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The Farming Specials
One of the latest and most successful activities of the railroads is the practice of carrying knowledge of the best farming methods to the farmers by means of special trains equipped like agricultural colleges. These trains, bearing experts and all the equipment for exhibiting the new methods of agriculture, bring the knowledge to the farmers free, and the railroads are glad to give it, for every bit of knowledge comes back to them in a hundred fold profit in freight. In the summer eager audiences all over the country listen to the preaching of better methods and larger crops. Dozens of special trains travel through the agricultural regions disseminating information. The "Breakfast Bacon Special" has been run to encourage Iowa farmers to raise more hogs to take advantage of the high price of bacon. The Cotton Belt Route southwest of St. Louis runs the "Squealer Special" to prove to the Arkansas and Panhandle farmers the money-making advantages of blooded hogs over the razor-back variety. Down the Mississippi Valley the Illinois Central sends the "Boll Weevil Special" to conduct a campaign against that pest. The Harriman lines have six trains operating in California every year. In one year they visited more than seventy-five thousand people. Better farming specials run in practically every state south of the Ohio and Potomac and west of the Mississippi. The New York Central also has two trains in operation in New York.—The Business Almanac.
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A large proportion of farmers give little or no attention to the selection of seed; yet it has been demonstrated that a careful selection would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the total value of the crops. If, for example, a variety of wheat were developed capable of producing one more kernel to the head, it would mean an addition, so Burbank says, of 15,000,000 bushels to our average wheat crop. It is possible, however, to do even more than this. At the Minnesota station a variety, selected for ten years according to a definite principle, yielded twenty-five per cent more than the parent variety. Applied to our average crop, that increase would amount to 185,000,000 bushels, worth about $140,000,000. As for corn, it has been officially stated that our average yield could easily be doubled. After exhaustive experiments the Department of Agriculture says that by merely testing individual ears of seed corn and rejecting those of low vitality an average yield of nearly fourteen per cent could be secured, adding about $200,000,000 to the value of the crop. Does scientific seed selection seem worth while?—The Wall Street Journal.
CHAPTER XX
BANKING
Imagine that you are a druggist in a small town. Suppose that a woman comes in to buy two ounces of camphor and in exchange gives you three eggs. In a few moments, perhaps, a man enters to buy a safety razor and brings with him wheat enough to pay the bill. Another, again, wishes to trade a turkey for a fountain pen. You can readily see the inconvenience to which you would be put in such exchange of actual commodities; yet this was the method used in primitive times, a method called barter.
To overcome the inconvenience of barter, as civilization advanced, it became necessary to establish a common medium of exchange, which could be accepted for anything one had to sell and with which one could buy anything he wished. This is what we call money. To meet the requirements, money must not be bulky, must be durable, and must not readily change in value. In civilized countries gold and silver are the bases of exchange.