Chapter II

of this Guide.

[Sidenote: Farm Finance]

You cannot read the articles already mentioned, and consider all that has to be done in merely getting a farm ready to be worked, without realizing how grossly unfair it is that the American farmer should be hampered, as he is, by the want of proper banking facilities when he is making a start. And after he has bought and prepared his land and equipped and stocked his farm he needs, each year, money to finance his crops. For any loan used in the purchase of land and in permanent improvements such as buildings, drainage, irrigation, a mortgage is the natural security; but the short-term farm mortgages—five years at most—customary in the United States, do not give the farmer as much time as he needs for repayment, no matter how successful he may be. The average farm offers quite as good a certainty of continued earning power as does the average railroad, and farm mortgages should be—in fairness—regarded not as opportunities for short loans, but as sound standing investments, just as suitable as railroad bonds for conservative investors. The farmer’s position is even worse when he needs a short loan that he will be able to repay as soon as his crops have been sold, for he is then expected either to give a mortgage as security or to pay exorbitant interest.

Notwithstanding the prosperous conditions of farming in the United States, the country as a whole produces only half as much grain for every acre of farm land as is produced in Europe, and the only reason is that most of our farmers lack the capital needed in order to get the fullest yield from their land. In the chief European countries, the system of banking facilities for farmers, described in the article CO-OPERATION (Vol. 7, p. 86), by Aneurin Williams, shows what can be done, and sooner or later will be done, in the United States. This article fully describes the admirable Raiffeisen banks in Germany, which are based upon the idea that a society of farmers (restricted to the neighborhood, so that each member’s honesty and capability are known to the other members) make themselves jointly responsible for loans to the members. A promissory note is the only security required. The French, Italian, Austrian, and other systems are also discussed in the Britannica, but the German plan is that which offers the best example to America.

[Sidenote: Plants and Crops]

This course of reading has now covered the conditions and the material required for farming, and it is time to get down to something that _grows_. In the old books everything about the life of a plant was treated as a part of the science of botany, and if you remember the botany you were taught at school, you remember a string of long names and very little else. There is of course an article on botany in the Britannica, but it deals chiefly with the history of botanical science, and the life of the plant is treated under another heading, and in a novel, interesting, and practical way. The article PLANTS (Vol. 21, p. 728) is indeed one of the most important and unusual in the Encyclopædia, giving the results of recent investigation which you could not find in any other book. It is written by eight contributors, all men who have done a great deal of original work. The section on classes of plants is by Dr. Rendle, that on the anatomy of plants by A. G. Tansley, that on the healthy life of plants by Professor J. Reynolds Green, that on their diseases by Professor H. Marshall Ward, that on the relation between plants and their surroundings by Dr. C. E. Moss, that on plant cells by Harold Wager, that on the forms and organs of plants by Professor S. H. Vines, and that on the distribution of plants in various parts of the world by Sir. W. Thiselton-Dyer. Special accounts of the chief parts of the plant are given in the articles LEAF (Vol. 16, p. 322), STEM (Vol. 25, p. 875), and ROOT (Vol. 23, p. 712). The success of artificial fertilization or impregnation is explained (Vol. 13, p. 744) in the article HORTICULTURE.

Apart from the diseases described in the section, already mentioned, of the article PLANTS, the greatest danger to which crops are exposed is that of insect pests, and the special article ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY, dealing with them (Vol. 8, p. 896), gives a full account of each of the remedies that have proved useful. The cotton boll weevil is the subject of a most interesting section of the article COTTON (Vol. 7, p. 261). Separate articles are devoted to individual pests, such as LOCUST (Vol. 16, p. 857), and—turning to a larger enemy—RABBIT (Vol. 22, p. 767). There is no bird that troubles the farmer, or helps him by killing insects, upon which there is not an article, for more than 200 distinct bird articles are listed under the heading “Birds” on p. 891 of Vol. 29 (the index volume), in addition to the information in the article BIRD (Vol. 3, p. 959), and the article on families of birds (Vol. 20, p. 299).

The crops of all climates are treated in general in the article AGRICULTURE, and in particular under their individual names, all of which are so familiar, and indeed so fully listed on p. 889 of Vol. 29 (the index volume), that they need not be repeated here. Naturally you will include in this course of reading the crops with which you are personally concerned, and in any case you ought to read GRASS AND GRASSLAND (Vol. 12, p. 367), and GRASSES (Vol. 12, p. 369).

[Sidenote: Wheat]

The article WHEAT (Vol. 28, p. 576) deals with one of the chief products of “the greatest cereal producing region of the world.” It begins the story of a wheat crop with the burning of the old straw of the previous year, then takes up ploughing, harrowing, seeding, thrashing, labor in connection with all these operations, and transportation and marketing. At this point, the article FLOUR AND FLOUR MANUFACTURE (Vol. 10, p. 548), by G. F. Zimmer, takes up the later history of wheat. It may surprise you to learn from the Britannica that wheat first found its way to America through a few grains being accidentally mixed with some rice. BARLEY (Vol. 3, p. 405) is an interesting article on the grain that is the oldest cereal food of the human race, and that is also remarkable for its power to grow over a greater range of latitude than any other grain. COTTON (Vol. 7, p. 256), by Professor Chapman, is an article of which the vast importance may be judged by the following table taken from page 261:

[Illustration: PRODUCTS FROM A TON OF COTTON SEED]

Cotton seed, 2000 pounds +------+----------------------+---------- | | | | Linters, 23 pounds | | ------------------ | Meats, 1090 pounds Hulls, 888 pounds -----+---------+-- +------+-------+---- | | | | | Cake, 800 pounds| | | | ---+------------+ | | | | | | | | Meal | | | | ---------------------------+ | | | (Feeding stuff. Fertilizer)| Fibre | | Bran ---------------------------+ ---+---+ | -+-- | | | | | --------+----------+-------+------ Crude Oil, 290 pounds (High-grade paper) | (Cattle food) ----+----------+----- -------------------+-------------- | | | Summer Yellow |Soap stock (Fuel) | +-------+------------- +----+----- --+--------+--------------+ |(Winter|Cotton seed | | | |yellow | stearin) Soaps Ashes -------+----- +-------+----------- ----- --+-- (Cattle food) | | with the meal | | | | Salad oil | | +-------------------- | | | Summer white Fertilizer | +----+--------------- These together, |Lard| a very valuable +----+ manure |Cottolene (with beef stearin, cooking oil) +------------------------------------------ |Miners’ oil +----------- |Soap +----

Every one of the other cereal and general crops produced in any part of the world is treated in the Britannica with the same fullness of information and with the same practical detail which characterizes these articles on wheat, barley and cotton.

Some of the principal articles on the routine of farming such as sowing, reaping, and the like, have already been mentioned in connection with agricultural machinery. The articles on individual countries contain sections on the crops of each of them, and you will find CANADA (Vol. 5, p. 152), and GERMANY (Vol. 11, p. 810), of special interest. The special features of tropical farming are described in the articles on tropical crops.

[Sidenote: Fruit and Flower Growing]

The article FRUIT AND FLOWER FARMING (Vol. 11, p. 260) covers fruit culture in general, and, in the section of it which deals with the United States (Vol. 11, p. 268), the American fruit crops. This section describes the wonderful development of the fruit industry since cold transportation and cold storage enabled consumers in every part of the country, and in Europe as well, to purchase fruit grown in whatever state most advantageously produces any one variety. You should select, from the twenty separate articles on individual fruits, not only those on the varieties which you are already growing, but those on any others that are possible in the part of the country where your land lies. The section on fruit in the article on HORTICULTURE (Vol. 13, p. 775) is devoted to growing on a smaller scale, in gardens. It contains (Vol. 13, p. 780) a practical calendar to show each month’s work.

Flower culture is the subject of special sections in both the articles above named and there is a descriptive list (Vol. 13, p. 766) of more than three hundred hardy annuals, biennials, and perennials, full of practical information. The calendar already mentioned indicates the dates for indoor and out-door operations. From the many articles on individual flower plants listed at the end of Part 3 of this chapter you can make your own choice.

[Sidenote: Poultry and Bees]

Poultry and their rearing are dealt with in the articles POULTRY AND POULTRY FARMING (Vol. 22, p. 213), FOWL (Vol. 10, p. 760), TURKEY (Vol. 27, p. 467), GUINEA FOWL (Vol. 12, p. 697), DUCK (Vol. 8, p. 630), GOOSE (Vol. 12, p. 241), and INCUBATION and INCUBATORS (Vol. 14, p. 359). Bee-keeping and the honey industry are treated in the articles BEE (Vol. 3, p. 625) and HONEY (Vol. 13, p. 653). Truck farming is treated in the section dealing with vegetables (Vol. 13, p. 776), of the article HORTICULTURE. Apart from the law as to water rights already mentioned the legal doctrine most particularly affecting farmers is that of EMBLEMENTS (Vol. 9, p. 308). GRAIN TRADE (Vol. 12, p. 322), and GRANARIES (Vol. 12, p. 336), the latter describing the latest type of grain elevators, are articles of great interest to farmers who specialize in cereal crops.

The new system of purchase of grain by the government, which is working admirably in Western Canada, protects the farmer against the speculators who buy standing crops for less than a fair price, and it is to be hoped that some similar plan may be adopted in the United States.

ECONOMICS (Vol. 8, p. 899), by Professor Hewins, CO-OPERATION (Vol. 7, p. 82), and TARIFF (Vol. 26, p. 422), deal with topics related to the marketing of all agricultural products. The articles on learned societies have an extensive section (Vol. 25, p. 317) on the agricultural societies of all countries.

[Sidenote: The History of Farming]

Agricultural history is, naturally, based upon the history of vegetable life, and the fossil plants described in the article PALÆOBOTANY (Vol. 20, p. 524), long as their appearance preceded that of man, greatly affected the nature of the earth’s crust which he was to occupy.

The earliest of all known writings, the Code of Khammurabi, described in the article on Babylonian Law, shows (Vol. 3, p. 117) that agriculture was the subject of careful legislation under the oldest government of which a contemporary record has survived; and the provisions as to the working of land on the “metayer” system, under which the landowner received from the landholder a share of the crops, and as to irrigation, are most explicit and practical. Ancient Egyptian implements of agriculture are fully described (Vol. 9, p. 69) in the article EGYPT, and pictures of them appear on page 72 of the same volume. If the ancient history of farming interests you, it is only necessary for you to turn to the heading “Agriculture,” in the Index (Vol. 29), where you will find references to a number of other articles on the early civilizations.

From these articles, as from the historical section of the guiding article AGRICULTURE, and the passages relating to agriculture in many of the 6,292 articles on the histories of races and countries, the reader may learn that agriculture has been the key to all history. The earliest migrations of the human race, as definitely as the comparatively recent development of America, Australasia and the interior of Africa, were based upon an agricultural impetus. And his reading upon other subjects in the Encyclopædia Britannica will often remind him that the wool and cotton and linen and leather that we wear, the carpets and blankets and sheets in our houses, all originated in farming of one kind or another; while every food that nourishes us, save fish and game, is directly an agricultural product. All the bustle of the great cities, all the wheels that turn in the mills, all the intricate mechanism of industry and commerce, all the world’s work and thought and happiness, depend upon the mysterious and inimitable processes by which the brown soil yields green growth. For all the progress science has made, we are no nearer to replacing these processes by any short cut of chemistry than were the first farmers whose husbandry is recorded in history. If all the little roots ceased for one year to do their work in the dark, the human race would hopelessly starve to death.

The alphabetical list of articles at the end of