THE CALL OF THE LAND »»»> ^m*^ r}mmmam*m»mmm¥amtmw^gm&iiu&mm fe Ai f^./li !■ :\. ^ DREWS ^ GIFT OF Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 withiunding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/calloflandpopulaOOandrrich ELISHA BENJAMIN ANDREWS, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D. THE CALL OF THE LAND Popular Chapters on Topics of Interest to Farmers By E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Nebraska NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY LONDON Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Limited 1913 S 5 3. ^^ ^^J#^ y 7A ' Copyright, 1913, by ORANGE JUDD COMPANY All Rights Reserved Entered at Stationers' Hall^ London, England Printed in U. S. A. TO THE REGENTS Past and Present of the UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA With whom it has been his privilege to serve the cause of higher education in Nebraska THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED in token of esteem and love by the Author H5.129 ^'Of all the occupations which can be made sources of gain, none is finer than agriculture, none more lucrative, none more charming, none more worthy of a free man." Cicero, De Officiis, i, 42. PREFATORY WORD "Now, as ever, to the nation and the race as to the individual, Nature, the unrelent- ing task-mistress of the centuries, holds out in one hand her horn of plenty and in the other her scourge. This country has brought itself within reach of the thong while grasping at the satisfaction of present appetite and forgetting the primal relation between man and the earth. The path to prosperity is still open. The divinity of the earthly life is at heart kind. Under her rule there is work and abundant reward for all, but these must be won in her designated way and in none other. Her pointing finger, that has never varied since man came upon the earth, shows the old and only way to safety and honor. Upon the readi- ness with which this is understood, the sober dignity with which a whole nation rises to the winning of its broad and perma- vii PREFATORY WORD nent prosperity, will depend the individual well-being of millions of this and many generations. Largely by this method will posterity, our fit and righteous judge, determine whether what issues from the crucible of this twentieth century is a bit of rejected dross to be cast aside, or a drop of golden metal to shine forever upon the rosary of the years." From Hon. James J. Hill's Minnesota State Fair Address, Sep- tember, 1906. VI 11 Table of Contents Page CHAPTER I The Farmstead Beautiful i CHAPTER n The National Importance of Rural Inter- ests 26 CHAPTER Iir Passing of the Federal Pasture 36 CHAPTER IV Sunshine Farming 61 CHAPTER V Health as a Duty 82 CHAPTER VI Farmers' Vacations 106 CHAPTER VII Three Pioneerships 118 CHAPTER VIII Amalgamating Our Foreign Born 134 ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER IX The Beef Supply 152 CHAPTER X Industrial Education in a Prairie State 174 CHAPTER XI The Rising Generation 212 CHAPTER XII The Crusade for the Country School 226 CHAPTER XIII Promoters and Promoting 249 CHAPTER XIV Taxation and Land 278 CHAPTER XV Socialism and the Farming Interest 290 CHAPTER XVI Public Spirit ^ 315 CHAPTER XVII Medicine and Morals : 343 X Key to Illustrations Pa«e Elisha Benjamin Andrews, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D. Frontispiece Hon. William Gunn Whitmore [Fronting Chapter I] I Regent of the University of Nebraska, Chairnaan of Regents' Committee on Agricultural Education. Progressive and successful farmer. Public man. Zealous friend of agricultural as well as of gen- eral higher education. Regent Coupland of the University of Nebraska i3 Regent Coupland's Residence, Elgin, Nebraska 13 Seaman Asahel Knapp, D. Sc, LL. D 26 Original thinker in the field of agricultural prog- ress. The Sir Horace Plunkett of America. Au- thor of the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstration Movement work under the auspices of the General Education Board. Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, P. C, F. R. S. 31 Philanthropist, economist, publicist, who has wrought so wisely and efficiently to improve the condition of the agricultural classes in Ireland, his slogan being "Better Farming, Better Business, Better Living." Charles Edwin Bessey, Ph. D., LL. D 36 Head Dean and Head Professor of Botany, Uni- versity of Nebraska. To whom more than to any other man is due the honor of bringing about the initiation of the policy of afForcsting arid areas in the United States. XI KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS Page GiFFORD PiNCHOT, Sc. D., LL. D 48 Late Head Forester, United States Department of Agriculture. Uncompromising and intelligent advocate of the conservation of the nation's natural resources. Thomas Lyttleton Lyon, Ph. D. 6i Professor of Soil Technology, Federal Experi- ment Station, Cornell University. Who introduced the Kherson Oat from Russia into the United States. Dry Farming, North Platte, Nebraska 71 Spring wheat on disked corn land, 1909. Kahla (durum) wheat. Yield, 33.6 bushels. Norman Smith, Covington, Tenn. (Courtesy of Gen. Education Board) 71 Boys* Corn Club winner in 1910 and 1911. Young Smith is shown on his riding cultivator. Harvey Washington Wiley, Ph. D 81 Late Chief Chemist, United States Department of Agriculture. Author of the United States Pure Food Law. Hereford Bull, Grand Boy 91 Owned by the University of Nebraska. The Hereford is, after all, the standard beef type. Katy Gerben, Holstein Cow, owned by the University of Nebraska 91 Has an annual record of 19,161.2 pounds milk and 776.00 pounds butter. William Osler, M. D., LL. D., F. R. S 100 Eminent physician (British, formerly Ameri- can). Author of a well-known treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine. Who teaches that as a rule men's power to do their choicest brain work ends by the age of forty. xii KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS Pago Clydesdale Stallion^ Frisk Prince 109 Champion 191 1 International. Conningham Brothers, Wilkes Barre, Pa. Percheron Stallion, Imperator 109 Champion 191 1 International. J. Crouch and Sons, Lafayette, Ind. James Jerome Hill 118 Man and philosopher. Builder of the Great Northern Railway. Whose foresight, discretion and push have done so much for the development of the states from Lake Superior to the Pacific. ''The Pioneer'^ (Kit Carson) 126 As seen on MacMonnies' famous monumental fountain at Capitol Square, Denver, Colorado. William Granger Hastings, A. B 134 Dean of the College of Law, University of Nebraska. Learned jurist who addresses Bohe- mian Americans in the Bohemian tongue. Howard Remus Smith, B. Sc. 152 Professor of Animal Husbandry, University of Minnesota. A leading American authority on the breeding and on the feeding of live stock. Hereford Bull, Stonewall Jackson 163 Weight, 2,200. About perfect in type and as an individual. The Herefords are, on the whole, the best cattle for the range. Shorthorn Bull, Ringmaster 163 Champion 191 1 International. White and Smith, St. Cloud, Minn. xiii KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS Page Lawrence Bruner, B. Sc. 174 Nebraska State Entomologist. Head Professor of Entomology in the State University. For whom was named the "Bruner Pinery," Holt County, Nebraska, the pioneer dry area afforesta- tion tract. His accurate and exhaustive knowledge of birds and insects, the noxious and the useful, is of in- calculable value to farmers, gardeners and fruit raisers. Agricultural Hall and Home Economics Hall 193 University of Nebraska. James Irving Manatt, Ph. D., LL. D 212 Professor of Greek History and Literature, Brown University. Veteran teacher, finished scholar and man of letters, with sympathies defying all limit of age, race, or clime. State Prize Winners in Boys' Corn Club Contest, 191 i 219 Demonstration in Burr Clover, Arkansas, 191 1 219 (Courtesy of General Education Board.) Carroll Gardner Pearse 226 Superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools. President of the National Education Association [1911-12]. Boys' Corn Club Exhibit, Blackstone, Va.__ 238 Tomato Club Demonstration, Bookhaven, Miss., July 30, 191 1 238 (Courtesy of General Education Board.) xiv KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS Page Thomas William Lawson, Esq. 249 Financier, writer, public speaker. Author of the well-known book entitled "Fren- zied Finance." Hon. Henry George, Jr 278 Member of Congress from the State of New York. Son of the author of "Progress and Poverty," and himself an advocate of the single tax theory. Hon. Victor L. Berger 290 Member of Congress from the State of Wiscon- sin. The first man ever elected to the Congress of the United States by the Socialist Party. Hon. Samuel Walker McCall, A. B 315 Member of Congress from the State of Massa- chusetts. Who declined the Presidency of Dartmouth Col- lege in order to continue, in Congress and outside, the fight for true representative institutions. Poplar Lawn School, Va. 329 "Before and After." (Courtesy of General Education Board.) Dr. James Carroll, U. S. Army 342 To prove the mosquito bite origin of yellow fever. Dr. Carroll, Surgeon in the U. S. Army, and Dr. Aristides Agramonte of Cuba caused them- selves, during the Spanish War, to be bitten by malignant mosquitoes. Both took the fever with fatal consequences, Agramonte dying presently. Carroll languished a few years and then died. Both deserve immortality as martyrs to science and to philanthropy. Dr. Aristides Agramonte 357 See "Dr. James Carroll," above. XV HON. WILLIAM GUNN WHITMORE, Regent of the University of Nebraska The Gall of the Land CHAPTER I THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL THE entire nation is interested in keep- ing its agricultural population on a high plane of life. The result will not be secured without care. In all lands rural folk tend to become mere peasants, hewers of wood and drawers of water to those better off. Can we in the United States stem this tendency? I believe we can. Already many innovations are coming to our relief. The telephone, free rural postal service and good roads conspire to bring remote farms into close connection with the living world. Up-to-date scientific farming, making the business pay, supplies the farmer and his family with the means for reading matter and for wide education and travel. These are all first rate civilizing influences. There is, however, one additional appliance with- '^^^'THE^CALL OF THE LAND out which the work will be painfully incom- plete, your sons and daughters continuing to leave you, preferring almost any sort of a life in town to that which your homes offer. This other aid, this missing link, is the de- velopment of beauty on the farm, more par- ticularly in and about the farm home. We need to make the farm home itself rich in cultivating influences, a live inspiration, a perennial joy to farmer, wife, children and neighbors. Let me silence beforehand a false thought which may arise in some minds, that what I am going to propose would involve a vast increase in the cost of home-making. On the contrary, what I urge is in the main quite compatible with utmost simplicity and cheapness. Moreover, nearly every feature commended by me will if introduced be found useful as well as beautiful. Beauty and use go hand in hand more frequently than we think. Another thing: For the sake of simplicity my suggestions mainly presuppose a new start with a farm, a fresh layout, unham- THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL pered by old buildings or preconceived arrangements. I must leave you to apply what I say to cases where the farmstead is already laid out, where the house and the other buildings have been erected before you arrive or before your esthetic sensibility is aroused. Still another preliminary remark. My observations suit primarily the tier of states north and south to which Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas belong, halfway between the Mississippi and the Rockies. Some of the precepts offered need more or less modi- fication for application elsewhere. Most- wise this transfer to other circumstances will be easy. I begin with a consideration or two relat- ing to the farm at large. In many parts of the country the scene which the farm pre- sents is surpassingly beautiful by nature. There are hills and valleys, ponds, water- courses, waterfalls, woods, groves and open fields, making a picture which the most consummate artist that ever lived could not render more lovely. In such cases, of THE CALL OF THE LAND course, let well enough alone. Upon the average farm in the relatively level parts of the country there is more to do. Art is required to render the farm scene as delight- ful as it may be. You can straighten water courses or beautify their curves, wall in their banks, create a few artificial lakes or ponds and put in some timber patches. These last, if the trees are properly chosen, will create profit as well as beauty. Prop- erly selected and cultivated trees can be produced on any farm in any state in the Union enough to supply, when they are mature, by culling out one here and there, all the timber needed on the farm. Mr. Clothier, the government forestry expert, says that hackberry, white elm, bull pine, Platte red cedar, western red cedar, green ash and red ash will thrive upon the most arid land in Nebraska, which means, I pre- sume, that they will grow anywhere in this tier of states. Almost everywhere burr oak also will grow, and, in the lowlands, cotton- wood. Cross strips of these trees east and west several rods wide, leaving long narrow THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL ribbons between, will immensely aid in con- serving moisture and in sheltering from the wind. They save the moisture, not only by holding it in their leaves and bark, but also by decreasing the velocity of the wind, swift wind vieing with the sun itself as a desic- cating power during the summer months. ^'The windbreak," says Mr. Clothier, "is a practical appliance for the conservation of the moisture of the soil. A quarter sec- tion, divided by belts of Russian wild olive a rod wide into long narrow fields extend- ing lengthwise east and west, will yield more crops than the whole i6o acres in cultiva- tion. If the utilization of the Russian wild olive is not possible, the farmer should go to Nature for material with which to form hedges. The following native shrubs and small trees should be planted for hedges: Buffalo berry, choke cherry, wild plum, buckthorn, fragrant sumach, ironwood, dia- mond willow, wild black currant, wild gooseberry, thorny haw, wild rose, red twig dogwood, false indigo and sand bar willow. There are many introduced shrubs that are THE CALL OF THE LAND particularly valuable for ornamental hedges." '^There should be a combined effort for the amelioration of the climate," Mr. Clothier continues. ''Hot winds are local in their origin and may be modified or con- trolled by local conditions. Artificial groves and belts of timber surrounding and crossing every prairie farm, large planta- tions on the sand hills and other tracts of non-agricultural lands, and the extension of the natural belts now in existence would accomplish much toward controlling the hot winds." Choose with care the location of your farmstead. If your farm is mainly level, I should say select the highest 20 acres border- ing or near the public road. If the very highest land you own would be too elevated, you would select another site, but it should be itself an elevation so as to have perfectly free air and water drainage. Another great advantage of such a site will be its sightli- ness, permitting you from every window to see a large part of your farm and vast 6 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL reaches of territory besides — hill, dale, mountain, stream and lake. The farmstead should be not far from square, the house at least three hundred feet away from the road, and the barn at least twice this dis- tance farther away, straight behind the house if the configuration of the ground permits. The farmstead land should ex- tend some distance up and down the road and back toward the main part of the farm. With the exception of ample room for the buildings and for one or two water reser- voirs, it should be devoted to forests, or- chards, gardens, and shrubbery patches. These various plantations may be arranged so as to make the farmstead a place of ex- traordinary beauty, summer and winter alike. No excessive drouth or heat need be suffered there. The location of the barn should be lower than that of the house and considerably far- ther from the house than is usual. Take abundant room for the barn, also for each of the other outbuildings. Place a cellar un- der the barn and house all fertilizing mate- THE CALL OF THE LAND rial therein. Do not have an old-fashioned yard for the stock, but good-sized paddocks and plenty of them, changing the cattle be- tween them from time tcvtime. There may be a permanent piggery and a permanent chicken place — either directly in rear of the barn or flanking its far end as horse barn and implement house should flank the main barn front — but in all suitable weather both swine and chickens ought to be confined on the paddock plan the same as cattle. By such arrangements the existence of any filthy looking spot anywhere on the premises may be prevented. Place the horse barn to the left of the main barn as you look down from the house. Opposite it, to the right, equally far from the main barn, rear an agricultural implement house where reap- ers, mowers, plows, cultivators, heavy wagons, etc., can be stored. Buggies and light wagons may be kept in the horse barn. Have a place for everything and have every- thing in its place. Nothing mars the beauty of farm grounds more than heaps of rub- bish, broken implements, pieces of machin- 8 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL ery, old wheels, sleighs and such things lying here and there. This is another point at which use and beauty perfectly agree, for the loss suffered by shiftlessness of this kind is as great as the offense it offers to your sense of beauty. I say little about the shape and style of these outbuildings. I recommend, however, that the barn be rectangular, perfectly pro- portioned, painted some plain color, and topped with an appropriate cupola, and that the front approach be neatly graded and paved or graveled. By the ^^home lot" I mean the space im- mediately surrounding the house. A nice shape for this tract is the perfect square with the house in the center, the front of the square bordering upon the street. Have the ground slope gradually away from the house in all directions making the house foundation the acme of a pyramid. Each face of this pyramid should be a lawn, the arrangement and beautification of which will be discussed presently. There is no real necessity for a house yard. If wood is THE CALL OF THE LAND burned, have a neat wood-house, a little removed from the mansion, or, what is still better, a cellar roomy enough to hold the wood pile. The house will probably have a special front toward the street, but all the other frontings or approaches should be kept with as scrupulous care as the one fac- ing the street. Whatever way one looks from any window in the house one should see what is pleasant to the view, nothing un- kempt, unsightly or dirty. The most essential direction for construct- ing a beautiful house lawn is that it should be seen at a glance, by the uninterrupted green expanse of it, to be meant for a lawn, not for an orchard, a flower garden or a shrub patch. Do not distract 'the impres- sion by scattering upon it trees, flower beds, or plants. Make it free for the horse mower. The area should have size some- what in proportion to that of the house. It should be smooth, uniform in its slope or slopes, and solidly sodded with blue grass and white clover. Unless the soil is rich it will pay to subsoil or trench it and to put in lO THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL manure. If the grass seed fails to come in perfectly or if spots are winter-killed, do not plow again. Scratch in new seed with a rake and cover with a thin layer of very rich loam. To make a good sod takes time ; do not be impatient if growth seems slow. Top-dress, irrigate, pull the weeds, mow. The desired result will appear in time, richly repaying all your efforts. Terraces, banks, borders or flower-ribbons will set off and grace the lawn on all its sides, save perhaps the front. If the slope suffices, two or three narrow terraces rising one behind another aflame with flowers may front the house, separating it from the lawn. Largish flowers or even shrubs might fill the highest terrace next the house. By this device a terrace-like effect can be had with minimum slant. In winter these beds may be covered with strips and figures of stone chips in various colors so as to be very grace- ful. I have seen this device carried out in palace courtyards in Europe with striking success. Any hedgerow or shrub row should be II THE CALL OF THE LAND treated as a backing, a heavy ribbon of flow- ers stretching along its front, the whole forming a mass and saluting the eye together. Here and there in the mass one tall and conspicuous flower may stand if you like. The ribbon of flowers can be cul- tivated ; the shrubbery behind will take care of itself. Plant copiously all kinds of flowers, that your borders may shine from earliest spring till late autumn, and that children and visitors may pluck as they list. If walks or drives must invade the lawn, make them as few and simple as possible, at the side or the middle, and either perfectly straight or curving gently. Avoid angular turnings. Besides the general tree-setting for your house formed by the orchards, groves, and forests covering most of your farmstead you will want a special tree-setting, and on this you ought to bestow extraordinary care. Use trees which will grow lustily in your soil, live long, stand wind, and cast a thick shade. They must be neither too near the house nor too far, and neither too numerous 12 Regent Coupland of the University of Nebraska in his study. Regent Coupland's Residence, Elgin, Nebraska. THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL nor too few. Most home makers err by pro- fusion of shade near the house, rendering it unhealthy and obscuring the prospect. If the climate is dry and windy, more trees may surround the house and they may stand closer to it than is proper in damp situations. It is often recommended that a row of tall trees be planted in rear of the house, partly as an artistic backing for it, and partly to shield the barn from view. I do not like this. Trees in the position named are too far away to shade the house, while they can- not but veil the view. The barn should be visible from the house, not veiled; only, it and all about it should be rendered per- fectly neat and sightly. Have large gardens and flower gardens. Make them long, the rows lengthwise, and plant so that all rows can be cultivated with horse power. Those flower strips which I recommended as borders to your lawn or lawns may also be so planted as to be kept clean by means of the horse plow. I come now to the house itself, the cen- ter of the farm life, where the farmer and 13 THE CALL OF THE LAND his family live, where his children are born, and where are originated and developed those early ideas, feelings and propensities which will make or mar their lives. No man having a house at all is so poor that he can afford to neglect the environment of the childhood life beginning and growing up in that house. Innumerable designs for farm houses are before the public. The variety of them is vast and the architectural elements pre- sented in many are fine. I have seen some excellent ones in the Ladies' Home Jour- nal during recent months. After such study as I have been able to give to the sub- ject I am impressed that no other house plan is on the whole so advantageous or com- mendable for farmers as the old-fashioned rectangular form, providing for a central hall, four rooms below and four rooms above, the roof having a one-third pitch. This plan is susceptible of indefinite varia- tion. It can be made rigidly puritanic as to adornment, or it can be ornamented in any way and to any extent. The hall can be H THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL large or small. You can add an ell for a kitchen or not as you please. So of bay windows, dormer windows, and porches. Other impressive advantages of the struc- ture are the great strength and the great economy of space going with it. Much sav- ing of expense is also secured by the sim- plicity of this style of building when repairs become necessary, there being the fewest possible queer angles, breaks, turnings, pockets, gewgaws and places hard to get at. It is with much hesitation that I approach the subject of interior house decoration. Tastes differ and many different methods for house beautification might be suggested each of which v^ould be pleasing to highly cultivated people. We need first of all to divest ourselves of the idea that beautifying the inside of a house need involve great expense. The truth is otherwise. Many a householder could make a truly elegant interior with half the expense to which he has gone to burden and disfigure his walls, ceilings and floors. Simplicity is a chief rule of art. 15 THE CALL OF THE LAND To this for our present purpose we may add cleanliness. Any bric-a-brac or adorn- ment whatever which renders it hard to keep a room clean is out of order and con- tradicts the best taste. On this account I would not use a picture molding or allow any covering or ornament on any article of furniture so constructed or put on as to hide dust. I would eschew all carpets. They are dirt collectors and germ breeders. Use rugs if you can get them ; if not, bare floors made as presentable as is convenient and kept clean. Let us have no room, call it parlor or what not, too nice for daily use. Any part of your house good enough for you will please your callers whoever they are. One can suffer no more chilling or inhospitable treatment than to be shown into the best room of many a house. You feel yourself in a strange place, cold, lonely, uninhabited. Even if the room is perfect in its decora- tion and appointments the effect of its non- use is frigidity. There is, of course, no im- propriety in making certain rooms finer i6 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL than others, but all your rooms should be for you and your family. The habit of crowding the whole family life into the kitchen is vulgarizing in the extreme. As far as possible avoid paint for interior wood work. Natural wood, if neatly fin- ished, is more beautiful and in the end cheaper. On the other hand, when plas- tered walls need something beyond neat hard finish, it is in most cases better to use paint than paper. Have ample light in every room. Many builders love darkness rather than light. Their architecture and esthetic deeds are evil. Light is the best adornment possible, basal to all the others, none of which will show to the best advantage in chiaroscuro. It is easy to drape a window so as to keep out too much light, a thing we need to do rather often in these prairie states where we have sunshine to burn ; but it is not easy to enlarge a window once made or to tunnel the wall for a new one. The lighter your room is from out-of-doors the darker its walls and furnishings may be ; the darker it 17 THE CALL OF THE LAx\D is the lighter they must be. The same rule holds to a certain extent for outside coloring — the brighter the light the darker the paint. Many housewives worry themselves to a fever over the color displays in such color ornamentation as they wish to introduce upon the walls of rooms, in furniture, rugs and window shades. A few simple prin- ciples may be of service. All true art is grounded in Nature, and today Nature is our best teacher in all art work. To make the colors and figures of your interior permanently pleasing and im- pressive, follow Nature. Let curves pre- dominate over corners and peaks. In producing her color effects you notice that mother Nature works several devices. She lays out vast expanses of some one dull hue or of several dull hues so blended that your eye catches the resultant tint rather than any constituent. The sky by day, a ripening grain field, the ocean, a lake or a river, or any late autumn landscape will illustrate. These dullish-colored scenes are surpassingly restful to eye and mind. They THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL awaken the sense of beauty in a massive and lasting way, probably being more causative of beauty delight on the whole than any of Nature's bright colors are. My eyes may be guilty of perjury, but they always swear that November is as beautiful a month as June. Sometimes — and this is her second method — Nature dashes a great clump of color into one of those neutral backgrounds. This is illustrated by the sun against his day sky or reflected in a broad surface of water; an evergreen tree amid an autumn or winter forest or standing alone on a stubble or otherwise dun-colored field; poppies or other bright flowers springing up after har- vest; black, white, or red cattle roaming the autumn prairie; the green trees against the red rocks on western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes — call this, if you will, Na- ture's third method — two sharply contrasted bright colors are brought together in about equal masses. A butterfly's wing shows this scheme; so do the leaves and flowers 19 THE CALL OF THE LAND when fruit trees blossom, and also green meadows "with daisies pied." A fourth way is to spangle a rich background with equally rich but pronouncedly contrasting color spots. This method is illustrated by the deep blue sky of night studded with burning stars, also by the glorious green meadow bearing "loud" colored flowers here and there. In such cases, as I said, the sparse ornament and its background are both powerfully colored. This last arrange- ment, however, is never a standing order in Nature, but comes and goes. Sunrise at once pales the sky's blue and puts the stars out of countenance. The green of the meadow gives way to brown when autumn arrives and in the winter may be covered with snow. The permanent color art of Nature is of the varieties mentioned before: paired bril- liants, dull backgrounds alone, dull back- grounds studded with sparkles. If you were giving a room the most stunning effect possible for a single day, evening or week, you might paint floor and ceiling rich blue or red or even green, with 20 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL here and there a picture of the same color or else sharply contrasting with the back- ground. But in the long run you would find such an arrangement wearying. For steady diet better make the background plain, a dull white, gray, yellow, light olive, or even very light blue, and then put on a few contrasting ornaments such as pictures. Even if you cannot ornament at all, your room may be truly tasteful and beautiful with a white ceiling, a clean bare floor, and calcimined walls in straw color or light olive. Ornaments can, with good results, be changed from room to room or from one position to another within a room. Articles of furniture may be shifted in the same way. A few rich and beautiful ornaments are better than a too great number even of the best, and certainly preferable to numer- ous cheap ones. Greatly to be recom- mended for people of moderate means are photographs, however small and low priced, of great works of art, each photograph placed in an elegant frame contrasting in color with the wall on which it hangs. The 21 THE CALL OF THE LAND boys can make the frames and the girls paint them. In these days when copies of art masterpieces are so inexpensive, no home need go unadorned. I wonder if we are aware at how small a price choice reproductions of great art works can be had. One series of the Perry pictures come at a penny apiece. You need only turn your children's attention to these pictures, when they will save their pennies and purchase enough to illustrate the entire history of art. Let the young people make a frieze of such pictures around your best room, placing each picture so it can easily be removed and dusted. You will have in that array of pictures beauty, education, inspiration. A plaster cast, adamantine finished, of a noble statue famous in the his- tory of art, such as Michelangelo's David, can be had at $4 to $6. By many, even of the wealthy, these casts are preferred to marble replicas, being absolutely true to their originals. While I am upon this let me suggest that your sons and daughters be given permis- 22 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL sion to beautify in their own way some par- ticular room in your house, or, at any rate, some alcove or corner. This can be known as the children's room or corner. The principles thus laid down will help in the choice of rugs. A plain rug with a body of one and the same general shade, or with such a body set off by a few modest bits of ornamentation will please the eye permanently, whereas one with dashing, glaring or conspicuous figures soon palls upon the sight. Will it pay? The foregoing hints are meant to be use- ful to poor farmers as well as to rich ones; serviceable on the most heavily mortgaged farms as well as on unencumbered ones. No doubt, however, some of the sugges- tions would, if carried out in ever so simple a way, involve some little expense in money and perhaps considerable expense in labor. Will it pay? It will pay. Nearly everything needed to make the farmstead beautiful will in the long run pay in dollars and cents. Granted, 23 THE CALL OF THE LAND though, I am not urging beautification solely or mainly as remunerative in that sense. Life is more than meat and the body than raiment. It pays to lift life, mind, taste, thoughts. If you, husband and father, in- tent on planting and growing dollars, care little for those immaterial commodities, let me plead for your sons. Train them — or let them train themselves — to a life that is not mere drudgery. Help them learn to love home. Make the place so attractive that if they leave you for a time they will never fully rest till they come back to the old homestead. You can have this so if you will. I plead, too, for the women of your fam- ily. It pays to remove a mortgage from your farm; it pays certainly as well to remove furrows from a wife's brow or, what is better, prevent them from appearing there. The lives of farmers' wives seem in many cases sadly monotonous, lacking in opportunities for the development of sweet- ness and cheer. Their whole expression, their every gesture, their very smile, often 24 THE FARMSTEAD BEAUTIFUL suggests weariness. Even young girls reared on farms too often lack that buoyancy and freedom which belong to youth. The farmer himself, also, to a greater extent, his sons, have variety of occupation, bringing them in touch with men and questions; but apart from occasional shopping in town farmers' wives and daughters have at best little enough to spice or enrich their toils. It is said that the majority of the women in the asylums are farmers' wives; if so, it is undoubtedly owing to the dreary sameness of their experience, rare breaks or pauses in work that can never end, the treadmill, the plodding, the ever abiding shadow. Hus- band and father, can you do less for these loved ones than doing your best according to your means to make the Farmstead Beautiful? 25 CHAPTER II THE NATIONAL IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS IN the United States two great move- ments which have extraordinary social importance are now progressing. One is the rush of population into the cities; the other, the syndicating of most wealth in a manner which threatens to lower the fortunes of the rural classes. These classes, being among those which cannot easily combine, have to sell their products competitively, whereas for most things which they buy they must pay syndicate prices. These two move- ments are so sweeping and in their efifects so decisive that some thinkers regard them as destined to reduce the rural population of America to ignorant peasants such as we see and pity in most European lands. Whether or not the danger is so great as is alleged, we need not inquire. One thing is certain, that the welfare of rural com- munities is no mere affair of these commu- 26 SEAMAN ASAHEL KNAPP, D. Sc, LL. D., Author of the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstration Work Movement. IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS nities alone, but is important to the entire Republic. For its continuance and strength the whole nation requires that the rural classes should thrive. As these classes are, so is the state. In the United States the conjunction of virile population with boundless natural resources has created wealth with a rapidity never before attained. Then right in the midst of this incomparable development mankind reached the world's limit of free arable land. For the first time in history it became impossible to acquire fertile soil by simply traveling to it. As the population of the globe was meantime increasing by leaps and bounds, the disappearance of free ara- ble forced a rise in the values of all agricul- tural land within reach of markets, giving to our wealth a new and incalculable acces- sion, since our arable land, all of it near cen- ters of population, was at once vaster, richer, and in better cultivation than that of any other nation. Thus the principle of un- earned increment has wrought, with our energy and industry and with our country's 27 THE CALL OF THE LAND native fecundity to pile up here, in a genera- tion, riches past the wildest dreams of Croesus. Despite the increasing value of all bread- stufifs and meat stufifs, the wealth of the world is growing in such a way that demand for these is not likely to fall off, but is likely rather to increase for an indefinite time to come. Food is costing and will cost a little more each year, but the cheapening of wealth-producing processes in other depart- ments will for a long time make it possible for non-agricultural producers to have all the food they wish, giving a little more non- agricultural commodity year after year for a given amount of agricultural material. There can be but one conclusion from the above facts: namely, that the farmer, if he is wise, is destined to be better ofif and more influential in the future than he has ever been. Art and culture will pervade farm life and the farming public. Farmers' fam- ilies will be better educated, agricultural states will more and more control legislation and public opinion. 28 IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS A vigorous country population is neces- sary in order to assure the highest physical health throughout the total body of citizens. It is equally necessary to the finest average character and integrity of the whole peo- ple, and also for the richest development of common sense, sincerity, large views, and patriotism. These qualities spring from Mother Earth. They are found in cities, of course, but usually because they are brought there. The strongest instances of them are not indigenous in towns. It is gen- erally recognized that town life would soon grow pale and sickly, as well in moral as in physical regards, but for incessant impor- tation of blood and character from the country. It is a matter of common knowl- edge that nearly all the men and women in the most commanding positions in society, business, literature, and life were born and reared in the country. Over and above the preceding considera- tions, some of which apply to other coun- tries as well as our own, there is a special reason for conserving and strengthening 29 THE CALL OF THE LAND rural interests here in the United States. Europe was settled mainly under military motives, land going to great vassals of the king. All over Europe even today the great landowner is a more significant person than the great townsman, manufacturer, or banker. Socially, land-owning counts more than wealth in other forms. The blooded aristocracies of European lands all stand in some sort of connection with the proprietor- ship of land. It is easy to see that in the coun- tries named there is an immense influence other than that of wealth operating against that of mere wealth. In the United States, unfortunately, we as yet possess no such counterpoise against the dead weight of Mammon. We need to raise up such ; and the only apparent way, at least the best way apparently, to accomplish that result is to cultivate rural interests. Build up and keep up a country population worthy and able to determine our national character. How can such a country population in the United States be reared? How can the landed interest be put in a condition to be 30 SIR HORACE CURZON PLUNKETT, P. C, F. Philanthropist, Economist, Publicist. R. S., IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS felt as a solid factor in American civiliza- tion, always to be reckoned with, opposing in every appropriate way the rule of brute Mammon and the sway of those decadent and effete elements always so active in great municipalities? How can we establish country life and character so it shall be a beneficent safety valve, fly wheel, or gov- ernor to our vast social machine? I. Good legislation is called for — directed not to the financial profit of the farming class, which would be class legisla- tion and therefore wrong; but calculated in a large and enlightened manner to render stronger, happier, and more cheerful the people who live out upon the land and fur- nish the bone and the sinew, also in great part the brain and the character, of the American people. Laws in this spirit would not deserve condemnation as class legislation. Their fundamental aim would not be the welfare of a class. They would not have in view the good of the country for its own sake, but country prosperity for the sake of the entire nation, the idea being that 31 THE CALL OF THE LAND the character, morality, ability, and conse- quently the safety of the nation, would im- mensely sink should the country population fall to the level of serfs or peasants. 2. The advantages to rural districts from perfect roads would be incalculable. The time is coming when in all well-populated sections travel will be so swift and com- fortable that the entire population of a county can, daytime or evening, gather at the center as easily as such a crowd can now form in any city; when county centers will have churches, music halls, opera houses, schools, and all similar agencies of culture as good as there are in the world. 3. Country free delivery of mails will come immediately after roads are made good, so that newspapers and other intelli- gence by mail will not only speed across the country at the most rapid rate so far as rail- ways extend, but reach destination from post offices with equal expedition. 4. Efforts for the establishment of coun- try high schools have been made for a number of years. The need is a pressing 32 IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS one. Those interested in the cause are in earnest and may be counted upon to con- tinue agitation until every boy and girl in country parts can obtain first-rate school preparation for the university or for life without tuition cost and without being obliged to leave home. 5. Vastly improved primary and gram- mar as well as high schools will come when rapid and easy travel over country roads is the rule. Schools will be concentrated at county and township centers so that grading can be made much more complete than now. A higher order of teaching talent will also be employed. Far beyond this in impor- tance, grading and administration being equally good, country schools can be made immensely more instructive and inspiring than city schools. (On the superiority of country schools see, further, Chapter XI.) 6. The encouragement of all who can to build and live in the country, even if a part of their life must be in the city, will follow as a consequence of these improvements. A reflux of population from city to country 33 THE CALL OF THE LAND will certainly occur when country roads are perfect, mail facilities greatly bettered, schools, concerts, churches, and other means of culture are as good in the country as in the city, and so on. But aside from these considerations, there ought to be a richer, deeper, and more general appreciation of the country than now exists. The country is beautiful, healthful, and every wise desir- able on its own account. If people think otherwise, or do not think on the subject at all, it is due to their lack of culture. They ignore the works of God as stupid people might walk through the Louvre and not think of the matchless art creations upon the right hand and the left. The glory of the country ought to be taught, written up, and preached upon until enthusiasm for coun- try living becomes deep and general. 7. Farmers themselves can assist to strengthen and enrich country life by doing farm work in a more systematic manner than is now usual. Too much farming goes by mere routine and tradition without the slightest application of scientific principle. 34 IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS How few farmers, for instance, keep books so as to know what profit accrues from such and such animal, herd, crop, or parcel of land! This methodless and unintelligent farming is responsible for much of the dis- position shown by boys and girls to rush to the city. Young people with intelligence wish to cultivate their minds and are de- termined to do this. The farming which they have known doesn't ply them with that motive. Farming might be so carried on that young people's mental faculties and sense of art would be addressed by it far more than can be done by city occupations. 35 CHAPTER III PASSING OF THE FEDERAL PASTURE* NO group of men in the Fifty-seventh Congress dealt with more vital mat- ters than the House Committee on Public Lands. These gentlemen made an effort to solve the question of protecting and im- proving the great government pastures, that these might grow more beef and mut- ton, and that suitable parts might in time be put to agricultural use. The problem involves conflicting interests, yet some action upon it is imperative. It is a national one, having to do with the price of meat in every American home. Probably 400,000,000 acres of the public domain are at present fit only for pasturage. This does not mean that the soil lacks fer- tility, which most of it does not, but that the region is partially arid, the average rain- * Reprinted, by permission, from the American Re'vieiv oj Re THE CALL OF THE LAND leaves it perfectly sentient. The fact is that curare is an anesthetic, as testified by Boel- endorff, 1865; Lange, '74; Romanes, '76; Steiner, '77; Binz, '84, and Lauder Brunton, '87, all of whom say that the sensory nerves are depressed and paralyzed by curare. Thus the curarized animal is rendered prac- tically free of pain by the curare itself, but as a matter of fact, morphia, chloral, etc., are nearly always administered along with it for the reason that pain materially inter- feres with most vivisection experiments. There is, then, painless vivisection, which, its painlessness being guaranteed, should be permitted to all physicians and medical students; and there is painful or sentient vivisection, vivisection without anesthesia. That this is sometimes allowable we cannot doubt, but, as said, just when and under what restrictions, laymen must leave medi- cal men to say. Their verdict will probably be somewhat as follows: Painful vivisection may be divided into three classes or kinds : I. The Pathologic. The invasion of 374 MEDICINE AND MORALS sentient living tissue with some sharp in- strument for the purpose of originating disease in the animal the examination or results of which may aid, directly or through the understanding of the disease, to its cure. This is legitimate and should be free to all medical practitioners and students, under only the ordinary restric- tions against cruelty to animals. In this way antitoxin is obtained against diphthe- ria, and also vaccine virus. 2. Merely didactic. The cutting of sentient living tissue by or before students for the mere purpose of elucidating already known points in the sciences. This should be forbidden altogether. The risk of pain and torture is too great. 3. Scientific. The cutting of sentient liv- ing tissue for the purpose of obtaining new and important information in physiology. This should be permitted to accredited physicians and professors, but only under rigid safeguards. 375 APPENDIX A (See Chapter! IV and VII) "GO WEST, YOUNG MAN" One evening in 1899 or 1900 the author of this volume dined with the Hon. Mr. Gale of Galesburg, Illinois, of the familj^ for whom that city was named. This note gives the substance of statements made by him during and after the dinner. Mr. Gale was intimately associated with the Chi- cago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad throughout its great formative period. He said that at first no one thought of Chicago as the terminus of any railroad, all the roads supposing they must end at the Lake below the city. This accounts for the manner in which the Rock Island and the Illinois Central still approach Chicago, swinging far around to the south before they enter. The Burlington directors had supposed that their line, too, must head directly for the Lake. This notion of theirs was changed by no less a person that Stephen A. Douglas, who came to Galesburg on pur- pose to intercede with them to aim for Chicago direct, assuring them that Chicago itself had a great destiny before it, and that its trade was more to be sought than the Lake trade. Mr. Gale said that the Burlington management was slow to see the necessity of bridging the Mississippi, their belief being the then common one that Iowa con- 377 APPENDIX A tamed little, if any, good land. This conviction was gradually changed to admit that considerable valuable land could be found as far as one hundred miles vv^est of the river. Moreover, they at first disbelieved in the possibility of bridging the river below Rock Island. Their engineers said that the Rock Island road could, of course, bridge the river if it thought best, because it had an island to build to and to build from; but they urged that to attempt bridging the river without an island was a desperate undertaking and would prob- ably end in failure. When these prejudices broke down, and it was seen that Iowa was fertile far to the west, there was an- other considerable period during which Des Moines was set as the western limit of good land. With this idea in view, a project was set on foot and long cher- ished to round up the Burlington, th^ Rock Island, and the Northwestern, all at Des Moines, in the belief that no more than one line would ever be called for west of that point. Such a scheme was later carried out when the Union Pacific was built, the three roads named, and subsequently several others, being made to unite at the Union Pacific junction in Council Bluffs. Like incredulity touching the value of the country beyond marked men's temper when they began to con- sider the question of crossing the Missouri. Charles F. Perkins, who had been president of the Burlington, once informed the writer that his first report to the directors urging the extension of the road from the Missouri River to Lincoln was received with the grav- est shaking of heads. For a time few or none believed 378 APPENDIX A that Nebraska was worth settling. Soon a few said that a good farmer could get a living in many a patch as far out as a hundred miles from the river. Gradu- ally the limit moved west. Down to a very recent period, however, the hundredth meridian was regarded as the certain terminus of arable land, most people, even in Nebraska, supposing that the western part of the state was doomed to perpetual aridity and fit for naught but pasturage. The proved possibilities of dry farming (see Chapter IV) have changed this. 379 APPENDIX B (See Chaptera III and IX) Origin of the AflForestation Policy By Head Dean CHARLES E. BESSEY of the University of Nebratka A good many years ago, after having learned much about the sandhills, and especially after I learned that the sand was always moist a short distance below the surface, I began suggesting that these sandhills might be utilized for growing pines. I had seen great pine forests growing in Michigan, where the soil was as sandy as on the sandiest places of the sandhills of Nebraska, and it seemed to me quite likely that our own moist sand could bear great forests of pines as easily as the sand of Michigan. So in successive reports made to the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture and other similar bodies for a number of years I urged that the experiment of planting pines in the sandhills should be made. In the spring of 1 891, the attention of Dr. B. E. Fernow having been called to the matter, he sent me word late in the spring that he was ready to make the experiment of planting pines in the sandhills if I would furnish him with the land for such purpose. I was considerably provoked over the matter, as my duties at the University made it entirely impossible for me to take care of a project like this. I had never owned 381 APPENDIX B any sandhill property and did not know where to turn to find a tract which could be turned over to Doctor Fernow's use. I expressed myself rather emphatically as I walked up and down the corridor in Nebraska Hall, and finally when I stepped into Professor Brun- er's office (then in Nebraska Hall), he promptly said to me that he thought he could furnish the sandhills such as Doctor Fernow required. A little inquiry de- veloped the fact that Professor Bruner and his brothers had taken up some land in southwestern Holt County, and it turned out to be right in the sandhill country. Accordingly I was able to answer Doctor Fernow's challenge by saying that if he sent on his trees they would be cared for. He did so rather late in the spring, and Professor Bruner's brother took charge of the work under the direction of Doctor Fernow. The plans for the planting were made by Doctor Fernow and followed in the planting. Several plats were laid out and treated somewhat differently. One of the plats was plowed up in the usual way and the planting made on the plowed land. The other plats were merely fur- rowed at the time of the planting, the trees being planted in the bottom of the narrow furrow made by running a plow through the sod at the time of planting. After the planting had been done reports were made for several years as to the condition of the trees. At the end of the first year no trees were left on the plat which had been plowed up, as the wind blew away all the sand and left nothing but a "blow out." On the other plats the western yellow pine and the jack pine trees survived, and the reports were favorable. After 382 APPENDIX B several years, however, the plantation dropped out of public sight, and no further reports were made. We supposed, as probably did everybody else who knew of the original planting, that the trees had disappeared and that we had simply one more case of the wreck of tree planting such as were familiar to us in the days of the forest homesteads, known as "tree claims." Eight or ten years passed, and during this time my reports made to the State Board of Agriculture and other similar bodies contained reiterations of my sug- gestions that pines should be planted In the sandhills. At last, In 1901, Mr. Pinchot, then chief of the Bureau of Forestry In Washington, sent out a party of foresters to make careful Investigation of the forest conditions in Nebraska. The party was under the direction of Mr. William L. Hall, and he and his men traveled over the state from the Missouri River to the Wyom- ing line, examining the open land, the rough canyon land and also the fringes of forest trees along the streams. They penetrated the sandhills at different places, and In this way obtained a very good notion as to the conditions throughout the state. During this time Mr. Hall made my office In Ne- braska Hall his headquarters, and one day he came in and made Inquiry about a plantation of pines In Holt County about which he had read in some of the early reports of the State Horticultural Society. This called to mind the plantation which I have spoken of above, and I told him what I knew of the matter, but said that I supposed by this time that the whole plantation had disappeared. He made sufficient Inquiry, however, 383 APPENDIX B of others, including Professor Bruner, to warrant him in determining to visit the spot and to see for himself what had happened there. I confess to have been quite troubled over the fact that Mr. Hall was to visit this plantation, as I felt sure that it must have disappeared, and its disappearance would be an argument against the possibility of foresting the sandhills, in spite of any carelessness that might have resulted in the failure of the experiment. So I waited for a week or ten days, in a more or less troubled state of mind, when one day Mr. Hall walked into my office in a state of great ex- citement. I called to him and said, "What is the mat- ter, Mr. Hall?" when he answered, "Why, I have seen them." "Seen what?" I said. "Those trees," he said. "What trees?" I said. "Oh, those planted in Holt County ten years ago" ; and then he went on and in much excitement told me what he had seen. The pine trees were from i8 to 20 feet high. They had formed a dense thicket, in which forest conditions had already appeared. The growth was greater than on similar trees planted in the eastern part of Nebraska. Mr. Hall was most enthusiastic in his description of this little plot of pine trees. At last I became some- what troubled, as I feared that through some mistake the trees had been planted on a patch of good soil instead of on sandhill soil. However, Mr. Hall as- sured me that that plantation was on the "sandiest of sandhills." The result of this experiment was to dissipate all doubt as to the possibility of growing pine trees on the Nebraska sandhills, and as a consequence Mr. Hall 384 APPENDIX B made the recommendation to Mr. Pinchot that certain tracts of land in the state should be set aside for ex- perimental planting. On Mr. Pinchot's recommenda- tion two forest reserves, one situated between the Dis- mal River and the Middle Loup River, and the other one in Cherry County, were set aside, and within a short time work was begun by the United States For- est Service in the experiment to grow pine trees. This, in short, is the history of the pine tree planting in the sandhills. 38s STANDARD BOOKS PUBLISHED BY ORANGE JUDD COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO Ashland Building People's Gas Building 315-321 Fourth Avenue 150 Michigan Avenue Any of these books will be sent by maiU postpaid, to any part of the world, on receipt of catalog price. We are always happy to correspond with our patrons, and cordially invite them to address us on any matter pertaining to rural books. Send for our large illustrated catalog, free on appli- cation. First Principles of Soil Fertility By Alfred Vivian. There is no subject of more vital importance to the farmer than that of the best method of maintaining the fertility of the soil. 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This book is entirely different from the usual type of dairy books, and is undoubtedly in a class by itself. The entire subject of butter-making in all its branches has been most thoroughly treated, and many new and important features have been added. The tests for moisture, salt and acid have received special attention, as have also the questions on cream separa- tion, pasteurization, commercial starters, cream ripening, cream overrun, marketing of butter, and creamery man- agement. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth. Net, $0.50 Questions and Answers on Milk and Milk Testing By Chas. A. Publow, and Hugh C. Troy. A book that no student in the dairy industry can afford to be without. No other treatise of its kind is available, and no book of its size gives so much practical and useful information in the study of milk and milk products. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth Net, $0.50 (3) Soils By Charles William Burkett, Director Kansas Agri- cultural Experiment Station. The most complete and popular work of the kind ever published. As a rule, a book of this sort is dry and uninteresting, but in this case it reads like a novel. The author has put into it his in- dividuality. The story of the properties of the soils, their improvement and management, as well as a discussion of the problems of crop growing and crop feeding, make this book equally valuable to the farmer, student and teacher. Illustrated. 303 pages. 5^x8 inches. Cloth. . Net, $1.25 Weeds of the Farm Garden By L. H. Pammel. The enormous losses, amounting to several hundred million dollars annually in the United States, caused by weeds stimulate us to adopt a better system of agriculture. The weed question is, therefore, a most important and vital one for American farmers. This treatise will enable the farmer to treat his field to remove weeds. 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The subject-matter includes a comprehen- sive and succinct treatise of wheat, maize, oats, barley, rye, rice, sorghum (kafir corn) and buckwheat, as related particu- larly to American conditions. First-hand knowledge has been the policy of the author in his work, and every crop treated is presented in the light of individual study of the plant. If you have this book you have the latest and best that has been written upon the subject. Illustrated. 450 pages. 5^x8 inches. Cloth $1.75 The Forage and Fiber Crops in America By Thomas F. Hunt. This book is exactly what its title indicates. It is indispensable to the farmer, student and teacher who wishes all the latest and most important informa- tion on the subject of forage and fiber crops. Like its famous companion, 'The Cereals in America," by the same author, it treats of the cultivation and improvement of every one of the forage and fiber crops. With this book in hand, you have the latest and most up-to-date information available. 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Belcher, M.D, In this book the author sets forth practical methods for the exclusion of bacteria from milk, and how to prevent contamination of milk from the stable to the consumer. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 146 pages. Cloth $100 (5) Bean Culture By Glenn C. Sevey, h.S. A practical treatise on the pro- duction and marketing of beans. It includes the manner of growth, soils and fertilizers adapted, best varieties, seed selec- tion and breeding, planting, harvesting, insects and fungous pests, composition and feeding value; with a special chapter on markets by Albert W. Fulton. A practical book for the grower and student alike. Illustrated. 144 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 Celery Culture By W. R. Beattie. A practical guide for beginners and a standard reference of great interest to persons already en- gaged in celery growing. It contains many illustrations giving a clear conception of the practical side of celery culture. The work is complete in every detail, from sowing a few seeds in a window-box in the house for early plants, to the handling and marketing of celery in carload lots. Fully illustrated. 150 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 Tomato Culture By Will W. Tracy. The author has rounded up in this book the most complete account of tomato culture in all its phases that has ever been gotten together. It is no second- hand work of reference, but a complete story of the practical experiences of the best-posted expert on tomatoes in the world. No gardener or farmer can afford to be without the book. Whether grown for home use or commercial purposes, the reader has here suggestions and information nowhere else available. Illustrated. 150 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. $0.50 The Potato By Samuel Fraser. This book is destined to rank as a standard work upon Potato Culture. While the practical side has been emphasized, the scientific part has not been neglected, and the information given is of value, both to the growej and to the student. Taken all in all, it is the most complete, reliable and authoritative book on the potato ever published in Amer- ica. Illustrated. 200 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . $0.75 Dwarf Fruit Trees By F. a. Waugh. This interesting book describes in detail the several varieties of dwarf fruit trees, their propagation, planting, pruning, care and general management. Where there is a limited amount of ground to be devoted to orchard purposes, and where quick results are desired, this book will meet with a warm welcome. Illustrated. 112 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 (6) Cabbage, Cauliflower and Allied Vegetables By C. L. Allen. A practical treatise on the various types and varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards and kohl-rabi. An explanation is given of the requirements, conditions, cultivation aiid general man- agement pertaining to the entire cabbage group. After this each class is treated separately and in detail. The chapter on seed raising is probably the most authoritative treatise on this subject ever published. Insects and fungi attacking this class of vegetables are given due attention. Illustrated. 126 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 Asparagus By F. M. Hexamer. This is the first book published in America which is exclusively devoted to the raising of aspara- gus for home use as well as for market. It is a practical and reliable treatise on the saving of the seed, raising of the plants, selection and preparation of the soil, planting, cultiva- tion, manuring, cutting, bunching, packing, marketing, canning and drying, insect enemies, fungous diseases and every re- quirement to successful asparagus culture, special emphasis be- ing given to the importance of asparagus as a farm and money crop. Illustrated. 174 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . $0.50 The New Onion Culture By T. Greiner. Rewritten, greatly enlarged and brought up to date. A new method of growing onions of largest size and yield, on less land, than can be raised By the old plan. Thousands of farmers and gardeners and many experiment stations have given it practical trials which have proved a success. A complete guide in growing onions with the great- est profit, explaining the whys and wherefores. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 140 pages. Cloth $0.50 The New Rhubarb Culture A complete guide to dark forcing and field culture. Part I — By J. E. Morse, the well-known Michigan trucker and originator of the now famous and extremely profitable new methods of dark forcing and field culture. Part II — Com- piled by G. B. FiSKE. Other methods practiced by the most experienced market gardeners, greenhouse men and experi- menters in all parts of America. IlhistrateM. 130 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 (7) Alfalfa By F. D. CoBUKN. Its growth, uses, and feeding value. The fact that alfalfa thrives in almost any soil; that without reseeding, it goes on yielding two, three, four, and sometimes five cuttings annually for five, ten, or perhaps loo years ; and that either green or cured it is one of the most nutritious forage plants known, makes reliable information upon its pro- duction and uses of unusual interest. Such information is given in this volume for every part of America, by the highest authority. Illustrated. 164 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. $0.50 Ginseng, Its Cultivation, Harvesting, Marketing and Market Value By Maurice G. Kains, with a short account of its history and botany. It discusses in a practical way how to begin with either seeds or roots, soil, climate and location, preparation planting and maintenance of the beds, artificial propagation, manures, enemies, selection for market and for improvement, preparation for sale, and the profits that may be expected. This booklet is concisely written, well and profusely illus- trated, and should be in the hands of all who expect to grow this drug to supply the export trade, and to add a new and profitable industry to their farms and gardens, without inter- fering with the regular work. New edition. Revised and en- larged. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 Landscape Gardening By F. A. Waugh, professor of horticulture, university of Vermont. A treatise on the general principles governing outdoor art; with sundry suggestions for their application in the commoner problems of gardening. Every paragraph i*s short, terse and to the point, giving perfect clearness to the discussions at all points. In spite of the natural difficulty of presenting abstract principles the whole matter is made entirely plain even to the inexperienced reader. Illustrated. 152 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth Net, $0.75 Hedges, Windbreaks, Shelters and Live Fences By E. P. Powell. A treatise on the planting, growth and management of hedge plants for country and suburban homes. It gives accurate directions concerning hedges ; how to plant and bow to treat them; and especially concerning windbreaks and shelters. It includes the whole art of making a delightful home, giving direciions for nooks and balconies, for bird culture and for human comfort. Illustrated. 140 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 (8) Bulbs and Tuberous-Rooted Plants By C. L, Allen. A complete treatise on the history, description, methods of propagation and full directions for the successful culture of bulbs in the garden, dwelling and greenhouse. The author of this book has for many years made bulb growing a specialty, and is a recognized authority on their cultivation and management. The cultural direc- tions are plainly stated, practical and to the point. The illustrations which embellish this work have been drawn from nature and have been engraved especially for this book. 312 pages, 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.50 Fumigation Methods By Willis G. Johnson. A timely up-to-date book on the practical application of the new methods for destroying insects with hydrocyanic acid gas and carbon bisulphid, the most powerful insecticides ever discovered. It is an indis- pensable book for farmers, fruit growers, nurserymen, gardeners, florists, millers, grain dealers, transportation com- panies, college and experiment station workers, etc. Illus- trated. 313 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.00 Diseases of Swine By Dr. R. A. Craig, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the Purdue University. A concise, practical and popular guide to the prevention and treatment of the diseases of swine. With the discussions on each disease are given its causes, symptoms, treatment and means of prevention. Every part of the book impresses the reader with the fact that its writer is thor- oughly and practically familiar with all the details upon which he treats. All technical and strictly scientific terms are avoided, so far as feasible, thus making the work at once available to the practical stock raiser as well as to the teacher and student. Illustrated. 5 x 7 inches. 190 pages. Cloth. $0.75 Spraying Crops — Why, When and How By Clarence M. Weed, D.Sc. The present fourth edition has been rewritten and set throughout to bring it thoroughly up to date, so that it embodies the latest practical information gleaned by fruit growers and experiment station workers. So much new information has come to light since the third edi- tion was published that this is practically a new book, needed by those who have utilized the earlier editions, as well as by fruit growers and farmers generally. Illustrated. 136 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 (10) Successful Fruit Culture By Samuel T. Maynard. A practical guide to the culti- vation and propagation of Fruits, written from the standpoint of the practical fruit grower who is striving to make his business profitable by growing the best fruit possible and at the least cost. It is up-to-date in every particular, and covers the entire practice of fruit culture, harvesting, storing, mar- keting, forcing, best varieties, etc., etc. It deals with principles first and with the practice afterwards, as the foundation, prin- ciples of plant growth and nourishment must always remain the same, while practice will vary according to the fruit grower's immediate conditions and environments. Illustrated. 265 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.00 Plums and Plum Culture By F. A. Waugh. A complete manual for fruit growers, nurserymen, farmers and gardeners, on all known varieties of plums and their successful management. This book marks an epoch in the horticultural literature of America. It is a complete monograph of the plums cultivated in and indigenous to North America. It will be found indispensable to the scientist seeking the most recent and authoritative informa- tion concerning this group, to the nurseryman who wishes to handle his varieties accurately and intelligently, and to the cultivator who would like to grow plums successfully. Illus- trated. 391 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.50 Fruit Harvesting, Storing, Marketing By F. A. Waugh. A practical guide to the picking, stor- ing, shipping and marketing of fruit. The principal subjects covered are the fruit market, fruit picking, sorting and pack- ing, the fruit storage, evaporation, canning, statistics of the fruit trade, fruit package laws, commission dealers and deal- ing, cold storage, etc., etc. No progressive fruit grower can afford to be without this most valuable book. Illustrated. 232 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1,00 Systematic Pomology By F. A. Waugh, professor of horticulture and landscape gardening in the Massachusetts agricultural college, formerly of the university of Vermont. This is the first book in the English language which has ever made the attempt at a com- plete and comprehensive treatment of systematic pomology. It presents clearly and in detail the whole metho'd by which fruits are studied. The book is suitably illustrated. 288 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.00 (11) Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture l» ^ A Compendium of Agricultural Science and Prac- tice on Farm, Orchard and Garden Crops, and the Feeding and Diseases of Farm Animals Hy EARLEY VERNON WILCOX. Ph.D. and CLARENCE BEAMAN SMITH, M. S. Associate Editors in the Office of Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture THIS is a i\ew, practical, and complete presentation of the whole subject of ag- riculture in its broadest sense. It is de- signed for the use of agriculturists who desire up-to-date, reliable information on all matters pertaining to crops and stock, but more particularly for the actual farmer. The volume contains Detailed directions for the culture of every important field, orchard, and garden crop grown in America, together with descriptions of their chief insect pests and fungous diseases, and remedies for their control. It contains an ac- count of modern methods in feeding and handling all farm stock, including poultry. The diseases which affect different farm animals and poultry are described, and the most recent remedies sug- gested for controlling them. Every bit of this vast mass of new and useful information is authoritative, practical and easily found, and no effort has been spared to include all desirable details. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 topics covered in these references, and it contains 700 royal 8vo pages and nearly 500 superb half-tone and other original illustrations, making the most perfect Cyclopedia of Agricul- ture ever attempted. Handsomely bound in cloih, ^5.50; half morocco {^*ry jumpluouj), ■^4r.50, postpaid ORANGE JUDD COMPANY. "^f.;,:;"rs.'"cLr &.' .j^ — 'O""^ 202 Mam Library LOAN PERIOD HOME USE ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date Books may be Renewed by calling 6423405. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW fEB 1 71988 011988 mmi MAY FORM NO. DD6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY BERKELEY, CA 94720 ®s YC 59301 ^U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES BOOBOOS'IO]. W9 A6 Zl UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY itii!