Chapter XVII: Part 17

By practicing this method the farmer may cultivate a larger area early in the season when the soil is in good condition, when if it had been necessary to plow the whole area, some of the land might become too dry to plow well. Likewise the later plowing leaves the soil too loose and not in good seed-bed condition. In preparing land for corn, the listing may be done late in the fall or during the winter, or early spring. The usual plan being to split the ridges with the lister later in the spring when the corn is planted. It is advisable to harrow the listed field once or twice before planting to destroy weeds, or prevent soil drifting and to preserve a mellow soil mulch to conserve the water which has been stored in the subsoil. In preparing land for corn, the early listing has proved equal to early plowing and superior to early disking, as shown by the experiments at the Kansas Station.

In the drier portions of the great plains area and throughout the mountain states, where dry farming is practiced, the annual rainfall is not sufficient to produce a crop every year, and it becomes necessary to practice a system of summer fallowing every third or fourth season, or in alternate years in localities of least rainfall, in order to store moisture and develop plant food and thus insure the production of a profitable crop each year.

Deep plowing either in the fall or spring, and frequent surface cultivation as described above is the method of summer fallowing which has given the best results at the Montana, Western Nebraska, and Western Kansas Experiment Stations.

The weeder is better adapted for harrowing wheat and other small grains than the common harrow, but the harrow may be used when the ground is firm. I question whether it is necessary or advisable as a rule to harrow wheat if due precautions have been taken in preparing the seed-bed.

Under certain conditions, where heavy rains firm and puddle the soil, it may be advisable to harrow, but very young grain may be injured by harrowing, and after the wheat covers the ground, harrowing is unnecessary. The harrowing of wheat at regular intervals at the Kansas, Nebraska and Montana Experiment Stations has not resulted favorably. Without question, the proper preparation of seed-bed is a much more important factor in the growing of small grains, than the cultivation after seeding.

While it is a disputed point among authorities whether it pays to harrow wheat and other sowed crops, there is no difference of opinion regarding the necessity or value of frequent cultivation of corn and of all other crops usually planted in rows. Regarding the depth and frequency of cultivation desirable, I favor rather deep cultivation in our drier, hotter climate, and after every hard rain, if possible, or at least sufficient to keep the weeds in check.

It is not necessary or practicable to attempt to cultivate after every rain and there is no virtue in the admonition “Keep the Cultivator going in a dry time.” If the soil has been well stirred and the mulch is of sufficient depth, to cultivate again would be loss of time and might do actual harm by drying out the deeper portions of the soil mulch and also causing a too fine and dusty condition of the surface soil, unfavorable to the absorption of moisture when the rain comes.

It is not necessary to have extra machinery in order to successfully practice the system of culture outlined above. The only implements required or recommended which are not in general use on every well equipped farm, are the subsurface packer and the weeder.

The principles stated above have been known and practiced more or less for a long time and are mostly included in the “Campbell” system of culture. H. W. Campbell was among the early apostles of dry farming in the West, and has perhaps done more to call the attention of western farmers to the necessity and advantages of thorough cultivation of the soil than any other investigator.

Scientific farming pays, everywhere. I believe in the practicability of thorough tillage and good cultivation on every farm, and the increase in crops by such farming will more than pay for the extra labor. But the great problem in Western agriculture today is not how to get larger crops out of the soil for a few years, but rather how to produce paying crops every year and at the same time maintain the fertility and productiveness of the land.

Simple tillage will not maintain soil fertility. It becomes necessary finally to replace the plant food, exhausted by the continuous growing of crops, with the application of manure, or chemical fertilizers, and by green manuring and the rotation of crops, in which the legume crops, such as alfalfa and clover are introduced in order to restore again the nitrogen and organic matter, the supply of which has only become more rapidly reduced because of intensive cultivation.

There is little question regarding the value and even the necessity of the summer fallow in the drier areas of the West. The tests at a number of Western stations and the general experience of farmers prove this; yet there are serious objections to the continued practice of bare summer fallowing.

First, there is the tendency for the soil to waste by drifting in strong winds and by washing away in heavy rains.

Second, summer fallowing with frequent cultivation hastens nitrification and decay, thus more rapidly exhausting the organic matter in the soil.

It is possible for the soil to become more rapidly exhausted in fertility by alternate bare summer fallowing and cropping than by continuous cropping. At least the bare summer fallow does not add any fertility to the soil. In order to maintain the productivity of our Western lands, it will become necessary to add fertility to the soil preferably during the year of fallowing.

I am beginning the practice of a method of green manuring and partial summer fallowing, which I believe to be superior to bare summer fallowing and which will largely overcome the objections to summer fallowing.

The plan is to plant some fall crop or early spring crop and plow it under late in May or early in June, practicing a summer fallow with surface cultivation for the rest of the season, until seeding time.

Certain crops adapted to the West are being tested for this purpose with some degree of success. The more promising are sweet clover and sand vetch for fall seeding and field peas for early spring seeding. These crops are hardy, rapid growers, and somewhat drouth resistant and may be used also in part for pasture, thus giving some return other than their fertilizing value. Some experiments have already been made at the Hays Station in Western Kansas and the yields of wheat secured from the green-manuring summer fallow compare favorably with the yields from the bare summer fallow. And in my judgment, this method of fallowing will soon be generally adopted and will solve the problem for a long time at least, of increasing the organic matter and maintaining the productiveness of our western lands.

This method of green manuring and rotation of crops will largely prevent soil drifting, the control of which is a very serious problem in western agriculture. Our experience at the Station at Hays has demonstrated also that large areas in wheat may be protected and largely prevented from being injured by the drifting of soil within the field itself. The spreading of straw or coarse manure and packing the straw into the soil with the subsurface packer was the most effective means employed for protecting the fields from injury by winds last spring (1911). The subsurface packing alone helped to prevent the starting of the drifting soil within the field, but was not very effective in preventing the soil from adjacent fields from sweeping over the wheat field, but the straw covered area actually stopped the drifting soil, causing it to lodge, and thus protected the field beyond the straw barrier.

It is quite as necessary, however, to prevent the drifting of adjacent fields, as to protect the wheat field itself. This may be done by early listing or disking of the fall plowed fields and corn or kaffir stubble fields which are almost sure to drift in a violent wind, when the soil is very dry at the surface. Disking or other surface cultivation will prevent drifting of soil for a time, until the looser portion dries out, then the soil can only be held by deeper cultivation as by listing or plowing. For putting the surface in the best condition to resist wind force a long time, I prefer to break the ground with a lister, forming deeper furrows and higher ridges than may be prepared with the disk or cultivator.

During the season of 1911, which has been extremely dry and hot, the wheat on summer fallow at the Station at Hays made a larger growth and a much better showing in the early part of the season than other wheat, but before the crop matured the conditions of drouth and heat became so severe that the wheat was greatly injured, and the summer fallow produced a little larger yield but a poorer quality of grain than was secured from other land not summer fallowed.

The yields compare approximately as follows: Summer fallowed, five bushels per acre. Not summer fallowed, two bushels per acre. In other localities in Western Kansas where the rain was greater and the condition less severe, the summer fallow made a better showing.

It was also true last season, at the Western Kansas Station, that the extra cultivation in preparing the seed-bed was without beneficial effect, in producing a larger yield of wheat. However, in ordinary seasons the reverse has usually been true; summer fallow has given much larger yields than continuous cropping, and early plowing and extra cultivation have usually given a marked increase in yield in the comparative tests which have been carried on at the Experiment Stations, both at Manhattan in Eastern Kansas and also at Hays in the western third of the state. At the Manhattan Station the careful preparation of the seed-bed was very effective in increasing the yield of wheat in 1911, even doubling and trebling the crop. The results of much of this work are summarized in the succeeding pages.

Three general methods of tillage for preparing the land for winter wheat are practiced in this state, namely: plowing, listing and disking. There may be variations of these three methods; as early plowing, shallow plowing, deep plowing, single listing, double listing, disking without plowing, disking before plowing, little cultivation after plowing, frequent cultivation after plowing, etc., and local conditions may determine which method is the best. That certain methods are superior to others may be readily shown by comparative trials which have been carried on at the Kansas Station during the past two years. These experiments include the several general methods of tillage named above with variations as described in Table I, which gives the yield of wheat per acre and other data determined by those experiments. This work was done at the State Experiment Station at Manhattan, located in the middle eastern part of the state.

TABLE I.—METHODS OF PREPARING SEED-BED FOR WHEAT.[7]

-----------------------------------+------------------------------+
| Yield per Acre, Bushels. |
| |
+------+------+-------+--------+
Methods of Preparation. | 1907-| 1908-| 1910- |Average |
| 1908.| 1909.| 1911. | for |
| | | | Three |
| | | | Years. |
-----------------------------------+------+------+-------+--------+
Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep | 34.74| 40.12| 27.74| 34.20 |
Plowed July 15, 7 inches deep | 28.84| 35.02| 38.36| 34.07 |
Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep; | | | | |
not worked until Sept. 15 | 30.53| 38.12| 23.62| 30.76 |
Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; | | | | |
ridges split Aug. 15 | 28.67| 31.33| 34.35| 29.78 |
Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; | | | | |
ridges harrowed | 20.02| 32.17| 35.07| 29.09 |
Plowed July 15, 3 inches deep | — | — | 33.45| — |
Disked July 15, plowed Aug. 15, | | | | |
7 inches deep | — | — | 32.68| — |
Disked July 15, plowed Sept. 15, | | | | |
7 inches deep | 20.11| 30.56| 23.57| 24.75 |
Plowed Sept. 15, 3 inches deep | 21.19| 30.76| 14.46| 22.14 |
Plowed Sept. 15, 7 inches deep | 19.59| 27.98| 15.79| 21.12 |
Disked at intervals until seeding; | | | | |
not plowed | 14.95| 28.24|4.29[8]| 15.83 |
-----------------------------------+------+------+-------+--------+

-----------------------------------+----------------------------------
| Data for 1919-11
| Crop Only.
+------------+--------+------------
Methods of Preparation. | Cost per |Value of| Value of
| Acre for | Crop at| Crop Less
|Preparation.| $0.80 | Cost of
| | per bu.|Preparation.
-----------------------------------+------------+--------+------------
Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep | $3.90 | $22.19 | $18.29
Plowed July 15, 7 inches deep | 4.95 | 30.69 | 25.74
Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep; | | |
not worked until Sept. 15 | 3.55 | 18.89 | 15.34
Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; | | |
ridges split Aug. 15 | 3.75 | 27.48 | 23.73
Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; | | |
ridges harrowed | 3.70 | 28.05 | 24.35
Plowed July 15, 3 inches deep | 4.45 | 26.77 | 22.32
Disked July 15, plowed Aug. 15, | | |
7 inches deep | 4.70 | 26.14 | 21.44
Disked July 15, plowed Sept. 15, | | |
7 inches deep | 4.35 | 18.85 | 14.50
Plowed Sept. 15, 3 inches deep | 3.05 | 11.57 | 8.52
Plowed Sept. 15, 7 inches deep | 3.55 | 12.63 | 9.08
Disked at intervals until seeding; | | |
not plowed | 1.95 | 3.42 | 1.47
-----------------------------------+------------+--------+------------

[7] See Kansas Experiment Station Circular No. 2 and Bulletin No. 176.

[8] Disked only once just previous to sowing wheat.

Much of it was done by myself or under my direction during eight years of service as agronomist at that station.

Observe that the largest yields have been secured, as an average for the three years from July and August plowing seven inches deep. The July listing has ranked next to early plowing, but yielding on the average nearly five bushels less wheat per acre than early plowing, or a decrease in yield of 14 per cent. The decrease in yield from listing was less in the dry year of 1910-11.

All of the higher yielding plots were cultivated at intervals after plowing or listing with the harrow, disk or Acme. Thus the weeds were destroyed, the soil was well pulverized and well settled and put into excellent seed-bed condition by the first of October, when the wheat was planted.

One or two cultivations after August plowing, at an extra cost of thirty-five cents to fifty cents per acre, has given an average increase in the yield of wheat of three and a half bushels per acre. Land disked before plowing, July 15, and plowed August 15, 1910, gave an increase in yield of five bushels per acre in 1911.

Deep plowing in July, 1910, gave nearly five bushels more wheat per acre in 1911 than shallow plowing. As an average for the several seasons, the September shallow plowing has given a little larger yield than the deeper plowing.

The beneficial effect of early plowing and of frequent cultivation after plowing in preparing the seed-bed for fall wheat was most marked in the dry season of 1910-11, when plowing a month later each time decreased the yield at the rate of ten and one-half to twelve bushels per acre.

The preparation with the lister has proved to be a little less effective than early plowing, but has given better results than early disking followed by plowing a month later. Filling the furrows by harrowing, versus splitting the lister ridges and leveling with the harrow have given about equal results. The second listing is not necessary and makes the preparation somewhat more expensive. Preparing the seed-bed by listing and harrowing is cheaper than early plowing and frequent cultivation. The largest yield and largest net income, however, has been secured from early plowing followed by sufficient cultivation to kill weeds and maintain a mellow soil mulch.

Preparing the seed-bed by disking has given the lowest yields and least income. The disked land has produced on the average each year eighteen bushels less wheat per acre than early plowing. That is, the well prepared seed-bed has given 114 per cent the greater yield, or more than double the yield of the poorly prepared seed-bed, and at very little greater cost of preparation.

The next lowest yield was produced by late plowing, a week or two before the wheat was planted. The average decrease in yield from September plowing compared with July plowing was over twelve bushels per acre per annum, or early plowing increased the yield fifty-four per cent. In the drier seasons of 1910-11 the difference was greater, the early plowing producing more than double the yield received from the late plowing.

“Disking in” wheat in the dry season resulted in an almost complete crop failure, giving a small yield of only four bushels per acre; compared with thirty-eight bushels per acre produced by deep early plowing. This is certainly a marked example of the value of “proper” cultivation in preparing the seed-bed for wheat.

The seed-bed for corn should be deeper and more mellow than the seed-bed for wheat, and the early cultivation of the corn land previous to planting may cause a marked increase in yield, as shown by experiments which have been recently completed at the Kansas Station. These experiments relate to different methods of tillage which may be practiced during the winter or early spring in preparing the seed-bed for corn, and include deep and shallow plowing, double disking, and listing, namely, plowing land into ridges with a double mold-board plow or lister.

In these experiments corn has usually been planted in listed furrows, except that the surface and lister methods of planting have been compared each year on the plowed plots. Table II gives the yield of shelled corn per acre secured by the continued practice of the methods described, for a period of six years. The average yield for three years (1906-08) and for six years (1903-08) is also given.

TABLE II.—PREPARATION OF SEED-BED FOR CORN.

-------------+----------+-----------------------------------+-----+-----
| | Yield Per Acre in Bushels. | Average
| Method +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ 3 | 6
Early | of | | | | | | |Years|Years
Treatment. | Planting.|1903 |1904 |1905 |1906 |1907 |1908 |1906-|1903-
| | | | | | | |1908 |1908
-------------+----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Disked twice |Listed |68.61|55.12|34.74|70.29|41.30|73.60|61.73|57.28
Disked twice,| | | | | | | | |
harrowed |Listed |65.18|50.27|41.48|75.34|44.38|78.80|66.17|59.24
Listed |Listed | | | | | | | |
| in old | | | | | | | |
| furrows | — | — |44.00|80.10|49.81|70.40|66.77| —
Listed |Listed | | | | | | | |
| breaking| | | | | | | |
| ridges |74.28|52.37|40.40|82.29|45.31|74.00|67.20|61.44
Untreated |Listed |64.14|58.35|38.17|68.61|40.87|72.40|60.63|57.09
Plowed | | | | | | | | |
shallow |Listed |64.26|54.96|40.82|84.23|55.48|76.90|72.20|62.28
-------------+----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Average of | |66.69|54.21|39.94|76.81|46.19|74.35|65.78|59.47
listed | | | | | | | | |
-------------+----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Plowed |Surface | | | | | | | |
shallow | planted | — | — |42.40|71.90|46.87|68.40|62.39| —
Plowed | | | | | | | | |
deep | |73.74|70.95|41.66|81.89|51.28|75.40|69.46|65.79
-------------+----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Av. of | | | | | | | | |
surface | | | | | | | | |
planted | |73.74|70.95|42.03|76.80|49.08|71.90|65.93|65.79
-------------+----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----

While the relative yields vary somewhat from year to year, it is very clear that the early plowing and early listing have given increased yields of corn, ranging from six to twelve bushels per acre for the three years, and four to five bushels per acre as an average for six years.

As an average for three years the double disking and harrowing early in the spring has given an increased yield of five and one-half bushels of corn per acre. It will be observed that in the above comparison all of the corn was planted in listed furrows.

Comparing the two methods of planting it appears that the highest yield for three years was produced by listing in the early shallow plowed land: The average yield for six years, however, was 3.3 bushels per acre in favor of the surface method of planting.

The results may be explained by the fact that the seasons of 1904 and 1905 were very wet, hence there was less necessity of conserving soil moisture, and the early cultivation gave little benefit, while the lister method of planting was placed at a disadvantage. The method of planting corn in listed furrows is adapted to dry climate and warm soil. Corn planted in the bottom of a furrow four to six inches deep develops a deeper root system than surface planted corn; hence listed corn is not readily injured by drouth. The effect on the root system is shown by the study of corn roots made at the Station.[9]

[9] See Bulletins 127 and 147.

It is quite evident that the best method of preparing the seed-bed for corn and the best method of planting corn will vary for different climatic and soil conditions. Yet it is very important that the farmer test these methods and determine which is the better for his particular conditions, since the method of seed-bed preparation and the method of planting may be very important factors in securing large yields.

In the cultivation experiments carried on at the Station during the past six years the practice has been to “lay the corn by” with a final cultivation about the first of July. In these experiments the plan has been to cultivate duplicate plots by four different methods, as follows: shallow; deep; deep early and shallow late; shallow early and deep late. The shallow cultivation has been performed with the knife or gopher type of cultivator, while for the deep cultivation, the six-shovel cultivator has been used.

The plan has been not to cultivate excessively deep but only medium deep, three to four inches. The depth of the surface cultivation has averaged one and one-half to two inches. The corn has usually been cultivated four times each season, and the practice has been to cultivate by the same method twice in succession those plots in which the method of cultivation was changed during the season, that is, certain plots were cultivated shallow at the first two cultivations and deep at the last two cultivations, and vice versa. The yield of shelled corn each year and the average yield for seven years, by the different methods of cultivation, are given in Table III.

TABLE III.—CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN, 1903-1909.

----------------+-----------------------------------------+-------------
| Yield of Corn Per Acre, Bushels. | Average
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ 3 | 7
Method of | | | | | | | |years,|years,
Cultivating. |1903 |1904 |1905 |1906 |1907 |1908 |1909 |1907- |1903-
| | | | | | | |1909 |1909
----------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------
Shallow, |51.65|57.51|45.64|56.19|41.21|75.72|35.1 |50.69 |51.86
1 to 2 inches | | | | | | | | |
Shallow, early; |52.96|57.25|49.68|51.67|42.17|87.12|34.7 |54.66 |53.56
deep, late | | | | | | | | |
Deep, |50.87|53.98|50.86|50.55|38.73|78.81|33.7 |56.41 |51.07
3 to 4 inches | | | | | | | | |
Deep, early; |53.66|49.62|49.39|50.09|43.11|76.93|31.3 |50.45 |50.30
shallow, late | | | | | | | | |
Wrong time | — | — | — | — | — |79.7 |44.1 |61.9 |
Right time | — | — | — | — | — |82.9 |51.2 |67.0 |
----------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------

The average yield for the seven years favors the shallow-early-deep-late cultivation by a little over three bushels per acre per year, when compared with the deep-early-shallow-late cultivation, which gave the lowest average yield.

The variation in yield by the different methods of cultivation from year to year and the nearly uniform average yields for the long period of seven years, indicate that the method of cultivation practiced, whether shallow or deep, may not make much difference in the yield of the crop, provided the cultivation is done well and at the right time.

The factors heretofore described, which have to do with seed germination and plant growth, are largely controlled by cultivation. There are, perhaps, no exact rules or methods for cultivating corn, but a farmer observing the crop and soil conditions, and understanding the principles of soil cultivation, may vary the manner and practice of cultivation somewhat to suit the conditions and accomplish the objects desired.

It is very important to cultivate corn at the “right” time. An experiment which has been carried on for two years in cultivating corn at the “right” time and the “wrong” time, has resulted as follows:

Average yield for “wrong” time cultivation, 61.9 bushels per acre. Average yield for “right” time cultivation, sixty-seven bushels per acre, or six and one-tenth bushels per acre in favor of cultivating the corn at the “right” time. The “right” time means soon after the rain, when the weeds have started and the soil is just dry enough to cultivate well; the wrong time is a week or ten days later, when the weeds have become larger and the soil is hard and dry and turns over in clods and lumps. It costs more to cultivate corn at the “wrong” time than at the “right” time, because of the slower and more difficult work and greater draft of the cultivator due to unfavorable soil conditions—and yet the “right” time cultivation increased the yield 10 per cent.

It is important also to use the best implements, but doing the work well and at the right time is even more important than the type of cultivator used. No one type of cultivator can be recommended as superior to others, but different kinds of cultivators are useful for different work and for different conditions. The corn grower should have more than one kind of corn cultivator. I prefer at least two types, one for shallow and one for deep cultivation. The knife and shovel cultivators serve their purpose well, but the disk cultivator may be used in place of shovels, and is especially recommended for use during the early cultivation of listed corn.

It is possible, as shown by the work at the Station, for the wheat farmer who will practice the best culture methods, to increase his yield of winter wheat 50 to 100 per cent by careful and proper preparation of the seed-bed, with practically no greater cost for cultivation (See Table I.).

The skillful corn grower may readily increase his corn yields five bushels per acre by a little extra cultivation of the corn land early in the spring before planting. He may add another five bushels to the crop by practicing the correct method of planting, which experience has proved to be the most suitable to his soil and climate. And finally, by the simple factor of sufficient cultivation of corn at the right time and in the right way he may still further increase the yield at the rate of ten bushels per acre.

Thus it is possible for the farmer who is not now doing these things to add 40 per cent to the average corn yield of his farm by practicing improved culture methods. The yield of other crops may be likewise increased, but the farmer should bear in mind this fact: that the increase in yield by better culture may be secured only by maintaining the fertility of the land and planting well-bred seed adapted to the soil and climate.

THE CHURCH IN THE OPEN COUNTRY.

BY WARREN H. WILSON, _Superintendent of the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States_.

It is my purpose to answer the question, “What is the use of the church in the open country?” We have some people who call themselves “spiritual,” who do not believe there is any permanent use of a church. Their religion consists of an insurance against fire; and as soon as they get a policy from an evangelist, they have no more use of a church, certainly not of a strong church. I want to speak to you of the church as an efficient institution, the builder of rural civilization.

We have other folk who are without land and without ownership of productive tools; they are under economic pressure; they are our American poor. They think they cannot afford anything that is not a necessity. I am here to argue that the church in the open country is a necessity, especially to the poor.

We have also some theorists, who believe that all rural institutions should be assembled in towns and villages, and that ultimately the farmers should reside there, going out every morning to their fields. I hope the time will never come when American farmers will so live. And I wish to speak to you of the church in the open country as the conserver of the soil, of the social life, the family and the school in the country.

The first reason for the existence of the church in the open country is the fact that “the soil is holy.” Already we are faced with a depleted soil in some of our richest agricultural states. But when the soil produces less, the poor will have to pay more for food and for wearing apparel. We have been warned that the time will come when the workingman cannot any longer wear wool or eat white bread. I have observed in the last two years that the clothes which I buy from a tailor who has supplied me for seventeen years do not any longer attract the moths. The moth turns up his nose at cotton, and cries for wool. The business of the farmer and of the sheep raiser is a religious business, because it is in the interest of the whole people. Whatever makes for the prosperity of the farmer will enrich and dignify all the people. The church is an institution essential to good farming, and it should be maintained where the farmer lives, out in the open fields.

Religion is a valuation of life. It values some things high, and some low, but it is, in the opinion of a recent scholar of repute, a system of values. Its highest word is “holy.” The land in which the Hebrews were settled was called “the Holy Land,” and nowadays the teachers of modern farming are declaring to the young, “The land is holy.” At a recent summer school for country ministers a professor lectured upon “the Holy Land,” meaning Palestine; and a great agriculturist came also to lecture upon the soil of the state in which the school was held, announcing his theme as “The Holy Earth.” We are entering a new era in religion, in which the values of life will be estimated by their services to the poor. In this consecration of the soil to the interest of the whole people the church of the open country will have a great place.

I know a minister in Maryland, where the soil has been exhausted by generations of peach-culture, and the farmers are turning to other crops in order to make a living. There the minister has found that his business is to preach scientific agriculture, and his most impressive service has been to raise a great crop of potatoes, with a dust mulch, the greatest ever raised at that time in that region. He became the leader of those farmers in the actual struggle for a livelihood. He helped them set their business on a firm footing. He preached as he worked, and his people responded accordingly.

The second reason for the maintaining of the church in the open country is the fact that it is the best school by which to teach the farmers to give of their prosperity to the community and to the common good. Farming is an austere occupation. The best farmers are always economically austere, which is defined by an economist as “the condition in which men produce much and consume little.” The very definition shows that of all occupations farming must be the most austere. But the practice of this austerity makes the farmer close and often mean. He stints himself and he stints everybody else. He refuses to support good roads, and he declines to pay for better schools because he is not a spender but a producer.

The church, of all institutions, makes the closest and most intimate appeal to the farmer. It is his school of giving. It has an agent living in the community, needing to be supported. The salary of the minister, and the supplying of his needs, are a constant education in the building of community utilities. The schools will be better maintained, the roads will be sooner reconstructed, even at greater cost, and the poor will be better cared for, where the church exists in the open country; to fertilize, with its appeals, the sour soil of the farmers’ austerity, with the needed ingredients for benevolence.

The third reason for the church in the open country is the fact that the church is a family builder. The rural household, which for three generations was the spring of American idealism, has been dissolved, in the past twenty years, by speculation. The exploitation of farm lands has made so many families nomads, and has retired so many farmers to the towns, that there is need of a new era of home building in the country.

The best fitted of all institutions for this service is the church. Her work, as she well knows, is with the young. Her membership is always made up largely of women, and with them lies the future of the American home in the country. The moving force in the exodus from the farm is too often the woman. The church will do more to make life worth while for her on the farm than all other institutions.

The fourth use of the church in the open country is as a center of the concern for the farmer’s income. The church in the country which does not sanctify the livelihood of the farmer will not survive. “The most successful farmers in America,” says an economist, “are the Mormons, the Scotch Presbyterians and the Pennsylvania Dutch.” All these are religious farmers, and their churches are their coöperative associations for farming. They all idealize country life. They are organized for agriculture. But, mark this, in all these country churches—and their churches are out in the open—the church has concern for the prosperity of its farmers as farmers. The income is the man’s job, and when the church would get the men it will care for the income. The Lord Almighty cares more for the feeding of the whole people than for any other thing. First of all God is the Father of men, and He cares most for their satisfaction in material things than for their having books, or for their having any of the higher refinements. If the people have not abundance of food and warm clothing, all moral and religious values will suffer. Therefore the farmer is the Lord’s hired man; and the church’s first business in the open country is “to produce the spirit in which the knowledge will be used, which will enable the farmer to succeed.”

The transition in economic affairs, through which we are passing, is working its effects upon the country churches. For the church is the best of all thermometers of the social economy. Many churches in the country are being closed. In the South alone, according to the Southern Baptist organ, sixteen hundred Baptist and Methodist country churches are closed every Sunday of the year. In the state of Illinois, our sociological surveys have shown that about seventeen hundred country churches have been closed and abandoned. It is the elimination of the unfit. It is the realignment of the religious people for greater efficiency, at new centers. There is no sign that country people are less religious than they were. But there is every indication that the churches are being sifted on the principle of efficiency.

The churches are suffering at the farmers’ hands another process, which I would like to describe as dehorning. It is like the removal of the horns from the heads of dairy cows; and it has the same purpose. Doctrinal subjects which divide are being tabooed, and the churches are no longer to hook and horn one another, but to live together in peace and produce the most of the milk of human kindness, with the greatest economy in the fodder of doctrine.

This transition is showing also in the inventing of a new type of church. It is appearing all over the land at the same time. I find it in all denominations, and it bears the marks of the same spirit everywhere. My friend, McNutt, at Plainfield, Illinois, has become the most eminent exponent of this new ideal of the pastorate, but he is far from being the only man who is so succeeding. He has a unique power of telling of his work; but many others, who cannot tell of it, can do as well. His church has the heart of the community; and there all the people, especially the young, gather for musical culture, for recreation, as well as for worship.

The modern church for the open country will be a community center. It will bring all the people together, by serving the needs which are common to all. For the community has taken the place once held by the farm household, as the circle of the life of country people. Tradition once ruled farming, but its place has been taken by science. The farmer can no longer teach his son to farm the land, therefore the household cannot dominate the country, as once it did. The new ideals of country life are community ideals. And the churches which are succeeding in the country are community churches.

The community center church cares for the young, for the growing boys and girls of the community, and for the farm hands. It is a center for the recreative life of the people. Music has its home in that church. Plays are presented under its auspices. The holidays of the year are celebrated at its instigation. Every needful enterprise that the country community requires for its development is fostered by the community church. I have known side paths to be made on country roads, in this manner, the whole countryside coming together for a “frolic” for the purpose of laying out these walks. I have known a country bank to be started in this way. There is no limit to the good that can be done in the country, in making country life worth while, by a church which has the community spirit.

My friends, worship is the symbol of the community. The church spire out in the fields is the center around which the whole locality revolves. The common assembly, on Sunday, does more, all over the open spaces of this great land, to organize people in neighborhoods, and to cultivate a country life ideal, and to make country life worth while, than all other institutions combined.

For there is nothing in the high price of farm land to keep the boy and girl on the farm. The only way for the conservation of the highest value of country life is to secure pastors who will live in the country, and churches through which they may build men into communities of farmers, contented, devoted to the work of a Divine Providence, and crowning the productive labor of the week with worship on the Lord’s Day, in the place where the community meets most fitly, in the church of the open country.

THE EXTENSION OF THE POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM TO OUR SCHOOLS AND ITS VALUE TO THE PRESENT AND COMING GENERATION.

BY F. A. FILSON, _President of the Missouri Association of Assistant Postmasters_.

Of the three great forward movements which have marked the history of the postal service during the past dozen years the inauguration and extension of the postal savings system is, we believe, destined to be the greatest and most far-reaching in its effects on the general welfare of the great mass of our people. Rural delivery, the first of the three great forward movements, it is true, has been not only a phenomenal success but has been of untold value to all classes of our people and is sure to grow in popularity and efficiency as the years go by. And the parcels post, the third great movement which we believe is sure to be inaugurated will in a measure revolutionize many branches of business, but in the end be of untold blessing and value to the masses; and whatever in our country is of great and lasting benefit to the masses is sure to be accomplished notwithstanding the opposition of wealthy corporations and selfish personal interests.

The postal savings system, like all other great forward movements, in its infancy met with violent opposition from many classes of our citizens, who for selfish reasons or lack of information violently opposed the enactment of the necessary legislation for its installation. Many of the same arguments which have been worn threadbare in the discussion of rural free delivery, parcels post and other progressive measures, were again brought into use and vociferously enunciated through the press and from the public platform and on the floors of Congress; but after mature deliberation and thorough discussion the right prevailed, as it generally does, and the necessary bill was enacted by Congress and a committee appointed who immediately got busy and laid plans for the inauguration of the system and adopted rules and regulations for the conduct of the business. Be it said to the everlasting honor and credit of this committee and its co-workers that the system evolved is, in the judgment of your humble servant, one of the very best, most comprehensive and practical of any system of its kind in use throughout the world. In fact, it is the product of the experience of all other nations plus the practical common sense American ideas of our illustrious chief and his co-workers on the committees. While our system is yet in its infancy, the phenomenal record it is making and the ease and celerity with which the machinery of the same is moving quietly along proves conclusively that while it may not be perfect it is founded upon correct principles and with a few alterations will become famous throughout the world as the American system of postal savings. It is with considerable pride that its advocates and promoters can point to the fact that every one of the predictions which they made before its inauguration and during the long campaign for the enactment of the necessary legislation has already been fully and conclusively demonstrated and proven beyond the possibility of a reasonable doubt. In fact, many of the bankers and those who so violently opposed the inauguration of the system have become fully convinced of the fact that it will be no detriment to the banking business of the country, but, on the other hand, will be of inestimable value in bringing from its hiding place the idle currency of the country and placing it in the banks and putting it into circulation. Not only has it demonstrated that it does and will do this, but it has, in the localities where depositories have been opened, originated and is continuing a sentiment favorable to creating and maintaining savings funds among many classes of people who have never before given the matter as much as a serious thought. The experience of our postal savings depository at Cameron is, I presume, about the same as that in other localities, namely, that over sixty per cent of our 300 or more depositors are men, women and children who never before had a bank account of any kind.

From our standpoint we believe that the fact that the system thus induces such thrift and frugality will be of untold blessing to the present as well as coming generations, and that as a result our nation will become richer and greater in the coming years and its people more prosperous, contented and happy. While the system inaugurated by the committee in charge is complete and comprehensive, yet in the very beginning of our experience at Cameron we saw the need of a little further extension of the same, and after giving the matter much thought and serious consideration we laid plans and have inaugurated in all the schools of our city penny savings banks, to be operated in each room of the schools, under the direction and charge of the superintendent and teachers. This system of penny savings banks in the schools works in connection, and is really a part of, our postal savings depository at the post office; and while it is an idea of my own, yet I have submitted it to the postmaster general and the postal savings system committee, and hope in the near future to see it adopted and extended to all the schools throughout the country. It is very simple and easily instituted and operated, and we believe will be heartily and enthusiastically received by the teachers of a majority of the schools throughout the country.

A brief explanation of the system, as we have it in Cameron, I believe would be of interest to all postal officials that have to do with the postal savings system, and I therefore take pleasure in presenting at this time a brief outline of the same, and would be pleased at any time to explain the workings more in detail or answer any questions that may be propounded.

The extension of the postal savings system to our schools and the establishment of the penny savings banks therein is based upon the facts that many of our children do not receive as much as ten cents at one time for their labor or for their spending money, and that they, like many of their elders, find it very difficult and at times almost impossible to keep money in their pockets for any given length of time. In fact, in many cases it immediately begins to “burn their pocket,” and must be spent at once. Hence their pennies and nickels are spent before they accumulate the necessary ten cents with which to purchase a saving card at the Post Office. Then again, the tendency of our time for years has been for the youth of the land to spend all they have or get, be it much or little, with great rapidity and absolutely without any idea of its value. In the inauguration of penny savings banks in our schools we endeavored to impress two valuable admonitions on the minds of every pupil: First, that every boy and girl should, as soon as he enters school, make it a point to earn a small amount of money each week; and, second, that they should make it an invariable rule to save at least one-half of all the money earned and given them and place it in a savings fund. In giving these two admonitions we made the assertion that if those in the primary department would follow these rules and deposit their money in the postal savings banks and invest it in government bonds, compounding their interest by withdrawing and depositing same, that at the age of twenty-five years the larger majority of them would have amassed sufficient capital to enter into any retail business in our city.

In introducing this extension I first laid the matter fully before our superintendent and received his unqualified endorsement of the same, and then arranged for a meeting with all the teachers of our schools and to them presented the postal savings system and our extension system for the schools, and after a full explanation they, with the superintendent, voted unanimously to place the same in our schools. Immediately after the opening of the schools I visited each one separately and presented the matter to the pupils and opened a penny savings bank, which was placed in charge of the teacher. I closed this feature of the work on Friday, September 15, and the results to date have been eminently satisfactory and very gratifying. I have arranged with the teachers to have them submit a weekly report during the two remaining weeks of this month showing, first the total number of depositors, second the total amount deposited, and third the average age of depositors. After the close of this month these reports will be made monthly instead of weekly.

ADDRESS.

F. C. SCHWEDTMAN, _Chairman of the Delegation of the National Association of Manufacturers of U. S. A._

Permit me to extend to you, in the name of the great organization which I have the honor to represent, the good will, coöperation and support of thousands of progressive manufacturers from almost every state and city of the Union in every sane endeavor to preserve the natural resources of our nation.

I have listened with keen interest to yesterday’s and today’s arguments for the conservation of coal and timber, soil and water. It seemed to me particularly significant to have a lumberman in the person of the honorable chairman of your executive committee urge the preservation of our forests, and it was equally fitting to hear our great farmer Governor of Missouri make a plea for the soil. Of course, both of these gentlemen spoke upon subjects nearest to their hearts. Unfortunately I am not a farmer, but their action gives me courage to devote a few minutes to a few phases of the conservation problem nearest my heart.

Allow me, an employer of industrial labor, to plead for higher efficiency in the industries and especially for better opportunities for the millions of toilers, in the shops as well as upon the farm. The greatest nation of the future will be the nation that best understands how to economize and preserve human energy and happiness at home, and how to build up trade abroad.

President Taft told us last night how, by mixing science and proper education, our crops per acre can be doubled and trebled. In the same way can the output of our mines and factories be increased tenfold in value by industrial education. Instead of selling steel billets to the nations of the world, we want to sell them sewing machines, dynamos and watch springs; and instead of exporting raw cotton we want to export high grade cotton goods. This requires government support for industrial education, and I urge you, in return for our aid to secure agricultural schools and experimental stations, you give us yours to secure scientific industrial training. The National Association of Manufacturers is persistently and systematically working to that end. And there is another phase of preservation even more important. Among the measures pointed out in your handbook to which the association will give its vigorous support, both legislative and administrative, I find this: “Means wisely designed to diminish sickness, prevent accidents, and increase the welfare and comfort of American life, believing that human efficiency, health and happiness are natural resources quite as important as forests, water, land and minerals.” Now, I do know something of this feature of the preservation movement, and after the vigorous campaigning which the National Association of Manufacturers has carried on in the last two years for “human preservation” under my supervision, I feel that it is not only of equal importance to soil preservation, but more so.

Authorities tell us that in comparison of the vital and physical assets of a nation, as measured by earning power, the former are from three to five times as valuable as the latter. These authorities assert that there is as great room for improvement of our vital resources as in our lands, waters, minerals and forests, and that this improvement is possible in respect to both the length of life and to freedom from disease and accidental injury during life.

Prof. Irving Fisher estimates (in Bulletin Number 30 of the committee of one hundred on national health) that $250,000,000,000 is a minimum estimate of the vital assets of the United States in 1907 and that of the estimated annual loss of three billions of dollars due to sickness, accident and death, one-half, or one and one-half billion dollars, is preventable.

According to Dr. Tolman, the total number of work casualties suffered by our army of wage-workers is sufficient to carry on perpetually two such wars at the same time as the Russo-Japanese and our Civil war. According to the same authority, our railroads, during the year of 1906, killed and wounded more persons than were killed and wounded in the six bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

In all these directions our losses are from five to ten times greater proportionately than those of the most progressive European nations, and what are we doing about it?

The National Association of Manufacturers has carefully compiled facts and figures and has everlastingly spread the gospel of preventing these losses and compensating equitably the sufferers from unpreventable losses.