr. Halliday and Mr. Mead were 
taking out their excellent exhibits of tobacco, and everybody 
thought they were beautiful, and they were. The exhibits 
were perfectly fine. 

The Ohio building at the fair stood a little distance from the: 
Connecticut State building. Ohio had a very fine commission. 
One of the members of that commission came over to the Con- 
necticut State building, and it was noticed that he had his hat 
in his hand. He was received with some joking remark, “ Is 
your head warm today? Were you out late last night?” He 
said in reply, “ I am coming over here with my hat in my hand 
because I feel like taking it off to you.” He said, “ We thought 
we had quite a State building and quite an exhibit here, but I 
declare, for variety, for variety of industries exhibiting, and 
for uniform excellence in them all, I do not believe there is a 
State here represented that equals Connecticut.” We thought 
that was very good testimony, because he was not running for 
any office in Connecticut, and we thought he was telling the 
truth. We thought so at the time. 

The educational department was complete and in every way 
acredit. The oyster industry, showing all the different grada- 
tions, where the oysters form, and where they catch in clusters 
on the shells, was shown with great completeness. It was 
conceded that the showing of the State was universally excel- 
lent. Of course, in manufactures and in inventions, Connecti- 
cut does stand pretty well to the front, but I must confess ‘that 
I was surprised to hear good judges speak in the highest terms 
of Connecticut agriculture in all its departments, and of our 
dairy interests in particular. 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 267 


The Connecticut State building, we thought, deserved a 
prize, and if any had been given I understand it would have 
received the grand prize, but unfortunately there was no such 
department. It represented the pure colonial style, both in the 
building and in the furnishings. The commission turned over 
to the ladies of the commission, supervised by Mrs. Holcomb 
of the National Board, the project of furnishing the house, 
and everything was carried out with perfect symmetry of ap- 
pointment as to its colonial nature. The gentlemen who repre- 
sented the National Board cooperated, and, with Senator Wil- 
cox, saw that everything was attended to perfectly. The ap- 
pointments were carried out to such a degree of nicety that 
when we had a reception the ladies really did not like it because 
we put in a few extra hall chairs. They were out of harmony 
with the colonial idea. Mr. Litchfield, an expert from London, 
sent over by the British government, and said to be one of the 
finest experts upon colonial architecture and colonial equip- 
ment, visited the Connecticut house over and over again. He 
could take up any chair, any table, any piece of furniture or 
picture frame, and tell its history, the class to which it belonged, 
and the period in which it belonged, whether it was genuine or 
spurious. He made me happy because he quoted a valuation of 
$40.00 on a piece of furniture, higher than I had to pay. The 
commission was allowed to pick out a few things and get them 
for just what they cost.. Any one else had to pay whatever 
price was put upon them. He put this at $40.00 higher than 
it cost the State. He said that if he had seen nothing else it 
would have repaid him for his trip across the Atlantic Ocean 
to see the finest example of pure colonial architectural equip- 
ment and furniture that he had seen in a long time, such as was 
represented in the Connecticut house. He knew nothing about 
the Connecticut house except that he was told to go there. 

Some of the other State buildings are well worthy of an 
extended description, but, of course, I haven't the time to enter 
into those details at present. The State of Missouri was repre- 
sented by a building which was magnificent, a great building, 
and a splendid dome in the center, but it was erected without 
any pretention of carrying out any particular idea. 

The walls of the Connecticut house were covered with beau- 
tiful silk made by the Cheney Brothers of South Manchester. 
The carpets were made by the carpet company at Thompson- 


268 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


ville. Although we were offered an entire outfit of beautiful 
Oriental rugs, we did not care to assume any responsibility 
regarding them, and the beautiful Oriental rugs were not 
colonial, and we took the carpets and the colonial andirons, in 
fact, everything that was purely colonial, and it was indeed a 
delightful house in which to give receptions. A good deal of 
the furniture was sold, a great deal of it at advanced prices. 
Some of the pieces went at very good prices, and some of them 
could have been sold over and over again. The house itself 
has been purchased and repurchased. We sold it, and we have 
lately been informed that someone else beside the original pur- 
chaser has paid a bonus to secure it. 

Connecticut Day and Connecticut Week at the fair (though 
perhaps in regard to this I am speaking from a prejudiced 
standpoint) was really wonderfully successful. In the first 
place, the weather was ideal. It was perfect Indian summer 
all the time. The Governor was with us, the State officers, 
and the Governor’s staff; two companies of infantry and one 
of horse guards, and when we paraded everything was in our 
favor. We owned the fair for the day. The parade was 
headed by the Philippine Guard. This is composed of a picked 
body of men from the Philippines, and are practically like the 
enlisted men that serve under the United States government. 
They were a fine looking lot of fellows, alert, quick, and drilled 
like a machine. In addition to them we had some Missouri 
regiments, which took part in the parade. You know how 
beautiful the Foot Guard looks in their continental regimentals, 
but out there the continental uniforms were a surprise. The 
western people were not very familiar with them. When they 
paraded it seemed as though there were more people than I 
had ever seen together on a similar occasion. It was the talk 
of the day. The Indiana and Pennsylvania commissions told 
us afterwards that we were the real thing that day. They had 
planned for a certain social function at their house, but they 
reconsidered it, and came over to us and said it was no use; that 
they could not go on; that there had been no such celebration 
as that among the entire group of States. 

Another Ane in which we can take a pardonable pride 
was the fact that the Connecticut house was dedicated exactly 
on time, and every function from its dedication to the reception 
given to President Francis was accomplished exactly on time. 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 269 


President Francis said to me that if every State had performed 
its given functions with the same promptness as Connecticut 
he would have been at the head of a celebration that was simply 
stupendous. At one time when we invited him to be our guest 
at the house, even though he was an exceedingly busy man, he 
said to me, “ Mr. Phelps, I am going over there to the Con- 
necticut house, and I am going through that ceremony. I do 
not care who is in my anteroom, for the least that I can do is 
to show my appreciation of the spirit of promptness and energy 
that has been manifested by Connecticut. She has set an 
example for every other State in the Union, and I am simply 
giving her her just due by accepting your invitation.” That is 
the way President Francis felt in regard to it. 

We entertained the Governor while we were there, and a 
little incident occurred one evening which I shall never forget. 
‘It was a delightful evening. The magnificent Festival Hall 
never seemed so beautiful. Everything seemed to be just right. 
All conditions perfect. The music was delightful. President 
Francis offered the Governor his private launch for a ride 
through the lagoon. This was accepted, and when we started 
there were four other launches in the rear, containing other 
members of the party. President Francis was a little late when 
we started, but he soon met us and stepped into our launch. 
The music sounded, and those six launches went on through 
the lagoon, under the arches and the bridges, with the boatmen 
singing their songs. It was a never-to-be-forgotten scene. 
One lady who was impressed by it spoke to President Francis, 
saying, “ Surely, this is heaven. You ought to be the happiest 
man on earth.” He said: ‘‘ My dear madam, there is no sad- 
der man than I am in the State of Missouri. I have just come 
from a meeting of the Board of Directors, where we have been 
arranging to ruin this entire beautiful scene. I am sad indeed.” 
It was a fact. They had been systematically figuring, in the 
Board of Directors, how much it would cost to destroy that 
whole beautiful structure. When the time came the last day 
of November; I have been told President Francis pressed his 
finger upon the button and the lights went out, and he said, 
“ Farewell, farewell, most beautiful scene,” and as he said it 
the tears came to his eyes. That it was one of the most beauti- 
ful, as well as one of the most interesting scenes that the eye 
of man ever witnessed, there can be no question. The fair 


270 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. (Jans 


itself was a great success, in a way. There were 142,000 ad- 
missions a day during October, or about that, and although 
there were some 20,000 deadheads a day admitted to the fair, 
yet the grounds never seemed crowded. Such a number as 
that, equal to the population of quite a city, would ordinarily 
make quite a large crowd, yet no particular place upon the fair 
ground was congested. There was room for all. 

The predominant feature of this whole fair seemed to be 
seriousness. Not that there was no fun, for there was. That 
was to be found upon the Pike. Let me describe to you, briefly, 
a few of the scenes to be found upon the Pike. Hagenbach’s 
animal performance, I think, was the best in the world. I have 
seen one similar in the Hippodrome at Paris, but it was not 
equal to that one at St. Louis. When you first entered you 
passed into a vast arena, in the center of which was piled up 
rocks and earth, and, around the edges, places which formed 
the caverns and dens of wild animals. Wild animals of every 
kind were seen coming in and out. When I visited the place 
I stopped and tried to think what animal I did not see, and I 
could not. There seemed to be every class of animal known. 
As you entered the performing arena there was an animal 
tamer, who at one time had hyenas, jackals, leopards, and other 
animals under his control, and yet, single-handed and alone, 
he would make them jump through hoops of fire and obey per- 
fectly his bidding. He seemed to work them as though they 
were little pet dogs, that would come and go at his will. An 
interesting incident occurred with reference to the tamer, which 
I must relate. It was given to me by a member of the National 
Board. This animal tamer was married, and he had a wife 
who was anything but a pleasant companion. One Saturday 
night, when he got through with his performance, he felt 
immensely tired, and he thought he would not go up stairs to 
meet his wife and have over with her the same old row. It 
looked so peaceful in the animals’ cage that he laid himself 
down there, put his head on a lion that was asleep on its side, 
and fell asleep himeslf. His wife missed him. She went down 
and began to look for him, and finally found him asleep in. the 
cage. She got a long stick and thrust it through between the 
bars of the cage and woke him up. He sprang up, and as he 
got up he looked out and saw his wife. She was, of course, out- 
side of the cage. He was in there with the other wild beasts. 


1905. | THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 271 


The significant part of the whole thing was, when he looked her 
in the face as she was thrusting that stick through between the 
bars, she said. “ Oh, you coward.” Think of it, to say that he 
was a coward! He had shown his courage in taming the wild 
beasts of the forests, but he couldn’t tame her, no matter what 
he might do. Hagenbach’s animal performance was, of course, 
only one of many interesting and instructive sights to be found 
on the Pike. 

Among other things was a depiction of the destruction of 
Galveston. Another was the Fire Fighters, which attracted a 
great deal of attention. Another was called “‘ The Hereafter.” 
There you were shown what the future is. As you passed in 
you were shown a panorama, and was told what the future is 
of a good man and the future of a bad man. 

There were many other interesting and exceedingly instruct- 
ive places of amusement upon the Pike, but, of course, I cannot 
enter upon a detailed description of all of those things here. 
Suffice to say that after having seen it all it would seem to me 
that taking the fair as a whole that it must make a marked 
impression upon this country, and in fact upon the world. 
There, side by side, among that vast concourse of people, were 
representatives of every grade of humanity and every stage of 
civilization; there, side by side, was the lowest exhibition of 
manhood and the highest; specimens concerning which one 
could exclaim, ‘‘ How like a brute!” and beside them illustra- 
tions of manhood so exalted that one could exclaim with 
Shakespeare, ‘‘ How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty!” 
And when these all came together, learning each other’s ways, 
singing each other’s songs, getting acquainted with each other’s 
religion, with each other’s happiness, with each other’s social 
customs and ways, educational systems and industries, it seemed 
to me that it must make for peace. It seemed to me that this 
more than any other one thing would turn the faces of men 
towards those tribunals where great questions are now being 
settled and decided according to the law of justice and of rea- 
son, and influence them to no longer look or dwell upon the 
horrors of war as a means for the settlement of their differ- 
ences. It was a scene for the philosopher and the statesman, 
for it would seem as though, gathered side by side, as they 
were, representatives from every nation upon the globe, as they 
looked into each other’s faces and saw that they were brothers,. 


272 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [ Jan., 


and that they came from the same source, and were speeding 
on towards the same great future, that it must be a step in 
advance, and that it must aid in bringing in the dawn of that 
day when all nations of the earth shall, with sublime accord, 
join in the practice of the principles of Him who taught 
“Peace upon earth.” (Applause.) 


The PresipeNT. I know you all feel that you wish to give 
a vote of thanks for this very interesting and instructive lecture, 
to which we have just listened, relative to the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition. All in favor of a vote of thanks for this 
splendid address will please rise. It is a unanimous vote. 

The Secretary. Mr. President, I think there is no further 
business to bring before the convention. 

The PresipentT. If there is no further business to bring 
before the convention I will declare this meeting adjourned. 


Convention adjourned without day. 


1905. | EXHIBITS AT HARTFORD. 272 


EXHIBITS AT MID-WINTER MEETING OF BOARD 
OF AGRICUETURE. 


Hartrorp, December 14, 15, and 16, 1904. 


A case of grasses from farm of Geo. M. Clark of Higganum. 

A large case of bones of animals, showing effects of various diseases, 
exhibited by Connecticut Agricultural College. 

A cylinder of compressed oxygen with the necessary tubes, the whole 
comprising an outfit for the cure of milk fever in cows by the new 
way, from Connecticut Agricultural College. 

A large table covered with photos and printed matter, from Connecti- 
cut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven. 

Apples — Wm. Taylor, Cheshire, seedling. 

T. S. Gold, West Cornwall, 8 varieties. 

N. G. Williams, Brooklyn, 5 varieties. 

Hubert Potter, North Haven (P. O., Montowese), I variety. 

Elbert Manchester, Bristol, 5 varieties. 

Win. M. Curtis, Bridgewater, 5 varieties. 

Elmer Fairchild, Newtown, I variety. 

Connecticut Agricultural College, 70 varieties. 
Squash — Hubert F. Potter, No. Haven (P. O., Montowese), 1 variety. 
Pears — Connecticut Agricultural College, 4 varieties. 

Potatoes — D. W. Patton, North Haven, 2 varieties. 

Wm. M. Curtis, Bridgewater, 2 varieties. 

Nuts — One grafted variety of hickory named the “ Eliot” from Whit- 

ney Elliott, North Haven. 

Also a case containing 56 varieties of nuts that had been ex- 
hibited at St. Louis Exposition by Connecticut Board of 
Agriculture. 

Corn — Sarah F. Mead, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

J. F. Close, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

Seaman Mead, Greenwich, I variety. 

Albert W. Close, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

Paul B. Ferris, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

N. Augustus Knapp, Greenwich, 2 varieties. 

S. E. Mills, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

D. S. Mead, Greenwich, 1 variety. This has been in family 
since 1750. 

John Voorhees, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

Solomon S. Mead, Greenwich, I variety. 


AGrR.— 18 


John H. Brush, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

O. D. Mead, Greenwich, 2 varieties. 
Elizabeth Anderson, Greenwich, I variety. 
J. Brush Husted, Greenwich, 1 variety. 
Wm. Brown, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

N. Husted, Greenwich,.1 variety. 

Saul Pine, Greenwich, 1 variety. 

Wm. E. Husted, Greenwich, 1 variety. 
Augustus Reynolds, Greenwich, I variety. 


a) 


N 


AIRS. 


JRAL I 


RICULT 


AG 


5) 


ICIAL LIST OF 


“FP 


OF 


1905. | 


‘Q100FT “VY “UW 
“uOsIaVd “OD UoLINg 
‘uosdQ “WNW 
“uUnIg ““] UIWUIy 
“WOSepUBS “VY pal 
“alu0lO “A ‘d 
‘uosdmoyy, “V ‘seqo 
“YARD “S PIABCL 
‘sUulyseH OL 
“MSW “A oq oy 
*SS1]IND “A sepeyo 
UB “YW SIOURI IT 
dd1BD “YW Uqor 
OT parva pi 
siqing “4 Aue 
“SUOWUIY *f ULMpa 
"pp AY plavg 
SPABIITM. No PIeA\ por 
ae ay 50H youned 
TM “O “ULM 

OMIV “OV 
“spIBADPT “A\ AOlUBIE 
‘osey ‘\q ‘fueg 
“woovg “A\ uyor 
“DUONS "YT [aqusy 
‘O[0G “H an100N 
"URYVU[VD “q uyor 
“MRS "A slur 
*SSTHUDIOH “V “WL 
*£IIQIS “{ UoJSaAIg 
“UT “AA “8890 


< * “BOTTIN °O "O “H 
. . ‘OIQON “g 2p 
P * ‘uosd “IN “a 
* ‘K1woTT ‘FL pavuoayT 
* ‘ppsg -y uvuniy, 
7° OVO “MN 
5 “WO TUBH OUI 
eu icle au ts) 
: eo) ¢\< ye a 
: “TA od oars 
‘ouq ‘oO Hate 
* ‘OIQON °C JoqioH 
* ‘“pjoury "WW 380015 
{[ABl[O “CE anyyy 
: ‘AUWBOOWM “Hd 
“paoja esunH ULMpA “LP 
‘aUvOS YOLUR 
: “quia auosniy “d 
0 “UPIRD (O SIMo'T 
‘104 Me “Hod JAeqoy 
‘SUUBDY “Gf ‘CO ‘SIN 
* ‘osBg “) alopoal,y, 
y * ‘ysnoy “¥ “F 
‘arpuny IOTUNAOW 2 
* ‘saTdeyg “f° 
MOTT “ M TAD ET 
RBI[VO ‘qd uyor 
*  “URSIUO "AA AA 
: * ‘poly "TWA 
* ‘rosia1g ‘g¢ ydesor 
‘HOJSULIIK “AL ‘08D 


‘ 


“‘MAUMOSVAD, 


Dia mice: ices) 


. 


: *£OUIND “DV 
g * ‘asirg *O "a 
‘INL *§ sopvyd 
\1odueavg ‘A Aiue py 
R (8098) V ‘svyqo 
*  ‘puv[q svuroyy, 
“OUD “S SapaByO 
fiance “H UWdlIB AA 
. . ‘xOUy "9 “A 
* 8H Hi “AN 

* ‘SurysoH “VY “iL 
‘Kinqssury Moipuy 


‘saqang ‘q uoidey 


‘TNIPOOM "S WOsyv Ad 


“TOUOIUN “0. "G0" 
* ‘yong Soyo “¢ 
* Sopédd “CL 0qOY, 
‘faspoy ‘qd ydasor 

: ‘Iaqivgd “7 “M 
* ‘Trojueg “FT uyor 
‘pooMisays “HN 

*  ‘yorag "GQ ‘Oar) 
g * ‘kilad JOAl[O 
‘oypuny “H jenurg 
* “(Pq y “yy word Wy 
‘poomaey q *faog 
* ‘orytood UIMpr 
“XOO[TM VT YuRlyl 

* “SIQON “Pf “UTAN 
“1lOUPASOID “AA “BBO 
‘IOUl, Wospne “a 


* “90g "mOg "Uu0D 


‘dorejoossy 8, uour seg ‘uu0D 


. . 4 1409[0 MA 
Y * *310078p00 AA. 

: * OMUB UNITE AA 

: *  “Aanqi97e A 
‘Cole ‘saoul0g) uojuy) 
4@ 940 ‘9010 W) uoluy) 
* ‘premngs 

* ‘sdurdg psoyeys 

3 *  ‘fkanqsurg 
Saqtraxaory 

: ) ‘urRUuynd 

: ‘ * ‘osurio 

s ; ‘UMOJMON 

: * “pros {tA MON, 

* “O09 WAABE, MON 

: i “UOsIpRyy 

‘ “uOpOTMIe 


c = ‘projymmy) 


‘qnlo Axjun09 IUH pleyuoer5 


“LNAGISaU 


* ‘Kqueip 

“AOA UO}SULMIR YT 

: ‘sinqueq 

i *  “Taysaqolop 

: 8 * ‘IeIs8yO 

e : ‘prosaeig 

: 5 *  SUpLagT 

e ‘fo[[BA Woowag 
‘AJUNOD WBYPUT AA 
‘Ayunog wopuo'T Man 


“ALHIOOG JO ANVNT 


“PO6T NI SuIVa ONIGTOH SHLLAIOOS TVUNLTAOMNV JO LSIT TVIOIWAO 


[Jan., 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


LU L609, 
68'998'S 
GL 606'8 
86° 699°% 
PQ'SIS'F 
GP L9BT 
1606b'T 
0g'99h 
1@7e9's 
98 O8L'@T 
&6'9FOT 
06'628'9 
GI'906'8 
86 TP8'9 
LE'LPS Pb 
G0'008'E 
89°L80'T- 
£860 
9 LLd, 
GU'809'T 
G6°S6L'E 
OL'ESE'T 
99°8hG'S 
O9' TSP Th 
L9'988 
GE BE 


LLBBL 
00°000°% 
69'S 
BETS 


er ry 


8T08T 
a 
80°G08 
IG FIL 
81696 
IP’ 106 
80°261 
LO'SST. 
ig LOT 
CL'6LT 
6L° TPT 
G9°8éT 
sg-601 


sewer teens 


16691 
SL LOPE 


BIT 
)0°SPT 
9o69T 
0°008 


22°08 
OL T8T 
68°96 
LB8'3G 
L8"SP9 
WOU 
08’88T 
PLLSLS 
69°08 
GET 
02°S8 
00°99 
8E°S16 
06°89 
OF SSE 
09°68 
098s 
IPL61 
68 TET 
98 "E% 
§9°G6 
LI868 
FO'SOT 
SQ°LIT 
00°09E 
§9°L9 


SP SPT 


1eeteS 00° 00L$ 
n ° 
oats) aa 
co 
e8 g 
eats es 
_ 
=) fo) 
és = 
ied 4 
ae 3 
2 B 


es ry 


eee e ewww wale 


Cr er rey 


Sspste) 
GL POL 
00°99 
QL'OTT 
09° $9 
00°99 
GuLIe 
GE OFS'T 
00'2EL 
00°S60‘T 
00°%99 


00°0@T 
oc'262 SOM Nie siaiere 
O22 00°TFI 

Pe eee loge 
00'FE a 
**"/¢%'90¢ 
08966 
**100'80% 
te eeeeeeeelanener 
oa" LS ON CES 
09°E86 00° 09'G9P 
GS" 18s 00° OT 
intra ou pease 
00°¢8 
00°68 
00°GE 
000 
00 86T 
00°608 
QU LOL 
00 
00° TS 
00°006 
0S '986 
00° AST 
00° OTE 
00°6S9$ 


oI 


00°61 
00°SIT 


Fee ee enone 


*109°S96 


see nee 


O08 FE 


rreeseeeesloncgp 
“lop eez afotatarayelshelere 
0008 i. 
ogenge foci 
rete es lap ge 


09ST 


00°08 
OFT 


OGLE 
G9°L6 | 0 
0S 0S 


> 
= 
19 
FR 


veresereeslog-arp 


GP 861 
26:09 
0g 68 
Paces ance 
*/09°0r 
**|0S°601, 
alana 
1°89 
weeghoatd eae 


vreseeeerelagere 

veseeeeelog: reeete seer lgo-eyy ‘ 
80°L00°T |" 
OPCS 
9h 04 : 


t[oeeeeeeeeelagigg 
0000'S bene Maree 711010) 
cp9sts 08 
a alse 


IG 
69°08 
GL'60F$ 


00°888 
OF 296 
Q0'8EL'S 
Ge C6L 
00°62 OT 288 
ee ed O09 THE‘T 
00°208 Ge'@L0'°S 
reeteeeesslonepap 
OV LI9S 
09'26L°T 
oL'S86° 
06'LEET 
OL'O6L'T 
**100°88 1168 
08 BL 


00°T8 
00°98 
00°F 


O9' GPT 


see eee eeee 


00° LES 


teen eeeene 


89'SL 
S8°19'T 
0@'B8S 


00 SOT 
9o°99 


0G°§8 
601 
Pe 00'0SL'S 
96 16ST 
00°ChL 
09°606'T 


"C29 


ca 
‘HOT 00° 684 
89 00°88 


09'°8h 7 
LEU T |" 
00°6SS gers 
PUG 
£9°68 


GBe29'eh |SO'erRS joss ese: 


---leg-ec 
B6'6FGS |" 
13'898 = 
2 a 
19°800'R |: 
IO'LT : 
16'690°F |* 
89'OL : 
Os eh tr |: 
PB'G1S : 
81908 ; 
eS'261 
98°F p 
SL GPL : 
ST OL : 


*00°66T eereeeeslogegor 4k's |" 
sgreos'e | |00.0F,, [rscoae'ar |spere'y, | foors 


ee plete; eleselsisssieieleleveieiaiely cress SCey “mod mide Cole) 
‘ots sey s usUsIIBG ‘dUO0D 
ee eee ee ee ee ee “YOOTOM. 
suteinieloves=oo,cleiste.<)ielel\ie seats OOS DOO) 


sete 


ong ‘OTUBUOTTTLAA, 
sizisieiereasirisisieisieiles= SAINI LO} BAN 
speveverersyeys woe 2040) uolug, 


oe 


se *(-O19 ‘QOLUOWL) WOT, 
teteeecsevesseseeeeerstnroning 
wee eee eee eee ‘ssunidg pi0oyreig 
oe POR OCGOOC gala f=\nag (| 
ee | ‘OT [TAMO0U 
s chexe ersieiereseistelepieieieeie 20 OTe Ter 


stew eens 


DO ROOD OODOTODOOBIGOM HAN OVINE) OL 
eee eee ee ‘PLOJTUA MON 
‘OD UOARTT MAN 
eipvaleveceiniolejaraie seisjereie’el* TOS TDR IN 
cfehcieiejei tia clehtierel* es cee OT TT AAS GPT 


Pr sn OTTMy 
sang AIZUNOD ployusaiy 
Sieleselchulens/eteieicvceeteiet MOC IRIE) 
so KOTBA WOUSUIUIB 
ee ‘AINque(y 
eee rnee ***Ta]saTO[0D 
seeeetyaisaeO 
eieicivieieisls/¢\- DIO PUB 
ee ‘ule. 
“ss *KaT[BA WooReg 
oe FORODDOOUA MLO GeLOYO) WiBY PUL MA, 
SA Seto ‘Aqunog nopuoy MON 


i 


BS) (2) is] \) 
= 35 
3 had eras Bas 
ct © o Esurs Bog 
° on 2.8 Ba S 
i) Sects 
be) ° fy no S20 
Q iS) of mes 
a 7 a pm 
3 Ie ie) Dies 
= sy DO as 
S =) wo 
=) & BP Laelia) 
pu © ocd 
B oH oO 
5 i si 


‘S1ONOLL, 
PY 2Suls 


“pusig puBin 


Jo diqsiaquoyt 


*s]OYOL], wosveg 


UOIss(UL 


*puvy uo YysBp 


‘SALLHIOOS 


‘SHONVNIG—'PO6T “SALLHIOOS 


TVUNLTNOIWDV FO 


SNUALAE 


RETURNS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 


ae eae Sane le es 188019, OF poate, | ie “loy 868 DH OOSIOOOS yet “909 "mMOg ‘WUD 
wees : Pa he 68 ae poe Fr es 18) (POSOCROO Ye alerc sieisieue'eiels ie DODO eis ig amity woo 
ae seveeeeelensen lag : titterreeelecneeeeeeslorecee lgg-ogee lane [rete lageog  fetttetee[eees eee lrortop [eee eeett te" 4q09] 
Peewee celec oe lag "**""**"100°000'8  |00°00% 86699'°S |POTSQ ||" "1ON'68E —-|9B'8VS_|00°96B fFEPLE «7° “HOOIBPOO AA 
: ILPAPP |" 7757" 100'009— PS'BIG'h §|80'SD —_|9B FOOT |****"***\0'9TS —00"S8L JON'LSB asedB  |tt**** “ONUBUNTTTTAN 
ee ee eae ere ee SIR TGOL.S soseesteseessesleoroeT /o2°G08 |O0'PIS |OO'OPE |FS°RGh 77° SAanqsaye AA 
seeee ° eee ale ee eee (16 CGP ee TG 266) |euueetcn et cae N00p ete eeecOren. | \Coje.sa;mOS) UL ra 
y “"7"""*"100'008'T |oo"0SO'T fog'9gh, — ew'get |" mreeseeslogcot oft" /00°STE  |Ze"10h ~—«|(090°2 AMO) uu, 
: Sgn 00°000°L [00°OGO"E TB TESS OBA’ | tt OOOOT, —-|OG"EGT._ [00°00 |18°69T'T [°° ** 8s “prams 
99 |** ***|00°00S —|00°000°9T_|00°000°L  |98'OSL'ST [PPPS |LU'SIO'T [68'FFO'S STGBI'T |89°06L‘T |09'SFE'T |G6'SIL'T |**‘sduridg psoyeyg 
CLCIOID oe yealic ee eee boas kom BT GTO See ANT Be coal eens eae OOO 0008S 88ST, teeee * ‘Kinqsug 
ORDeuleee sale oe 100100018 C7106 6@E'9 |QQ"SSTT |" GSTOE'T |S8°600'F 00°SF6 00°S68 | TB"OBVT |°° 88° 8 OlTIANIOY 
88 pecs: <00°000'°ST_|00°00P'4  |ST°906'E = 6E'SOT, |"""*"*"!z0'ROT |geseg 00989 [00°08 |oBTON'T |" °° ***** “MUBUINg 
“6ST (00'000°E |The 186 THEO |BS'9BL'T 00°008 [00 FOS'T |GS'LTL [Se'SES_ [00080 |9T'6TO'L |""°"*"* “7 *‘edutIO 
QTE |°77777]00°000°2 |°"""""*"""100°006, LEAFS GP'PSE'T |" lapO8T [OP'S68 = |77* 77" /00°VST'T lor'ges'T |°** °°" “MMO UMON 
hee ****"100°009°S = |0"006'E += 19°99 00ST |00°099_joL'69s =|" ***"**|00°000°T |Te"696  |°**** ‘pIOJTI MON 
Go ‘ GLIst 89°80 I 069K ee ey * OG F6P eee nea) 3) 29 T2804) UdABHT MON 
Or 00'0g "****100°00F _|08°698 “ees"""lores — l0P708 —_|S9'@6T Sine eS OG) Nose ec eee OstD ENT 
ctelaielee.e's 00°008 |" "** es Ree "109 LAL G9 CBE sjeteeterexeiei|isscisichelese/ ll GOB. wees POIEDOD OOOO TS tore terete COPUTMIR 
sr eae: 2 “rt "122"809'T |TL'LIS [00'SCE [68'eh | (SB'FTh = |FO'WS |  igB ORT feet tts progtinyD 
Si ‘gz: 00°000°T |00:098'S  00'SEL'S  OGOL'S [LEGO "88" |FS'LEO'T |OB'9BH —fOO'VB_ |" LeLPO'T |‘quIO *O Ployueers 
er : 00°00¢'S = 00°000'E OL'EST'T |ag'se = [-"*"****lOG'GT = 0G'96T =: 00ST. foorgog« |ST9GT «ttt Aquerp 
GB 00°66 |L0'606'6 00006 T 99°SFS ST —09'NE —0S'EET, OL9TS [ST'@eh "7" "\00°008, |TO"FLG. | AOTIVA ToySurOTIE 
ce" **100°000'G8)00°000°06 |°*""** ** "09° TSPTH |@h'998"E |00 008'9 JDTTL6'S 06 GENO |0E'L68'T |00'00F'P |e8"e6e'ST)"*********Arnqueqd 
Go" 00°S6S__ 00°OT'S—_00"0UC'T__|zF9GE Le SRO OOOO Stat) Geealker at) Ge RRP UCCES BROOMS aT I CROC OA ty) f2110) (of8) 
oe wee Beateves pre |petaren oe tlba chy aaa Je ies: 62 ogee [eres large |eccessees taoasom9 
ce" vreeeslog? Mee gel eo iP ORB rhea COILS E 00°000'S |G8"8Se —_|00°00L + j00°00S'% (00°006 |******** *‘paoyanag 
SO GOR OOGEI Tae uel EP MODs "seee"*100°0Ge'p —|00°000°T_|FE SPI‘S 0801 C6693 |SV'T0S  |S09SE [OO';OOL [69619 J °° ttt ULOg 
cz" 00°T Co were e coolseee pee ees eee Sh PEP'T Sh'09 | ecaxateas¥es eye C8" FOL, 0001 00'G2E ISL PES see £OTIBA wooreg 
06" Sree Gs Tereetelssss "869 100°09%S |00°000'S "ITT LOSS. |" "1e6'96 . SS'SFI. |GO'LEL‘T [00'SLE [00'0LE |IS'eer _|‘AuN0D UIeypULA 
ez0$ ~=—s joo r$ |gg'0$ ft eer f° °°" *|00°000'OTS |00'00F'F$ |6E°'906'S$ |26'9L$ jos-egFS |eS'GLS |Sq'F90'TS |00'SG9$ |00'O2e'T$ Go'SFE'TS|" “0D UOpuOT MON 
| 4 
SU et elore eee |e | Sel poe ra seo, oe Ieee | eel Oem bation tere Alla 
= =] yee So: : a 2 oo. 3 5 ze ad pe Ee 78 bo} 
a S EE = =o ° fo) oo ge Es iS 665 ag 5 Bo a=} ® 
a | RB a ee ea 5 a os g es és Fuel ge fp 
nD os at?) IK 2 co Siey in K Bo ay Oo FEI id 
s = | se oe es aval = 2 OE B 6 Ps | ss 53 B & “SHILAIOOS 
3 iS ; 8 ©, || 4= i 2 e B g BRS BE @ rr ~ g 
i aa ait lt tes et ua a i=} Hy Fle. Bo ° 
. D : — . t wm mn E. 


‘CHONILNOD “SHONVNIG — FOG ‘SHILAIOOS IVUNLTNOIWYV AO SNUALAY 


6 


[Jan., 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


wae lenge neae 


Poe tresses £91008 [BOLGO[OWMLOd “uno 
cece cerl[oveccccrl(evverecrlsceecceelesveseselescsscesieeescvorl|srss sens + TOTRIDOSSY 8, uemAIB(L “uu09 


ss ""109'6E 1008 —-[OO'TE = 00°29. SBOE = |SB'ER —OS'Bh 00°98 “, HODTO MA 
00°966 = oo'008.-s« |" *|00'TS ~=—-00'9E_—- 00°09 |00"EB_-—- 0009009 PRIN ES eee ee MO OTEPOO AN 
09288 [00°69 |00OT {00'6E [00'24T 00ST f00'99 0029 —j00'g% eer aaoeeor OT EBL PAN 
OO'OFE —-foo'sg. Ss" *****"/00°9F = fO0'96TOS'SE = f00'|9S = OGTH =| gk'08 treteeserereeeteess AINGIaye AA 
sete eee eee 09°6% see - 090% 00°9T 00's OO'CL 00°8 09°0% sieseroretaereieieen (O99 ‘g10010g) uo 
oo'STE _|00°6 = OSE = |00°9_— = 00°. ONT 00'S Oy 00°E sereeeessss*Coqg ‘goru0W{) WOU) 


i llcsenevexerstele\ ovall ateiorereveleral (s/s/e)efo'sse¥4|ieio/orerelatelal| oliacereielevel)|\oie1 ofoisrore«||(eleforralatels!|lolo\axere\elere tresses seer inating 


OS'ShS'T 00°08 —_|00°E 00°9F = 00'FS = 00ST = 00"E_——- 00°99 00'S : Heseeeeeeeentpanadg P1OHBIS 
ele ec err vee sleceecatelesseesrerisseesesos|ssesssesisesesensisesseses eis iare¥eheie}ei|caehejazeyezelo)| sisseleneleevale eucleuioselseicheoc eee ATTIC SULTS 
000°S68 00°F = |00°9 OOFT 00°F |00°9 09°8 0986 OS TT we elec y aes TFAOO 
00°09L, 00°FOT piclerencheselsll (ROO 00'Ge eeoceceeseleseeeeneiseseereee PO OOG OUD COCO DIGOS ODO OO ONO CIO ON sah: ti hays [ 
00'080 TF 00'S |00'SE —-|00°6 OFTs = 00"T OOTT j00°9F  |09°0T pec ume eg bari Eon aber Ib (0) 
“OOSST ET j09'8] JOSS Oo 00°96 00° OO'OE — |09°9 og"h UM0}4M9N 
"}00°000°T __ }00°6 00'P 00'P OOISL 09ST |00'08 0008 100106 ne ““pIOHTHAL MON 
afew enee welenececotecleoccencceleccecedsleceoscecoe|secetoens([stecescorioeceeeserievrecceosiocn soeeeeossCKounoy UaAVH, MON 

ee NS 00°S GBEE = |Sh°2e 09" T 0o'F GLet  |S2°P a Terese SdosIpeyl 
eosiqg7oT 00'T 00°01 OG SP Que Gg Tt 00°F ee id DOO DOD DOOGR SOHO OOM Carton Aup Kh 8 ( 
Bean oreiieiyen | OG paca OOke 0O'9T §==j09'6h = Skt Og'T OF OL 00% Oe gee nk DROOL 

teteteeee else eteee loge OGTL levee  IcL'p ace. |00°9%  |0¢ OT ‘qnio Arjun0D pleyueaiy 
00°8T 00°8 sereees09'6E = |0O'FE = |09'S 00°6@ —_|00°0T ee ISS! See Seu UUAR) 
00°008 OPEL —|0G"4 09°6 00'6T = |00°TT 90°PE —-|00'6& verses s ‘KOT A WO] SALUTE 
00°00F'F 00°99 |00'6 00°69 = NOES |00 GP 00°L6E  |00'09T Soneeeeseenes AIG USC. 
O& IP 06'S 09° OGL ea re Ou. oe 00g oc'g ween nnee 00°8 gue BO CONOOD ODO GOOUB0000 ROO Li Batty A) (oFo) 
089 e a OOP wkeiataierelele||iele.scare en <e'e a) rar) 09's Oh OL 09% 0g’ ‘item ¢ 5 pee AS AS re aed eO GD 
0g 8G'B 00°S sisreiereie° 10 00:6 BONOROOO rake! TOO SINS) oge e-eeeeeetoeceeeeeete ** Hrloyanig 


Pee Ce 


seers sla eeeeeeee 


GL'OPE 00'SS ~—- |ee"g9 OS are 
09868 seeeessl0G'Ob § 100°TS 
cote Gees = (00 TP ~——« 00°08 
og'Sy OO'Ih |oL tr |09'F 
0g ae og'93 =: jOO'TE =: JOOS 
GUPLE  °|00°8 Gu'g 09% 
00°00T POOL SOOAN TON OfO) & 5 oes 
81'S60°S — |00°0T ‘69 |00°8 
on86 Sabo Ne aa 
OL FORT  |SPF9 “Iss 00'8 
919F6 Meaeteeslgyey se aseis 
OO'B9ETE |00°FS bee FE «00° 
00'S0E'T —|00°9T NeKepe IP ORS 
ORCL ea a oe 00" 6 
2°S6 68 00°8E 00:r 
08 PLT Gui6t |00°0L = 0ST 
GeCOL OO'FE OGLE 00's 
GL 00'ee |SL'8r {00'S 
GL ‘Gat 00'S 000% a 
OGSSEE JOGST OQ ORE |"° 
OF'099'8 = |ST GPRS |g4'sO9 [004 


seeeee 


GL'0GG 00°89 icc cmicesl[pecashetammens | (OCO.()) O9'LG = 09'T 0g'T 00°8 0g’ 00°66 = }09°S Rae ar tek og lee 
00°S6G GL'69 = 00°26 J09°8 ip eeenn| 00180 en OOF Ten | OS58. 0O'LZT 006 09° PS 00°ET Bbc Mets cake eee **‘KaT[BA Uooved 


00°06 — |00°8% ‘ sees KA TMO ULB PUTA 
cree Nera 00°SLY seer eeeeses “CGuno09 uopuo’| AON 


OG PS = |00'ST 00°6E 00082 00'S9T  |00'S 00°S9 = }00°29_— |00'0T 


QL'S88'T 
00'F9F loo'Fes log zITs lOO OLS‘T$ loo TSTS jogLIs jogst$ jog ozs jaz'cas 


GSSIL e$ 


4 b rd th B bt rs ta 2 4 © 5 Ey 
° Ss S) 2 4 ° ° i ® ° i= oe, = fe), 
P Sees udest i Beale tear Ue ices ena mel ey baa 2 
o se o tJ T°) fe 7 im 
o Fee ltmmress © : & @ = : B a a eS 
rome wn 5 2 EI 
ze | 3 , S) a ‘SALLAINOS 
| oO 
Re | ™ B 


‘MOOLS WUVA—'dIVd SHLLINLVUD GNV SWOINGYUd AO SISATVNV 


ATUITIES. 279 


ANALYSIS OF PREMIUMS AND GR 


1905. | 


Gz'098 
0g'8 
Olle 
GB'eE 
QS'FS 
GS 08T 
GL'LG 
Go'99$ 


00% 
00°F 
00° 
\00°T 

ne 


0g’ c0"s 
OO'FE GT 
CLG i 
QLs 100° 
NOM beet eset 
sce 
00'T 
0o'T 
L6G 0g T 
Se | 
o9T 


09 106 
COG 
cot LoS 
GLsé 
00°8 
00% 


‘sdoip 


jooy pus ures 
OF JUNOUIB [80,5 


*BUOLUO 
‘sdraainy, 


‘sjyonpoid 10y}O 


0g'9 


8% [caer |g" 


Goes ione$ gz 


00°T 


00° 


stew eee 


“+ 199°q 


_|se'66 


|gu'8% 


Bel aaa 
00°FF 
GB'6 
00°S 


teen eens 
teen mee 
seen eee 
sete ene 
seen wee 


0g°S0T 
00°TS 
00°CT 
G69 


seen nee 
sree eee 
seen 
settee 


99°8 
OG'P 


Oe 


oi Joo0 


see eee 


eee 


see eee 


We ae 
Goa 
he 
OS cats 
oe" 
08° 
og" 


oL'T 

09° 

Nea ca 
og" 

QL'T 


Go's 


seseeeeleeeeeeesl ager 


00°8 
en 
00°01 
00°01 
09°% 

CB 

00° 
09 
09°% 
Ore 
GOT 
Wie 
OLS 
QL'&3 
09" 

ce'P 
GBB 
00% 
09% 

SB" 
og'e$ 


My enn Reena 
00° 


sete eee 


0g" 


seen eens 


op eravetonstelsie 


eee eel eee eens 


teen eeee 
seen eee 
see e wees 


teens 


0g" 


rr 


settee 


seeeelag: 


au (08.08 


scenes 
00° 

Cora. 
Sparse 
eet nge 


Gh 


Qu" 


seen enee 


seen ene 
. oe 


00°T 


0g'cT 


sete eeee 


loge 
*"109°QT 
*"/00°P 
lon T 


QL°8 


serene 


MBL 


sereeeeslogear 
reseeeeslogie 
GL 


seen eeee 


0g'T 


anon 00’! 


retreeeelay rg 


sivg 


“sdru 


‘S.LONGOUd 


WYVA “CHONILNOO—'dIiVd 


"s0018}]0q 
“spaeg ssvry 


“yewoyMyoug 


“Aopregd 


"qvou AA 


‘U10D UBIPUT 


eee enee secee eI 00[O MA 
PODPLDOOOEIOLS yout} aera Wy 
visi sseieeieieie> “OTT 0B UNIT TTAL: 
pis\sigiereisiecseee's tC INGLOVBAL 
“S999 ‘s1eul0g) UoTUQ 
“**Coq9 ‘solu0yy) Toluy) 
ee ee ee eT ‘ppmug 
seeseesSeSuaridg ploygeig 
Waleiololeis\e elec ATTCBULS 
oe seis ere ise OTITAHOOT 
PORROUNOOIGO GING wtih irs f 
‘aduBlo 
sine sveeieieieisie'e.< oh MA GUMG NT 
sisieie ein secs “DAO TIVE ONG 
“*+**fyuno0D uaaABy MON 
ais loses wreiecler* eset STOR Te 
Siolejsisishei*)>5 5°11 (y) TTA pti 
eee ieee Se DIOS) 
‘qn[g Ayun0g pjeyueeiy 
slovaissniciereleieielsleie isl ORCC IE) 
 SKOTIBA WOUSUIMIB A 
DODD AOOORTOOO FEM TOL 
penne eee eee ‘raysaqo[0D 
efeloceerisiese a cise AOI SOI() 
HOODODODUOOOO oh onerh hts 
ISOOUDODOOOOHOGO A AAT Te 
seeceer estore A WOIBOT 
sere *fanoD wWBypUulM 
““unog wopuo’y Mon 


‘SaLLYIOOS 


SHILINLVYD AGNV SWOINGYd AO SISATTVNV 


[Jan., 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


280 


Seem ee eel awww sree ewer eewel sere reee 


“Iqyg6eg [°° 8 “00g ‘ulog ‘wu0D 

reeeeees lO agy g moulded “mU0D 
00°82 Feet aeeeeeteeees MIOOTO AL 
06°02, Peteeeeeesesss69Q01SD00M. 
Hairiienl RbSeroobceanat neg arn 


© cc cnce| ese] vccelecevcc|cccser|rcccvcrslivvo eee selene ssc pono oh epter re seen ewee 


cievalajwvatalellja¥ersth| |(alevalel|lefelereteuc|(einlevaiele'|\nvele'e/ ste s)s1](e's) a'plule/e)s|||sle(s1e18/o)s16|||o\e16)8 ele) |/sis)ere/n'era-m| 6.0) .e/e\e/6\p)|\ele\8 Sfwieie)(e)| 90) 6 °e1ui@)e ©)|\816, 016: 6he.0/8)//e/e/elsi 2,010.) 


CB OP DSGGOGOON she 3 SOOGOOI TA) t GS FL see ewe ee DOCOOON artes 5 00°E 0S'h Gee BODOMOOON SEPT 
GCF Cie |e linea | ee (tame OOO Graney OUR Om mm Saree, "109° 29T -|00°9 g6°9T 09% 00'P 00'0T 


COLL |8r (45 ||boSon||poogoDlppennaorT Gs Tee e eee sleeeeeslnngg, 00°9 00°L l00°% cececccelereseees 
00° 2g tt eeleseeleceecclocesslagiay 00°8% se eeceeslere es slang. [n0°eT 00°C weeeseerleceeseeslnaea 0g: 1e se eeeeeere sees CLINGIIIG 


G6 Ie a 03° 0G SL G66 00°8 06 PF 0ST 06° ee 00°% 00°6 * ***(998 ‘s10u108) worm 
GS 6T eeee SOON IDOOO GS OUOOOO era. 00°0T eee ewes viet 0019S 00'T 00°9 Cr es 00'T poslevelel Gere QL P * **(-070 ‘aO1UOW) UOIUQ 
Cle ewlcescleccelecccleccocaeleaevocelerasccucsl(eceeceocclecccsaccsiticoceasisesaevene| ss DOSOTEIO. GID O|BDUO OSD OCOOA0OD ONO Fad OSU D2GOOO0ID ay ey raqals| 
gL. 00°69 [OIE  jog9g 7" **** ‘s8urdg prope 
. Se ***<mqsullg 

‘100°& i eBsp 0a'Eh DRO GD ODREGORO OOO HY; OP 
Meetesec[ecseeslagyy  lqgepe  [rereeeeeeeeeeree* ‘rpm 
see eee a) CZ'E9 BODO RCIOEOO CIO SOU A162 (0) 
00'P 03'T ira § 00°9¢ sieiekestieSselecislehele-23° TT ANOY MONT 
re GOP 0¢'99 DOBDAR I OOCQOUY Ong gi MON 
“es9lQ0 78 loc'Gep |00°%E oceecons’* "OD TOABA MONT 
‘lap’ se tener CGP es Ce . -**TOSIpRyL 
re qc’ CaP OL'8T see www eee “8 TOJUTLMIG A 
loorg ewan locrer legtg  [itcteete ct teeeee es *pzogpmy 
"09S = |GB'9S CSOT =jOFLE = |“*qnTo Aryunop pleyueerg 
00°T SD OWODI vey 0a'g shelerslorsie/siziss|sielo store KO UUIC) 
“loos ft ttt tfgue = ogra 727 ASTRA WoysuyuLTE T 
"tt" 1Ge'eCL  |00°SLG__00'ST_|SBTFQ'T [00°08 = [Sk PUT 099 = 0G" OFE|00'6SE |Ge°ESh [ttt Kanqued 
ABOOOO 0°’ F CLES wee e rc eelereeee OLse LP G 2 Th 0Z'EL 0s" 00°F eee re rccesccece ‘aysaqoloN 
eeteee 00°LT cl'4 08'9T et ees 6° PS OF'OL OME oe oe . on in OF FS CPL OFS seen eee OILS C1112) (6) 
eeeeee DODD OOOH! fara gy OOO OUUOO DOUBLE Tani DOG shoretehelelsie) isketelanoiessie!| Cy) isey 00°8 0S'L CLOF . * ‘prlojuBig 
BOOOOG) OOOO Yet 4 BOSS OCOOTUODOO erty 00° CQ'TT 0c GUCIUODO Fes 0¢'F CLI 00°P se ee eeeeeeeee teres CITE 
8°11 ‘J-+++logree$ logven lgvzt |°7""'"/00"283 fogs (00°63 oor «= «OSE, = gt, = Ses jose | ce'e6 ft AOTIBA TOOK 
QG°ZGG_ [eet|rees[teceetjeeseee[erees*logeT |eg'er foo'z9 log'ozs loo'st joe's jour, loses loge$ [00 Se8joo'es, § fOLOLE [7°77 **yun0D weypUT AA 
sec eceesle es eeces BODO rye 9 0g'8$ *e***faun0D uopuoT MaN 


eC el RO rr 


GERGL | OGt lave slime eee meen (OO H0GL8) = /94iSs “8 "10G'19G [SST = |89°E 
OPGOL [orcciteetierceesieee tse lopeon fcc |tttcigz908 [00's 0¢'SI 
CES AG PEI SCO SSE SPSS} IBS ieee CORB TOsm| O58 O8'&T 
DOS [etic ooeTs GLa ge" sereecloxgor loge 6n'6 
7a) le oS CR) ed) Peseresleseeeeloguor  jog'g 0¢'0L 
OBL [rr tttetstetseefeseeeeleeeeseesloge ny seseeseleoreeslog ger log tr — |0G°SI 
0S'96 = (S68 OL'T “OR LP = 06 T 066 
00'9F (06 FT pe ede SIS) = NOS 00° 
OOF (06°8¢ ee eee 08:69 Sean. — |00;Si 
0g*4 |G6°E2 pee eee |S 0S 5 S9LG em OSE 
rete ee OQ IT teeeeees|ereee lagen ane Cae 
reese QnGT teteeeesleeeeeslagag ggg 00°¢ 


ee we wel ewe else eels 


QTL 
06°09 
06°66 
GL" 08 
09° LT 
OL’ ST 
SB TFO'T | 
G6 83 
GOP 
ce" Th 
09° GT 


S 
= 
xt 
BB 


ueXO 
agooqO 
rayng 


‘snoou 
JO suIviy, pus 


-B][208TN [BIOL 
“worTq 


qx yB Surmolg 


“spuo0[diqd | 


‘SHILHIOOS 


*sjuotue[d 
WIG [BIOL 


“WY [viIn}[NIISVy 
‘sjonpold 


‘qIndg podAros 


puv sjiy oulg 
S 
-aig ‘dnidg ‘ivsng 


S1IBO po}v10d0q 
‘OBO pus pwoig 
‘XBAA pue AoUORL 


‘VIqIXY esuviy | 


-HOAUT [BOIUBQOOT 
‘sdoig "309 10410 


‘sapomzy AouRyT 


‘SQOUNVITHOSIN GNV SLONGOUd WUVA ‘“GEONILNOO—'SAILINLVUD AUNV SWOINGHd FO SISATVNV 


EXHIBITED. 


=. 
» 


NUMBER OF ANIMAL 


1905. | 


seen 
eee teense 
teense 


COP 


GG 
6 


"018 JOYIO [LV 


“OUIMS 


*(sdooo) A1y[nog 


‘daays 


*SOSIO]] 
*(suivd) uaxO 
“SMOD TOTAL 


“***390]8POO M 
ee er *SOTPUBUITTEM. 
ed *£INGIO}E AA 
POHDO DOGO IO OTOD GON OD COW Aaa Upe yrs al=p yea) Aaya 
POP OS HO QDI DOP OSIADODOIGOOOL Ca te) Yo} ga (oy) 419) 19C0) hogy 
AP aN cane nine pe COSA ILO Wa et OOURS +) yn it sy 
HCD OO DDOBEIBUARIBOOG CHO OOOOCO CUR Iii ated s| ei Cohad a 4 
wees slehehessicirisiels icleleletoisiaiss sie cceleleher-loleies Se KIN SULTS 
Be PROSE OC ORE CRO OD OREO OR ERAN OCR SOU) i108: lope f 


on ederenedeis)ojcieloiskene sicieleic/#ieloie/eiclsiezsleveieisie/sce- esis seen ira til Tey: 


pee ererecenscees 


ed ‘950810 


Piciessasioloxelodsvalshelase/aiciszelejelelnlzrateie\s/sisiaiainieleiem cry AK On AAG)NT 
DOGG 9 IO 2 don Hatin oUDUG OD SSG DOODUDDOLAL angi eA IAL 
ies Jorsihels GielelsiniclssoieTnre el seicelereLeCATITIO (ALONG LIRA Ni 
see POUBOD ISDS DOO OORSO ORS ICAO IOQOD IY GI] go) hy if 
eee ee mee et eee eee eee ne sewn ** TOJUIMIB]T 
sleleselsteleheols theleiseleteierellocey eles emcee TTT IG) 
aodo0 sreereerereceseestanry AIWUNOD plsyuseIy 
Be OR COCO NERO AOR OT Ua fk RES) 
ichsierejeieisivieleicisielelaiticlvieiniewie sree orrmaiACTOUSULULT EH: 
UDR TOOCORSONI ORG OOD ORG RO OSODO GOMOD OHOG Mia tehai LOL 


sizinseieiit)¢)*\¢S TT TIO Cf 
soe“ KOTIBA TOOBO 
*“KqanoD WBypulAA 
pices: sseheleielsieisisleieieivicieisleicerete eel KATO SG) uopuoT, MON 


“SHILAIOOS 


‘F061 — GCHLIGIHXH STVWINV WO HHdWON 


[Jan., 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


282 


000° 
69L°8 
00ST 
009'F 
00s*s 
TeLT 
000'9 
000°86 
000°LT 
000°8 
000‘0T 
000°2 
006° 
092 
009'T 
000°ST 
000° 
109°9 
006°% 
OOM 
9T3'S9 
OOP 
002 
00g°¢ 
00S TT 
000°P 
008° 
000°0F 


62006 


008 
gon" 
000° 


BBE'6 
Oe 


00s‘é 
000°9 
000'F 
000‘T 


00¢°T 
00¢*s 
096 
006 
QOe'T 
000'¢ 
989° 
006 
OOL'T 
SPS ‘OT 


eee 


006'T 
god's 


000% 
0009 


sea sieisheneisiniesefessieiclesse 7) en Gy 


cee BU COOOOOOOUG - wares its Ys 
eeee seeees * %-1E-0G ‘ydag 
SL [IIgs ie-os e068 


‘13 “qdeg 
eeee eestor Te dog 
Oe ee es ‘op 490 


atari sl oes aes fue cere. 
eee te seeeestay oe e dog 
evee reese “ydag ‘te “SUV 
000‘9 eee erences ‘y-9-G ‘dog 
eeee se eeeee *8¢-9¢-L& dag 
eeee SODGODOSOAONT tar ire] | 
voce seeeeseecetnT a8 ‘AON 
mi eee eeeeesansotetg "996 
eeee eee ween ne TOOLS NAY O) 
eeee ae lelesis sisiels's i Gana dog 
as : * BB-16-06 “Ydeg 


sees 211° ' "eee -adag 
SEO ROO DOORS CVs S| 
ce eee trees oa a 
BORO TODUEACOOAD OUT mayo) 


eeee praiibseleiaieiece elereCigie “adag 
Trt 188" "08-68-88-26 “3dea8 
foe wanaepeceseeateanues 


sineeirie aT 10) 
sees Ryaieisjehetstaists ‘9-1-9 ‘qdag 
SDOOUOCCL ay ee eared ¢ 4dag 


sislcisieieieniseese'eena ODT OVAAY 
soee9's0018P00M. ‘og 
ee serene ‘ONUBULTT[TM, 


BODE COQOOOL 4 1X0 RNA AU F 


pl checrsaneiepee seer SISULOS 
PEGOOUOCOG oCaylehequhegel sf 
CSRUROD OE RO 0) c)raqars| 
sees sSaridg psoyeyg 
BORDQSD GOGO § aa Fath CS 
eee ee OT TAS OOS 
beeeeeeeseeee Supa 
FIDE OO MOD SOO Y 11 C20) 
HOODEO GOOG POWUNG) AE 
eee LOT TLIAL MON 
“reese UATE MON 
POL OR DODO O19 Oh 141 
Fees eeeees STOTUTAIBET 
PODSOP OOOH ONL oh Cop gga a) 


"TTL plagaoedp) 
teeeereretee ss Co apap 


"aT [FASUT[[OD 
DESPA GO OODOORH NFA RTO 


“*‘TaysaqO 
**piojunig 
SLO Fi 
ed ‘yonqBoneNn 
Oe amen TT ATS OOL St 

teers ++ UOTMION 


ee ee reer eeee sieiis o\ereisielsicie FAA ODT OMNI 
Si earigie eeierele(ei2*2)2 SS HOOII DO OMA 
ee eo “‘O1PUBUNTT TM 
ey eee velo ceisie “AINGIOVG! AA 
ee ORD COE Fh ite) ‘s1auI10g) uo1ug, 
BU eB OL Casi) ‘g01u0Jq) LCoargal 
See eS We ae eee tee DIOLS 
SOOO OS COO reir gece (s| pi0y3ig 
doled ttre HOR OOOO DCO. TCs (ast S| 
"e's *TIOIVBIOOSSY IIB] O[[TAHIOY 
“sees TONBIDOssSY Yivgd weujnd 
si aiele ols sieierore eseserereeieiesstessiee'1 3 BIO) 
re ee weer “TU MOTMAN 
Pee 0 Sie esrole one eeirie ee DAO TTNSAN® Nit 
sisteieleersinis clelesie KATO udAB]T MON 
Sie gs ea eo ee emer UOST DG Al 
ee ** TOJUIMIB]T 
FOTO COOLS TION ok Cong | C105) 
seeeeesss Song AIQUNOD pleyueeip 
or ame Ae EIS UI OUOOY Na he (si 0 5 
ee ee? * *KaTIVA UOPSULOLIB YT 
see eee eee PO DODO IOSOHAD OOM HUG | 
“***Taqsaqyo[OD 
“sees SraqsaqO 
eeeee sieteiphene eleiese's seissenele.ds<" DIO TUBIT 
Srafetefereisiecsiceje/eieisisiaie/se essere ceie)2 SULT TIO en 
seeee sterecisieioisie tiie SS KOTTBIAG uooveg 
Tee eeee <2 -AIUINO WRU PULA 
sTeichoieiececeisierets CKAUINOG uopuo'y MON 


“TRIOL 


“ABPANYRS 


“ACPI 


Avpsiny.L 


“Aep 
-S9Upd AA 


‘Aepsou 


‘SONVONGLLY 


“ABpPUOTL 
‘aALVd 


‘HOVIg 


‘SHLLAIOOS 


‘P06I— LONOILOUNNOO 


NI SUlVa TVYNLTOOIDV 


1905. | 


OFFICERS OF CONNECTICUT STATE GRANGE. 


P. B. Sretey, Danielson, . : : : Term expires 
J. H. Hate, South Glastonbury, a 
H. F. Porter, North Haven, 
O. 
lal 


CONNECTICUT PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. 


OFFICIAL DIRECTORY 


OF THE 


CONNECTICUT PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY 


FOR 1905. 


Master, O. S. Woop, Ellington. 

Overseer, B. A. Prcx, Bristol. 

Lecturer, L. H. Hearey, No. Woodstock. 
Steward, F. P. JoHNson, Warren. 

Assistant Steward, H. W. Anprews, Brookfield Center. 
Chaplain, Rev. F. CountryMAN, North Branford. 
Treasurer, N. S. Pratt, New Haven. 

Secretary, H. E. Loomis, Glastonbury. 
Gate-Keeper, E. F. Hurcuinson, Andover. 
Ceres, Mrs. NELLtiz A. Cooke, Hamden. 

Pomona, Mrs. Carrie A. Eaton, North Haven. 
Flora, Mrs. Hattie J. Mitton, Plymouth. 

Lady Steward, Mrs. May K. Taytor, Lebanon. 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 


“ce 


“ce “ee 


S. Woon, ex officio, .. ; « ee 
E. Loomis, ex officio, . ‘6 


H. C. DunHAm, Middletown. 


FINANCE COMMITTEE. 


G. A. Hopson, East Wallingford. 


283 


1908 
1906 
1907 
1900 
1900 


J. H. BrakemMan, Oronoque. 


284 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


COMMITTEES FOR to0s. 
WomAN’S ‘ones. 


Mrs. Mary W. Puiprs, Prospect. 


DEPUTIES. 


Central Pomona, No. 1, Husert S. BLAKE, New Britain. 
Quinebaug Pomona, No. 2, C. H. Porter, North Woodstock. 

East Central Pomona, No. 3, ANDREW KiNcspury, Rockville. 

Mt. County Pomona, No. 4, J. H. Putnam, Litchfield. 

New Haven County Pomona, No. 5, W. S. Hine, Derby. 

New London County Pomona, No. 6, C. E. Srapies, Colchester. 
Excelsior Pomona, No. 7, F. M. CANpDEE, Naugatuck. 

Seaview Pomona, No. 8, E. H. Wricut, Clinton. 

Fairfield County Pomona, No. 9,.W. J. Woop, Westport. 

Hou’t’ic Valley Pomona, No. 10, H. S. MoorEHousE, Amenia, N. Y. 


Boarp OF ARBITRATION. 


The Executive Committee, Overseer, and Lecturer. 


Tue Patrons’ MutTuaAt Fire INSURANCE COMPANY. 
President, Gzo. AUSTIN BowEN, Woodstock. 
Vice-President, D. H. Carrier, Glastonbury. 
Treasurer, B. C. Patterson, Torrington. 
Secretary, Cuas. E. Bacon, Middletown. 


LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE. 


O. S. Woop, Chairman, Ellington. 
J. H. Hare, So. Glastonbury. I. C. Fanton, Westport. 
C. S. Hype, Brooklyn. J. C. Eppy, Simsbury. 


TELEPHONE COMMITTEE. 


N. S. Pratr, New Haven. 
W. S. Hine, Derby. ANDREW KINGSBURY, Coventry. 


285 


GRANGE DIRECTORY. 


‘armjug MON ‘Appx 90N'T OTN ‘8 
ud yoourg ‘surpyneds “JE UV[VT Sst 
“UMOJ[PPIW “LON *A\ SIUUBA Sst AL 
‘uopuoT MON ‘UAATTG "HV 
*yOOISpooAA ‘pIqO *S§ AsounvyD 
ulBlig MeN ‘edieyg “A a SA 
‘UBBUBO MON ‘UBIING “DO WBITITA 
“QUB'T JOATIS ‘WABUIG “OD 994O[1BYO SBT 
“CUBYUING dlsuy “SIL 

‘UdAB]] UWON ‘WoHooIg “yy WOLAW 
“MOJURD ‘a8BO O}JOUUY “SIL 
“PIOJSUL[BM ‘GSnoH “Y V10[ FT 
*[[BMUIOD 499 AA ‘O[[TAODG S9TIN “ST 
*JO}SOOUB] YINOG ‘slwooyT “_ Aou90 37 
‘puepyong ‘Aamo BsOY ‘S SSI 
‘UOPLO ‘UBUISSOID “WT “O SSTIT 
‘plewmns ‘Apoow “a audrey 
“CINQUOYSELH "OS ‘19 (TAL “A AON'T ssi 
“UOYSUITINOY “aiqsq “WW 

‘ulplog ‘ABMUINYS “A AL 

‘alrgsoyO ‘AinqpooM ‘(1 ‘A 

‘mouRrge’y ‘Z1[Nd ‘DO UeUION 
T0|SUOT, ‘A[IEQUIS “WM 
*pleyaoorg “Ae, MOY “f UBOLIO yy 
yoda "ysvAA ‘plod “Cf YOMepoiy 


“quay ‘99d “S “A 

‘anbouoiO SUBUIAyB(_ “MH ONION “SIAL 
“UOSIPRAL ‘ULUg ouesng “| 

“finqioje Ay ‘Guodiss1d [BH BVuuy si] 
‘uouvga’y ‘240d "TO 

‘WOAH UWON ‘WIIG “J 1B9sO 
*poisura ‘Aisaq “Gg Inqyy 

*UMOISTIIH ‘IoMoig *f BINB'T “SI]T 
‘mosjarusqg ‘Aeq ‘WM 

“UMOJOIPPI ‘Woovg “Hf ‘svyO 


‘kUVLANOES 


‘To}SUIMON ‘SHOOT ATE 
‘udpqooig ‘mwos}oig “gq Ydosor 

SUMO} [PPI ‘TPMOID BIBID “BIL 
‘mopuo’y MON ‘UAAT IG ‘G “fC “SIAL 
‘yoojspoo M ‘surpredg ydesor 
‘UIRILIG MON SUBULIEYS 95.109 “SIL 
‘uxpurg MON “C'd AOR prvaMoH “£ 
‘Que’ JOATIS ‘10}80'T “A 9OUOIMB’T 
‘noiduv yy ‘prpeyqowy Aiwyy “8.11 
‘pIOJSUL[VAA “PSIOP “OD Aue 
‘QT[TASUT[TOD ‘WOSUYO? YRIVS “SIL 
‘OT[IASO[BA ‘SouIVg "}{ O[}IVH SIT 
TTRMUIOD *"M ‘NVA A WOqBzi[H SIL 
‘Jo|SaOUBIL ‘OG ‘SIUIOO'T “FY BIBI SST 
‘aUTAOoY ‘ouvy “W ALMGL SST 
‘apleyl Wynog ‘saAyT AIVP “SI 
‘aoya[deyq ‘soyIs 1nqqsy 
‘£InquO}sBly) ‘TOWIBO UBL 
‘a[[ASquB[d ‘[[Md “H erudey? “sayy 
‘ulpleg ‘ploMslip “JT e1uueyy 
‘arrysoyO ‘1edolg “T BA ‘SI 
‘aourgey ‘olde, MN HH ‘SII 
‘UOISUIIIOT, ‘YOU AIBN “SIS 
‘ppygmoorg ‘Woy MA “W ATIC 
Yodaq “4st AA ‘Y1B[O BUUY “SI 


. 


‘ottaurdsyy ‘sdjaud “§ *0 

‘aUvBUNO MON ‘UYOL YS Bl[OISA “SIT 
‘cnUBsSIY ‘IOUUTS 4) WOIA 
‘ysonyeoueNy ‘plojsuvg vied ‘S81 
‘mopuoy MaN ‘WOATIG “Gd “L 
‘proyourye A “WeTTY “dV “0 “SU 
‘ppyuoWy ‘mvoyng "HL 

UOISOITTA “WapInL YT oauey “S11, 
‘1938qo M ‘UOSTIGOY “W ormuser 
‘uoyd mae Sel ‘TIVH *V PlZZ1T “BAN 


“ATH OLOnT 


‘aInjag MON ‘o0NyT “T sapivyo 
‘uApyoorg ‘apreed “GW AOde'y 
‘UMOJ[PPTA “SABC WL ‘8BU0 
‘dOpuoT MON ‘WOATID “A “Lf 
‘0013poo MA INOS ‘sT[9M VLA 
‘uInjuag MON ‘SMoIpaY “MM 410q0Y 
‘aeBuBy MON ‘suUIBpYy “q UIA pi 
‘oue'T IdATIG ‘AOS “Y BaLIvYO 
‘uojduvy ‘opjivod ‘W ulsny 
‘gT[TAMOJUT[O Sea[SeyVIT “N 95.1094) 
‘aojuny ‘se[Morg uyor 

‘AT[TASO[BX ‘PABIM “S “A 

T[BMMIOND 389M 'H9Ad VL APPV SS 
‘lajsoqouvyy “§ ‘Aouaey “A UOljUVIBIY 
‘Suidde A ‘SUT[[OD PABA PH “Lf 
‘maeplowW ‘MOIgsIq, “VY YUuBs iy 
‘royal dey ‘SOAS ‘GC Plwmoy] 
‘£anquoyseyy) TNO ‘ale Prpusys 
‘oT [lasyuB[g ‘Wyouueg "H 'd 

‘UIdagl ‘P[OMSTID “1 85.100%) 
‘ailysoyp ‘yyouueg *§ perj[V 
‘uounqe’y ‘24nd "T 0110 
‘mo]SUIIIO, ‘SMIBPVAA WMadN 
‘pjaymoorg” ‘ap ‘tosuery "TL 
‘yodead “YSBM ‘TIMoAy “¢ qdvy 


‘quoy ‘JWeOUTA “VW WOqTID 
‘yiodespig ‘sieog “q od100H 
‘uostpey ‘Aes(oy ‘qd qdesor 

‘s[[B,q Woovog ‘90TY "T uyor 
‘aousqoy] ‘I0[ABL “N 

‘OULIVD “WA SUBUAyIGg “fe JoUNNg 
‘ppopyovy ‘dioqy “T poly 
‘oTTIAyooy ‘Ainqssury Meipay 
*1aisqaM ‘UOsUIqoY IBISO 
‘UMOJIPPUN ‘uvyung p Ame 


‘ 
‘ 


nee 


m+ 


Noww oro 


- 


Or ‘ON 


$0] dUTMONT 
‘udp yoo? 
“qoss0qRIqV IL 
‘QouULOmUOy 
“axoueg 
‘W141 
‘ueeuvp MON 
‘PLOFWABVH ISVEL 
“‘IOATY OIL 
‘MOAB WIION 
‘BSBMBY 

‘plop suly[e MA 
‘T[BMUIOD YON 
‘Ia saqous Ay 
‘Budde AA 
‘Tepe y 
‘plemus 
‘£inquoyse[y 
‘moldy, 
“alod 
‘airyseyO 
‘uouBqe'T 
‘odoxL 
‘SIXUn, 
‘ToJSUIYSe MA 


‘SHONVUD ALVNIGUOUNY 


OT ‘euowog Adv A O1U0}BsNo 
‘guowlog AyunoD plegsRA 


‘BUOULIOd MOIABIS 


‘euOUloOg JOIS[POXtL 
‘guoulod ‘0M WOpuoT MIN 
*guomlod ‘OM WeABH AON 
‘guowmog Ajunog UreyUNO_L 
‘BuomOd [BIJUED ISBiL 
‘euomog sneqauint 


‘gsuoulod [®1jUeD 


“SHDNVULD) VNONOT 


ULLSV IL 


“SILV NC 


‘SHONVUYD AHL JO SUMOIMAO 


a yodoq Aoudayg ‘moyayg *O UMP ‘odoq soudeyg ‘rBpoulg “xoly “odeq Aoudayg ‘uvmi0yg “TH | ‘G6 ‘kuowse 
a ‘yuoya ‘dny[eyO “H 19487 SST ‘Sjuoyg ‘dnyeo “op Arey ‘Sal | + ‘yuoyy ‘dnyeo wordg “of | - ‘68 ‘UOT 
Re ‘UMOJSI[IH ‘aMorg “Of oe ‘81 ‘TAOIST(LA “SITU OLIVE ‘SA ‘UOSIPPY ‘puBLyOIWIS “HO ‘sBqgQ | ‘Lg ‘MMO 78 [1H 
—— “AN ‘uolug tiuemy ‘peo “qd “AH ‘AN ‘doluneruomy TI epuny ys “XN ‘uoluy) Bideuly ‘soyeyD “se | ‘98 ‘yoningaM 
“OLPUBUTTTTLAA *19}}0d “FL U9[OH] SST ‘AIQUBAOD “OG ‘9IV8NYO [9UIW SsslW ‘AIWUBAOD ‘OG ‘[[NquUINT “Wy PIABCE | ‘GB ‘AuBquUNsUB MA 
“UdABTT yeRgy ‘Aods “fl “Wh ‘UdABLT ISVET ‘SPOOM “MN SS8U ‘UdABT] ISUT ‘SSTUUBID “CV ‘b8 ‘UOxoy 
*Yoorqa[o9 ‘doaqyioN uefa “S “sa “poqsur AA “SIT “A STUUTTL S81] ‘poIsulA ‘USTTV “UML | ‘38 ‘yoo1qa[op 
PloywWug ‘UaTOBO| 95.100H ‘onbouolg ‘UBWOoyBI_ "q Yursy ‘plOf{BA}G ‘190d “Y 951094) | ‘61 ‘o1u0;RB8snOL 
*IIISOYO[ON ‘SUOMI “C OVA ‘BAT ‘raysayo[oO ‘Molasiqg AVI SAIL ‘1ajsoyolon ‘Wo Nd “yY SewVBe ‘Sh ‘Ja]saq9[09 
“UO}UT[D ‘ps ‘AOS[OS “HE UUVIT[LAA ‘U0JUTID ‘YOOd “A “W UOT SST “MOJUTLO “JUSTIA “H UPMpY “Lh *a0jUI[O 
“IOAOPAY IO[[UA “WH PIBiLLAL ‘OAOpuy ‘SUTYIed “WV VINE Sslfy ‘roaopuy ‘fetdop ‘Ww uyor | ‘gL ‘IOAOPUy 
*AIJUBAOLD) ‘AINGSSULYT “f O1UUBYT BST ‘AIUIAOD ‘SUIYMBET “GY WRIT AL ‘atIayooy ‘Arnqasury ‘q ugor ‘Qh ‘£I{UdAOD 
‘pojsat AA ‘Aorqdurnyy "YT pawpapy ‘Y[OJION ‘S([VQQLL 89d "BIN *powsuL My ‘aay “4H ANGI M | “Pe ‘1a}SoqOur MA, 
4 J PLOTUN MIBLO “s aBL00p “pIOJ(UM “PAvad “N JQ rV “pLOSTW “198Id “N HUCIY ‘Sh ‘IOATY UBIpUul 
(ea “now Ad “ONG “HIP SSA ‘qnouldT ‘stow “e USMY ‘qnoud[d ‘puvlaad[oO “AA J4aq1oH] ‘ed, ‘yynouls| 
fa “AINGAIBM UOd1aIg [[VH BUUY “SI ‘aN G19}v MM ‘BSVO SoLBy ‘Kanqaoye Ay uodiet_ “f anyyry nie, ‘IOALY PBI 
=) “AINGAIUBY ‘OF ‘YAV[O *“N ToT |‘Arnqso]uryO ‘g ‘SMOLIN "T 90BID ‘SIAL ‘Kinqiopuny ojuediwg "N januray | ‘oy ‘£ainqiajyuey 
i : 2 "aod wey ‘IH}O W Spaeny ‘uo}d wey “[LeQuityy BAT BAIL ‘puvljoog ‘Moysivg “A ‘dd ‘69 Yaxonjeys 
5 [PMUIOID ‘prvqquH "W oIBEL SsIW [JOEMULOID ‘VSBE O[[O_ “SAW ‘TTeMULOID ‘SMOLIVG "WW BIT “19 ‘[[OMULOID 
oO “MOJUTL) ‘SIAR “W 8B ‘SII, ‘TINUBSSI{ ‘WGNB AM BYWO” ‘SA] TunuRssly ‘qoueAA “4 Wong ‘99 *qIOMBUT[IM. 
peat ‘uosdwoy,y, ‘La[Ss1e "FE UO[YBIL ‘uosdwoi,y ‘[[epuey “Wf AodpBA ‘uosduoyy ‘sopouyy eyoreaq "q | ‘¢9 Sosstyeuuine 
[o4 8110}9 ‘UOJUTD VW “T *s110}G ‘UOSMINS “AA UY ‘BLIOJS “IP ‘SSULDPIOIS “VM at ‘ppoysusyy 
o “PPVOPPUL “Wopooy “W BIBlO “SI *PIPBOTPPHA “AOUNA “A 99BI SsIW ‘PPYSIPPIN ‘suowmugy ‘qd uowly | *¢e9 “plevelPPUN, 
4 *O[[IASUTT[O) ‘S8Bpsno(y “4H Aq EL ‘oy[lAdayeg ‘ouvy "W opNniqWoy “s1jT ‘suvdan ‘qyIMyoog ‘OD | ‘eo “ByoIUgL 
ie UOLSUIQY ‘espvg "TJ vuuy “si ‘I9JUVO JoupMoOd ‘UMOLT “Of OIA TT ‘LoIsUIGY ‘UysnvA UOJMON “¥ 19 ‘ued JIOM 
re) “plojsyseq ‘qiley VY VT ‘Sa ‘plosysvR ‘1opUNdIBH * OOITW SSUW ‘plo j seq ‘UBUUTOH “9 pavAd ‘09 ‘oxe’T [esi 
*yoomq Ass ‘aISuPVOI “AH BPl 81 *yoomq deg SyxAvl[O "gS AIv IL “BAIA ‘yoorq deg ‘1oyVyO “M “dV ‘6S ‘yooig Ag 
Q *plOj IVA 189M ‘psBuUBIS "Vv “H ‘projyvyy ys9 AA ‘AoAIBET “AA “TD ‘pioJJAV YT 189M SUOSIOplLY “A *¥ ‘RG *plojjIBH 189 AA 
ss ‘IOSOYO[ON ‘SWVITIM “W'S |‘Weppry ysvy ‘uoys[ap “VW Wvivg ss | ‘weppeyy oq ‘UBU SUT "MA W10q 0% ‘9G ‘ureppey Isey 
O ‘ploPRys ‘opy siqqy ‘Si ‘ployess “UOsp a [OQBIAL SBITAL ‘soundg pioyeyg ‘pourv'y “WL ‘ag ‘ploysys 
~Q ‘OTTAUIB[T “ound “AM “BIW ‘OTAULB[ “avy ABW ‘OTAUTRT “TOTAL “SH ‘$g ‘a[[Aule[d 
O[[TAOOV “SBULSL “OL OTUUOP “SAT ‘Jo]U9O WOUIOA 480d “M HMeaqly ‘OTPAMIOY ‘do1gye’'T ‘_ 14010Aq "EG ‘UOU1d A 
“pusloL ‘uoyespy “N WApA ‘8.17 ‘pUuL[[OL ‘Go}osSpy VLOULT “S “BAI “O[[LAMIOY ‘pooy °O wopAvI) ‘TQ “‘purlloL 
“UMO}O[PPIW ‘SIPPY AIVIL “SITAL ‘UMO}ZO[PPUN ‘UBUPILOY “HA ‘UMO}O[PPHAL “TITUS “WY prBMpH ‘og “PIeuI89 MA 
‘To\stg ‘Av[pvig “EH pl(eqiyo1y ‘O[[TA]SAIOWT ‘WUNDOTS ‘qd Ydasor ‘To\slg *ployAVyH “Wf pavapy | ‘8p ‘OTTTASI AA 
U0I[0g ‘AIIM ‘MW OPUBI Sst ‘ao}[og “ape ‘sIMOOT "NO ‘LP. ‘moyog 
"UOPSUTL[T “SAV “WW somes: ‘TOPIU[T ‘oPAVYD ‘WW slurs ‘UOISAIT[ A ‘WoJUeA “YT Uosie yy ‘Op ‘m0ysUll[A 
u0g — SHONVUD ALVNIGWOITAS 
= — — ———— — \e 
*“AUVLAMONY, "HHUN LAT ‘MALS VIL ‘aNYN 
9 = ——— = 2 SSS = = 
N aHONIINOD —SHONVUD AHL FO SUAOIMAO 


287 


1905. | 


*q10dqso Ay ‘Ao[pRig *O anqqwa4y 
*ploOjWLIS ‘UYLY ‘WY VUUIG “say 
“LinqsaiwAy 'sddiyd “AM Adv “81 
“MdYysOH ISAM “ISNA “CL BLOT SBT 
‘S[[Ry WOoveg ‘uoJING oUUL “S.1]T 
‘2 pleyNHooig ‘Yaopuaseg "AA “CSS 
“plPVUIv[d ‘UOsMOTIIWN “HV 
“sinqyynog ‘ppup *g 1nqLy 

“UBBUBD YSRAT ‘UOSUTOL "AO 

“AIBA WOIBYS ‘91099 “qf UATOAT SST 
*‘jrodespiug ‘apvursulg "AY “UA 
*ploguiegy ‘uMoIg Huey 

UdlIG MA ‘SULYIOd Sa[IByO 

RIQUINOD SIO] [NT “ BILOULY SSL 
“HO}[OYS ‘10] S00 MA “'T IOUS SSTIN 
UMOJMON ‘ANION “FW OMI Sst 
_ Aqsoq ‘OUIF{ *S 199 BAL 

“OngNVN ‘OpleM “A Plow 
“£INGPOOAA ‘ON ‘SOUIVE O19IVIAL SSITL 
‘ueruRy “Og ‘uOla[pudd “MW SIO'T “S11 
‘unuRssIy ‘ing ‘QO suesny 
“YOOIqIsaM “PIQQId “DO PIV 
“UMOJOIL MA SUOMON VIBE SSTIT 
“woyalqiog ‘Aol0d *M 09%) 
“uosIpey ‘Aosloy “W VIIA “SII 
“HOISBULOY,T, ‘WOILYS “AA [90L 
‘PIeUTMON ‘uapsivg “y o0Ue10,y Sst 
roary dao ‘Aatpnd “W B1O[ AT “SAL 
‘joWsug ‘sulyleg "V ‘(0 Ais ‘SII 
‘TtH Ayo0y ‘uappeg “T pel 
“pleysioyIOM “ps ‘slam AsTpad 
‘dnsooj,q ‘uosiopurs “¥ ol[aed i “SIT 
* -qosjaung ‘eq BIA “O SSA 
“moyduiRyy WBiT ‘MOU BSINO'T SSI PL 
‘OTIAISA MA “Aayooog *O Aora'T 
“PPVINT ‘qun(d “WH VPI ssi 
“si0ul0g *AIOAY “CA 

*yONYBSNCN ‘AITMO “O WL 

‘adulidg ploynig ‘ouMoy, ad.1095 
“QMOMS[A ‘958d WM 

*[oulIVD “AIT ‘uund sBuloy,y, 
"OIMION ‘OS1OTT “AA “A 

4q oasnoyeie A ‘do}TSNOIS “WM ‘SUA 
“OMURUNT TAA “OUeTT “WW UCN “BI 


‘yrodqso AA ‘SoTperg *O angry ‘81 
*pPIOPULRIG WAV AA "OH 2Ip’S Ss 
“AINGIIIB AA “PLOMSLUY [ORIN “SILL 
‘ueyson SUOSTO 91}10T SSTIN 

‘STIR Woowed “poo “W Inq y 
‘ajuoD pleyyooig “swei(LAd *T SSO 
‘nroyureld ‘Aafay[ng oieaN ssi 
*AINGIIPE AM SPOOMFY BOUT 

‘auvuvg seul ‘suaaoig ‘W AIBA SSA 
‘uomnys Soule BUG SST] 
Qr1odespiuqd ‘s{fouoIN *\L e1ouly 
‘pyle ‘Sury “A Sn4gr[o 

‘OSPUG [][BMULOD SULAIvIL YBIBS “SIAL 
‘BLquIn[oOD ‘uURyRy] “Y ozo, y 
‘UOJ[AYS ‘UoO,ays “OM UO 

‘UMOIMON ‘WIIG ‘q UOstilV 

‘Kqiaq ‘oulfft “S 107[BAA “SIAL 
‘Kanquoysey[y ‘Jog “AA ABA 
‘kanqpoo M ‘AdTTOYS “WW [EVOL 
“OSBITLA SITPAL “TBO “W O119N SS}IAL 
‘unuRss iy ‘faspoyy OMepoay 
‘yooi1qise AA SUOYeH{ “A eluUay “SIW 
“UMO}IOIBM SWIG 90BlhH “Gg “BIL 
‘moyaTqog ‘Wag Baylog “SAL 
‘LOSIPR HY “YUIIWS “A 

‘aosVMOyL, “USM AA avy “SIL 
*‘PLPUUWON ‘99d T BILO'T SST 
‘IOATY deal ‘Wal poulmo Ff] "| OMe por 
‘fost ‘SUIqqoy “AA BUPA “BAT 
TE Ayooy ‘tour Ad OTUURY “SIL 
“‘ployssoty ya M “SUIQQOr BPL “SI 
ASU “OS WSBYSUITILL “VW 
‘uosjalueg ‘349[[9d “MA Ay 
‘roydwey yee ‘SuoS ALIVE “BIT 
‘OT[LAISA AA ‘ANSUY “qd sopawyo 
‘ppPyyoryT ‘uvujnd “Hf 

‘sIOULOS SAIOAY “Of CANB'T “SIT 
‘yonjeanen ‘ssD[qojOH “V “MA 
‘piojusV WON ‘prvaoy ‘gq sourN 
‘aspug [[wauloy) tuvudvyyO "T “si 
‘fOULIVO “I ‘SojV_ Zauy “8.1 

‘S)L) (amor “loul[ed WL V 

“4d asnoyeaie MA ‘uosdwoyy, “WW ‘i 
“‘ONUBUITT[LAA ‘WoUad iy “Y soUe10L,T SSI} 


*q10d189 AA ‘SPUL[MOY “qd JOUVM 
‘oyupsuridg ‘sajawg snsiAO 
SAINGAIAV AM ‘PlOMBIUD ‘AA JOU A 
‘qo suo, “A SA[OQUITY “M TWIB yy 
‘S[[ Ry UOOROG SAVIO °S IWIUI 
fatpraAAot Mey ‘Ao[MBEL “G VdUIIeTO 
‘plogureyd ‘adeeiy “Y 1ouIn 
‘Kanqpoo M ‘euvaiy “yi Inqay 
‘ULBURD ISBIT ‘VDUIIMV'T PIBMOTT 
‘uoreyg ‘UI[WRE ‘_ 951005 
‘ynquinay ‘woweg ‘qf Jang 
‘plelarey ‘SyuB_ PoomMIDYS 
UddIB A SUOTTO AA UUBIT[ TAA 
‘RIqUIN[ODH ‘eyIBID ‘N Ydesor 
‘uoTaYYG ‘ssuULUUAP "A “SvyD 
SUMOJMON ‘doruION *¢ uyoLr 
‘osuRig ‘YaBiO ‘q anqwy 
‘Kanquoysrvpy ‘qytag *q A139 
‘Kinqpoo A ‘WOUIYS “N iMyWVy 
‘OBRIILA STR “910Spol_ “T SattW 
‘UUUBaSIT ‘Wos~RD “g JsnsNnYy 
‘xoo.1q}so MA ‘AOS[AM “WL OVIOA 
TIMO}IOIR A ‘AOISH 'd ‘O 
‘MOTI SYUJUIG “T WoqsojT 
‘MOSIPULL ‘QUIBT “S'S 

*SIIOJ ISVGL ‘UBWIYI0}S “W SBIIS 
‘TOJSRUIOYyL, ‘au[ NPT “S sepaeyo 
‘any dood ‘apudT] *“¥ WWOMSTA 
‘foysiag ‘Aos[oy “H INGA 

‘TH Ayoory ‘voy Ng * AA SNOT 
‘Pl@USI9{19M “STAM WOEPL 
S£[SUITILY “OG ‘UTABW “PC Woste 
‘uogjalung ‘Aalqig “gq uojsarg 
‘rojd wiry Isvq ‘oO 80 
‘mmoursog ‘ppayyeyo [urd 
‘PPUYOWT “Qmuld “@ YoMepoty 
‘s1om0g ‘suIRpY "TV 
‘yonjRoneyn ‘oopury) “Wa 
“‘mor() “pool "We 1A0'T 
TWMOMST “OTPUlTd “We UMP 
‘uopuey “XT “WW Wer 
‘ploMs1iy ‘puoulpy *V “H 

‘aq osnoqoie A ‘uosduroyL, “AM “UM 
OMUBUNTTTLA ‘WBC “Y JUST 


‘OPE’ “pIOyION 
‘CPL ‘mie moddry 
‘PPL ‘yo0ds01g 
‘SPL ‘uaysory) 
‘OPI “UOWMIIY YOY 
‘TL ‘pPyxooid 
OFT “‘ployureld 
6&1 *£nqe[PPUL 
‘9eT ‘uveaBy 1sVq 
“Ce ‘ayB'T IOATIS 
‘SEL “[aqum4L, 
‘eT ‘IH Pleyusep 
‘CEI “RUIOLM. 
‘TST ‘eiquin[op 
‘O8T IOAIY [[LWI BL 
‘GOL ‘yonyeqqog 
‘S31 ‘aBUBIO 
280 ; ‘TUM poop 
‘9a AOTIVA JUBSBATT 
‘CBr ‘yjooque| [OH 
FOL ‘umuessIL 
‘SOT ‘sjoo1q}sa AA 
orc T1AL09I9}8 MA 
‘TOI MUCHE)MECreE 
‘OBL ‘TOSIpB IL 
‘OIL ‘SIO 
‘SIL ‘mooveg 
‘“IT “Aya 
‘OI ‘(old 
“QI HH As004 
“PIT ‘ployss9t}9 AA 
‘SIT ‘puv[qstH 
rae “AS UNTPSL 
‘601 ‘rode ASB 
‘SOT ‘a3 pl1q poo AA 
‘LOT ‘pleyqoiwt 
‘cor ‘s19Ul0g 
‘C0 ‘kay[vA woowag 
‘TOL ‘gyey surdvysvyy 
‘OOT ‘yonuusyy se L, 
‘66 ‘depule 
‘96 ‘AID 1300 £ 
“66 ‘IOSPULMA ISB 
“86 ‘lapsog 


“209 —'SHONVUH DLVYNiawoang 


[Jan., 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


QT[IAYOILA ‘WOSUOr “VY SalIByD 
"POF ITA MON *YS1v IL [OLUBT 
“AAINGSI[VS ‘UOSTAIR] “Y SBP 

*1a1BIYH ‘19}SOO AA “UW 'BVYO 
‘omA'T seq ‘Ssppod ‘f£‘L 

‘Arnqueg ‘aapdAy “q o1ss9f “BAW 
“Alnqg av, “Pew HL “SA 
‘quoy ‘900}9 “TOMB SST 

‘IoyBMISPIIG “ISOM “A SILA 
‘uouue,) ‘IO[[TA (O AIBA 
‘al[tApivzey ‘Ao[dog viydog ssw 
‘SEU ‘ASPUAQYNOG ‘ffotoyjaM °S WA 
“TITH Suo07y *o}eTTED °§ DIBTIEM 
“q10d1 89M “P[IoOIrBy “gq Alley 

‘am A'T (ION ‘HOrpsog *G ALB “BAT 


‘UMOT, WOIMION ‘do1gye'y “VY “AA ‘SII 
WO WeId MON ‘TPG "gf [OBIS] "SAA 
‘OSUI[LA BI[BA “ULMPOOs) “TL 

*To1SOTO “YTS “H OLEH “STIL 

‘our d'] ISBU ‘AOABOAA “TT ALBIT “SAIL 
‘Krnquvg ‘esvpunig T oluuByf ‘SIL 
‘AiInquey ‘vep.1o4Vg “| Buay 

‘uayr ‘Ug A1uap ‘09H “Ady 
‘rayemos png “Wwoly, “AA A 
‘umMojas109y ‘HIBIO “CF UIPH ‘SIN 
‘oT[AMOsduroy,L ‘uel [P ABIL “SW 
‘qO0}SpOOA\ WON ‘Aided “W ‘SBy 
‘1odaspig ‘vaputy oI}BH SIAL 
‘1odqsaM SMO[[LH “A dBIH “SIPL 
‘au A'T [LG PIZZVT “SAL 


‘OTANI ‘TOUT, Wospul? " 
‘PIOJITA MON “HOUGY “N 95.109) 
‘oqtauideyo ‘sdfeyg “S “s8qo 
*‘a}sayO ‘1o9}8O0 eL0poayL 
‘ourd'y ySVGy “YOOSMIOH “qd polee 
‘Kanqued ‘opay “A PrBApH 
‘fanquec ‘ddeuy *§ ves] 

‘juoy ‘yueoulA “VD 
WwMISPUIG ‘JIC AV 
‘amoyas1ooy) ‘AaIspoy [a0 
‘atptapaezeyy ‘ospiig ‘¢ Ale 
‘uBaynd ‘ayeyo ullo “A 

‘(tH Buoy ‘poomiays “£ *V 
“10d4s0 \\ ‘Aptoddis *"N 9prelepV “B41 
‘autAT ‘oP OULO “TOUCH 


‘WBiIz0g 
‘foTVA Wonjodsy 
‘AINGSI[RS 
‘19s O 
‘ourA'T 4SBq 
‘srnque( 
‘PPPUILBy, MON 
‘\uoy 
‘1oywMIo PLU 
‘aouuBy) 
‘plegay 
*yOO}8pOO M 
‘OJSUa 
y10d)89.M 
‘auA'y 


“AUVLAUOTG 


‘aa OLOWT 


“MHLSVIL 


‘AKVN 


‘quan tION0D —‘SHONVUN FHL JO SUMOMAO 


1905. | AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS. 289 
6 
OFFICIAL LIST OF FARMERS’ CLUBS IN CONNECTICUT, 
1904. 
PRESIDENT. SECRETARY. 


NAME OF CLUB. 
| ; 
Prof. Wm. H. Brewer,.| Cullen B. Foote. 


New Haven County,.... 
Greens; Harms, ..../. ...<. Wile  BUGi cite ererretts = J. Frank Elwood. 
STECMWICH 55.10). 2-'2 0 SwRe Closeyajc ccc aie G. A. Lockwood. 
Wewineton, ............ HA. Whittlesey, ..-.- J. S. Kirkham. 

New Britains. 2.5. ..0-.. 1s SIP NGS ss Sannitocealdsiesases de oneocnom door 


CONNECTICUT DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
E. C. Birce, Pres’t, Southport. 
J. B. Nosie, Sec’y, Hartford. 
B. C. Patrerson, Jreas., Torrington. 
CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
J. C. Envy, Pres’t, Simsbury. 
H. C. C. Mites, Sec’y, Milford. 

RosweL_t A. Moore, 7vreas., Kensington. 
CONNECTICUT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
A. C. STERNBERG, Pres’t, West Hartford. 

L. H. Meap, Sec’y, Keney Park Nursery, Hartford. 
W. W. Hunt, Treas., Hartford. 
CONNECTICUT JERSEY CATTLE BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
S. C. Cort, Pres’t, Elmwood. 

R. A. Porter, Sec’y, Bristol. 
B. W. Coins, Treas., Meriden. 
CONNECTICUT CREAMERY ASSOCIATION. 


Joun Tuompson, Pres’t, Melrose. 
FRANK Avery, Sec’y and Treas., Manchester. 


CONNECTICUT SHEEP BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION. 


F. H. StaprmMvuetter, Pres’t, Hartford. 
B. C. Parrerson, Sec’y, Torrington. 


CONNECTICUT FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 


E. V. Preston, Pres’t, Hartford. 
Miss Mary WINSsLow, Sec’y and Treas., Weatogue. 


AGR.— 19 


290 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 


BROWN SWISS CATTLE BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION. 


Henry D. Laucuuin, Pres’t, Chicago, Ill. 
N. S. Fisu, Sec’y and Treas., Groton, Conn. 


THE AUDUBON: SOGIETY OF CONNECHICUL 


Mrs. JAMES OsporNE Wricut, Pres’t, Fairfield. 
Mrs. HELEN S. GLover, Sec’y and Treas., Fairfield. 


THE CONNECTICUT BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 


CHARLES H. CHITTENDEN, Pres’t, Killingworth. 
Miss Etten B. Peck, Sec’y, Clinton. 


CONNECTICUT STATE.~ POULTRY / SOGIERY: 
Gro. B. FisHer, Pres’t, Hartford. R. G. Battey, Sec’y, Hartford. 


MERIDEN POULTRY ASSOCIATION. 
ie COR, Prest. JosHUA SHUTE, Sec’y. W. B. Hatt, Treas. 


NEW HAVEN POULERY ASSOCIATION, 


Epwarp A. Topp, Pres’t. W. R. KirKwoopn, Sec’y. 
Epw. L. Jones, Treas. 


1905. | 


REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 


REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 


Cuas. A. THOMPSON in account with 


1903. 


July 


I. 
aot Te 
16. 
10. 
P12: 
17. 


“er 


291 


StaTE Boarp oF AGRICULTURE. 


Balance amount in treasury, 

K. DD: Hammond, - ? 

TT. S: Gold, - , : : 
Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 
For Railroad fares of delegates, 
N.S: Platt, 

H. S. Spaulding, 

Hotel Chafee, 

BS, Cooley, 

The Penny Press, . 

K. L. Butterfield, 

Geo. T. Powell, 

J. M. Hubbard, 

Wm. N. Rice, 

H. B. Cowan, 

Mabel L. Todd, 

Henry E. Alvord, . 


H. L. Garringus, 

Wm. Butler Davis, 

L. A. Clinton, 

Chass i@: inyon; 

E. H. Jenkins, : ‘ 
By one-half State appropriation, 
N. G. Williams, 

Seaman Mead, 

Edward Halladay, 

J. B. Palmer, 

James F. Brown, 

iniC@ Banton: 

Chas. E. Chapman, 

Chas. A. Thompson, 

E. H. Lehnert, 


Dr. 
$3,109.69 


Cr. 


$10.76 
200.00 
141.03 
111.89 
4.79 
16.00 
200 00 
20.04 
As 
28.78 
56.00 
35.38 
25.00 
10.00 
50.00 
50.00 


25.98 


BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


Chas. E. Perkins, 

Jorkis Elalery: 

Chas. F. Roberts, 

James F. Brown, 

Lyman Payne, 

He ©. CG. -Mules; 

Joke Clarkes : 

The Whitcomb Press, 

NEV Ss elatt 

J. M. Hubbard, 

W. E. Britton, 

E. R. Bennett, 

J. He Putnam 

Poi. elabbals: 

NES Platt : 

E. G. Seeley, : : : ; 
By one-half State appropriation, . 2 1.750:00 
N. G. Williams, 

Je Be Palmer; 

James F. Brown, 

Chas. E. Chapman, 

Chas. A. Thompson, 

Edward Halladay, 

Hs Gs Seeley, 

Seaman Mead, 

To balance amount in treasury, 


$6,609.69 


25.40 


"3,293.80 


$6,609.69 


CHAS. A. THOMPSON, 
Treasurer. 


This is to certify that we have examined the accounts of the Treas- 
urer of the State Board of Agriculture for the year ending July I, 1904, 
and found them correct. 


SEAMAN MEap, 


D. W. PATTEN, Auditors. 


Cuas. E. CHAPMAN, 


July 1, 1904. 


INDEX, 1904. 


PAGE 
Address of Welcome, by Mayor W. F. Henney, . 5 18 
7 Agriculture in the Public Schools, by F. Min echiee: P 215 

ig Care and Cultivation of Tobacco in the Connecticut 
Valley, by W. F. Andross, . 171 

A ae of the Sheep inaeistesy in Gonneencte by E. 
. Stadtmueller, ; ; 34 

i eee of the Potato in Chinectione ie Dr. Gages 
Clinton, . 120 

= improvement of Tobacco by Seed Selection! ie A. D. 
Shamel, . : : ; ISI 
3 Money in Lambs, by Toceon E. Wane, : 66 

+ Notes on a Trip Around the World, by Hon! E. iL 
Hill, ; : ; ; ; : ; 87 

Reserve Power in Housekeeping, by Martha Van 
Rensselaer, : : : : ; ; 107 
os Sheep, by L. B. Harris, . : 5 ; j 39 

The Country Boy, by Pres. F. S. Luther, Trinity 
College, . 22 

i The Louisiana Purchage Beposiion: ae Hon. Guarles 
Phelps, . ; : 254 

rs Thoroughbred Bonlecy versus Monprels. from the 
Farmers’ Standpoint, by Morris F. Delano, . ; 144 
Agricultural Fairs in Connecticut, 1904, . : ; ; 282 
Agriculture in the Public Schools, : : : : 215 
Analysis of Premiums and Gratuities Paid, : ; . 278-280 
Andross, W. F., Address by, F ; ; : ; 171 
Clinton, Prof. L. A., Suggestions for Farmers’ Institutes, . 9 
Clinton, Dr. G. P., Address, 129 
Convention Adjourned, : : : ; : 272 
a Convened at Hareord, 13 
Decline of the Sheep Industry in Connecticut, . ; ; 34 
Delano, Morris F., Address, : : 144 
Discussions, . 5 30, 58, 83, I1Q, 139, 160, TOI, 228 
Diseases of the Porato in Connecticut, Address, . : : 129 
Directory of Patrons of Husbandry for 1905, . : . 283-288 


Exhibits at Mid-Winter Meeting, . : : : 2 273 


294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 


Farmers’ Institutes in 1904, 


Harris, L. B., Address on Sheep, . 
Henney, MOSOE W. F., Address of velocities 
fell ons bes Notes on a Trip Around the World, 


Improvement of Tobacco by Seed Selection, Address, 


Invocation, by Rev. R. H. Potter, 


Louisiana Purchase, The, Address, F 
Luther, Pres. F. S., Address, The Country Bar, , 


Mid-Winter Meeting, Exhibits at, 
Money in Lambs, Address, 

Mutchler, F., Address, : 

Number of Animals Exhibited at fees: 


Obituary Notice of L. Sedgwick Wells, 
Official Directory, Patrons of Husbandry, for 1905, 


“List of Agricultural Societies holding Fairs, 


re “ of Farmers’ Clubs for 1904, . 
Officers of State Board of Agriculture, 
{ 
Patrons of Husbandry, Directory of, for 1905, . 
Phelps, Hon. Charles, Address, 
Potter, Rev. R. H., Invocation, 
Program of the Convention, 


Report of Agricultural Fairs in 1904, 
is the Proceedings at Convention, 
e Treasurer, 

Reserve Power in Pioieclectee : Address, 


Resolution to Secure Cooperation in Teaching erenicure 


Returns of Agricultural Societies, 


Shamel, A. D., Address, 
Sheep, Address on, by L. B. eee 


- Industry, Decline of, in Connecticut, Auddeees on, 


The Care and Cultivation of Tobacco, Address, 
The Country Boy, Address by Pres. F. S. Luther, 


Thoroughbred Poultry versus Mongrel, from the Banners 


Standpoint, 


1905. | INDEX. 295 


PAGE 

Treasurer, Report of the, . : A ‘ , 201 

Trip Around the World, Notes on, MS tAddrecs , : 5 87 
Van Rensselaer, Martha, Reserve Power in Housekeeping, 

Address by, i ; ; ; ; ; 107 

Vote of Thanks, : : : ae : : : 272 

Wells, L. Sedgwick, Obituary Notice of, . : : ; 212 

Wing, Joseph E., Address, Money in Lambs, . : ; 66 


0th a 
3 5185 00258 MM SY 


BAe eee 


oe: 


Son SS SS 
See 
Mee eae <A 
ras Se 


crn 
eae 


Sete 


J Tome 
ore 


*, 
ne 


‘ : wi 
Lat ». 


WAN 

ects 

Nes 
PA 


a 
ge 


AS 
i 
a 


N 


cat 
Bay 

‘ RY 
Ay au 


So, 


me ee 

SEES 
pale ear see nee hm spe 
Amie =< 


saa 
ee 


Ps aig 


Sis 
All 


AASt, 
cae 
Aw 


he 


hs 


} aN s) 
a 
PALE LOO 

UA aay ; a SRR URIR AY a) 


ANAS ERA 
ARS 


eeeent 


ees 


SS 


~~, 
Ses 
Soetoro 
aeeees 


i ji ‘ eh; 
ue Sa 
TUS ENCT SY 

iy a 


ere 
= 


aie 
eee 


Ape 
WEG 
ADT