Agriculture

the business of tilling the soil. With the exception of the chase and possibly the care of half domesticated animals, the planting and harvesting of crops is the most ancient, as it certainly is the most honorable, of occupations.

Since "Abel was a keeper of sheep," and "Cain was a tiller of the ground," a great advance has been made. The history of agriculture is too extensive for even an outline. It includes the development of oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn, and other cereals from wild grasses; cabbage, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, and other vegetables from wild plants with little food value; serviceable breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep from wild animals; and implements and machinery from the rude sticks, thin edged stones, and shells of the first husbandmen. Wheat, once rubbed in the palm of the hand or beaten from the sheaf with a stick, is now removed from the straw by a steam threshing machine at the rate of 2,000 bushels a day. The crooked stick with which primitive man scratched the ground has been developed into the motor plow turning a dozen furrows at a time. The cotton gin, seeder, mower, reaper, thresher, windmill, and farm engine have done much to relieve the drudgery of farm work as well as to increase production. The use of machinery for ditching, roadmaking, plowing, sowing, mowing, raking, reaping, husking, shelling, grinding, digging root crops, storing, pumping, butter making, ginning, breaking flax, spinning, weaving, and sewing leaves little room on the farm for unskilled labor. The farmer is becoming a machinist.

The subject of an agricultural education is engaging attention. Agricultural schools are increasing in number and attendance, and there are signs that attention will be given agricultural topics in common schools the world over. In North America there are now agricultural colleges, schools, and experiment stations in every state and province north of the Mexican line. Farming will always be learned best on the farm just as cooking is to be learned in the kitchen; but the time is approaching rapidly when a special education in the school will be expected of farmers. The study of plants, soils, water, stock, feeding, and the use of machines in the various operations of the farm and dairy will be a part of the farmer boy's education.

Without the cultivation of the soil, a large population is not possible; only a sparsely settled people can get food enough by hunting and fishing. Save the Aztecs, the Peruvians, and other tribes depending on corn and field crops, the American Indians, with unsurpassed hunting and fishing grounds, were mere handfuls scattered along the shores of rivers and lakes. The more they relied on corn, vegetables, and rice, the larger the villages and the nearer they were together. Even the nomadic people of Asia, with their flocks and herds, require plenty of grazing room for each family. Historically the earliest centers of population and the first cities were located in the fertile river plains of the Old World where a mellow, rich soil produced food in abundance.

It is a curious fact that early literatures speak of tilling the soil as a curse. The hunter, the warrior, and the herdsman claim superiority, and even the writer of the book of Genesis says to Adam, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake. . . . In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Later writers and speakers have not failed to note the fundamental importance of agriculture. "When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization," says Daniel Webster. In one of his messages to Congress, President Grant uttered the same truth, although he perpetrated an unconscious pun to the effect that "Agriculture is the groundwork of our civilization."

Agriculture is the leading occupation in the United States. According to the twelfth census there were, by way of illustration, 29,000 dentists, 83,000 saloon keepers, 111,000 clergymen, 830,000 merchants, and over 10,000,000 farmers.

Bulletins issued by the secretary of agriculture at the middle of the decade make even a better showing. Final returns to the chief of the bureau of statistics of the department of agriculture from regular and special correspondents, supplemented by reports of special field agents, show the production and value of the principal farm crops of the United States in 1905 to have been as follows:

The secretary adds with enthusiasm, "The wealth produced on farms in 1905 reached the highest amount ever attained by the farmer of this or any other country, a stupendous aggregate of results of brain and muscle and machine, amounting in value to $6,415,000,000." Speaking further of the increase in the value of farms, he says: "Every sunset during the past five years has registered an increase of $3,400,000 in the value of the farms of this country. . . . This increase for little over a year balances the entire interest and non-interest bearing debt of the United States."

Secretary Wilson's estimate of the farm products for 1908 is still higher. The value of field products is placed at not less than $5,000,000,000, while dairy and meat products bring the total up to "the unthinkable amount" of $7,778,000,000 of wealth produced in a single year by the American farmer. In soberly considering these figures, however, the reader should remember that they include seed grain, and that a large part of the farmer's crop is fed to produce dairy and meat products; also that much of the produce is consumed in the home, and that many of the animals, being required to carry on the work of the farm, do not reach the market or swell the farmer's bank account. The net profit of farming is a fraction of Secretary Wilson's estimate of the value of farm products.

See articles on SEEDS, SOIL, PLOW, CORN, GARDENING, ROTATION, EXPERIMENT STATION, AND THE VARIOUS PLANTS, tools, and animals of the farm.