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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1914)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION 9 Home and Farm Magazine Section Editorial Page Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought. TO ADVERTISERS. Advertisers in this locality who wish to fully cover all sections of Oregon and Wash- $ lngton and a portion of Idaho will apply S to local publishers for rates. General advertisers may address C. L. Burton, Advertising Manager of Farm Mag- 3 azine Co., Publishers Oregon-Washington- Idaho Fanner, 411 Panama Building, Port- land, Oregon, for rates and information. The publishers will accept business from no advertiser whose reliability can be ques- tioned. $ WAR INEVITABLE? THERE ARE those today who say that xthe great European conflict is the fore dained result of the programs of mili tarism followed by the nations involved. Some claim that war is now raging because war is cheaper, even at fifty millions a day, than Wmed peace. One conclusion leads to the other. Let us consider them for a moment. Here were nations spending millions upon millions for great dreadnoughts, superior armies, sub marines, airships and aeroplanes. Every year the burden upon the taxpayer grew greater. Every year the nations became more and more ready for war because better equipped. It was a race which could not continue for many years longer that race to see which nation would outstrip its rivals in military construction work. The arma ments became a terrific burden upon the countries until it was necessary to use them. An argument familiar to those who have heard discussion of international disarma ment is that a man with a gun is tempted to use that gun, whereas, had he no weapon fight would be far from his mind. The con clusion is drawn that a nation with a great army or a great navy would be tempted to use the same, and that the more armament, the greater the desire to put it to the test. This principle may have had a part in the promotion of the war now dyeing the fields of Europe crimson. Reflect on the economic side a moment. Greater and greater became the burdens of the taxpayers of' Germany, imgland and France in the race for military supremacy. It was becoming unbearable there had to be a break somewhere and, none other forth coming, war burst forth. And in the end it may prove cheaper than peace maintained by increasing armament. It is estimated that the war is costing fifty millions a day to the nations affected. When it is over is it likely the nations will again start on a program of armaments which would inevitably lead to another war! Probably not. If not, the peace and inter national disarmament which some scholars say will follow the war will in a few years make good the enormous expenditure neces sitated by the war, and a hundred years from now the great conflict will have proved far cheaper than a continued program of militarism. But the scholars may be wrong. Many mighty thinkers had predicted that the era of world wars was over. Perhaps the jeal ousies and hatreds incurred during this war will not be forgotten and armies and navies will be built up again until a nation, fear ing that it can go no further in its mammoth expenditures, prefers to try war on an even footing with its rival than to allow the latter to forge ahead. Mars would again eclipse the sun of progress and the world would be plunged into another catastrophe. In the words of our Mexican friend, "Quieu sabe?" AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. WHETHER or not the young men of todi5r can find better training in the agricultural college than in actual work on the farm is a question raised. Our answer is that the personal equation solves the problem one 'way or another. A thorough student, one who loves his work, will be a success at farming whether he has the advantages of a college training or not. A young man who treats his calling superficially will never amount to much no matter what his training may be. There is no doubt that the agricultural college offers splendid opportunities to the young man desirous of devoting his life to fanning, and it should prove of inestimable ralue to him if he attacks his work in earn est. On the other hand, it offers diversions which may take his mind from his work and offers abstract theories to be absorbed when practice would be of more value. Yet the aim of the modern agricultural college is to substitute theory for practice, and this is be ing done as far as is practicable. Let two young men, equally in earnest and equally desirous of making a success of farming, start out together, one choosing to go to an agricultural school, the other choos ing to take up actual farm work, and the odds of success are in favor of the college student. He has at his disposal the knowl edge of thousands of wise men who have made life studies of growing things; he has the facilities for carrying out experiments that would be too costly on the small scale that could be practiced by the individual farmer; he has the opportunity to unlockv the door of knowledge and to tread the path way of success. Whether he becomes more proficient in his work than his friend who chose the other course depends upon himself. The facilities are there his future is in his own hands. The adaptation of college training to the realities of a small farm is the serious prob lem which confronts the man when be leaves college, but that is far more simple than to broaden one's knowledge in the circum scribed world of a single farm. i Nowvthat we have had our say, listen to the criticism of agricultural college students by the Rural New Yorker: "Agricultural college students as farm workmen! It is evident that many of our readers have tried these young men as man agers or farm helpers, and we have received a number of reports. The great majority of thorn are unfavorable. It appears that a good proportion of these young men are willing to work and are energetic and hon est. "Too many of them have a very large idea of their own value. They lack experience and the ability to adapt themselves to local conditions. They have been trained at the college to do work in a certain way usually with the aid of expensive and very complete fixtures. "When they go to a practical farm which, being run for business, must cut out experi ments or superficial things, many of these young men lack the power to adapt their college training to their new surroundings. In too many cases the trouble seems to be that the college teachers spoil these boys by giving them too large an idea of their own importance. "We have heard of cases where teachers advised these untried young men never to accept a place for less than $75 per month, and never to touch any smaller job than that of managers. It would be hard to think of any more foolish advice than this. "It will be clearly evident to any busi ness farmer that what these boys need most of all is practical knowledge of real farm operation. How can anyone manage farm labor successfully unless he knows how to do the work to the best advantage. It is not enough that the college has taught him why it should be done he must know how if he is to make a farm pay for only by knowing how can he learn to adapt his science to local conditions. "The cool-headed and unprejudiced re ports which come to us indicate that the training which many of these young men are receiving has given them too large an idea of their importance and value to a practi cal farmer. It would be far wiser for them to work as plain hired men for a year or so before attempting to 'manage' a farm." The California Farmer quotes the above and contributes the following comment: "The opinion by the editor of the Rural New Yorker, a paper which stands in the front rank of agricultural publications, is startling, in that it claims in substance that the agricultural college is not turning out real fanners; that as hired men they are not desirable, and as managers of farms they have not received at the college the practical 'how to do the work' on a farm that a manager or foreman must have to do efficient direct ing. "This charge is a very serious one and re flects discredit upon our schools, that farm ers everywhere have been asking for these many years with the idea in mind that such school graduates woidd return to the farm much better equipped for real farming than their parents, who, without their privileges in the way of agricultural education, have still become fairly successful in general farming. "It is still more serious if it transpire that these sons of farmers are returning to the soil with not alone the lack of the prac tical need of farming but coupled with it the purely theoretical and a fake conception of their superiority over the real tiller of the soil, forgetting that as all higher attainments are based upon a foundation of physical in dustry, so must the college learning have for its foundation the ability to use it upon, a basis of working with and acquaintance with the physical operations of plowing and preparing the soil, sowing the seed and har vesting the crops in the manner and at the time that experience alone can determine. "However, we do not feel inclined to con demn as entirely unfit this first product of our agricultural schools. The amount and quality of the agricultural information that a student may acquire at this time is mueh greater than was possible only a few years ago, and naturally the tendency of the 'cow college' graduates will be to unduly value their college attainments, as distinct from the actual farm work, and they will be for a time top -heavy until their feet become acquainted with the soil of the old farm, when a readjustment will not doubt take place, and the work will go forward in har mony. In any event the graduate will learn in one way or another that his reward either as a hired man or in helping his father on the home acres, will be according to bis ability to produce crops and to dispose of them in the best possible manner." FUTILITY. tHpHE LITTLE MOTH was flitting I about in a newspaper press room A late one night," records Colliers' Weekly in a recent editorial. "And after the presses had started," it re lates, "the little moth was unexpectedly caught by one of the 'great rollers and crushed between it and the speeding paper. Its existence had been instantly blotted out, all its little functions terminated in the full flush of living. We found the tiny body flat tened on the page of our newspaper as we unfolded it next morning. And just beneath the tracery of mangled wings was a dispatch telling of thousands of brave men whose lives had been just as suddenly crushed out in mid career by the inexorable form of mur der which mankind calls war." The comparison brings a shudder, almost of "horror. There is food for thought, ye warriors, in that little paragraph. Of interest to the Northwest, is the an nouncement of the Woodhead-Field Company that in taking over Sunset the Pacific Monthly a new policy has been inaugurated. California and Southern Pacific holdings have been particularly exploited In the past. The new company promises impartial pub licity to all sections of the Coast. AN EDITORIAL POLICY. THE FARM MAGAZINE has no violent ' political leanings. Its very existence is for instruction and entertainment. It would be impolitic as well as absurd to en ter into the turmoil of politics, and we have no intention of doing so. If we are successful in giving our readers a little knowledge, a little pleasure, we have accomplished our purpose. . If you want a nice long vacation next sum mer, now is the time to lay the foundations for the prosperity that will enable you to take such.
