OCR Text |
Show Making a Tarm Paper. The statement tnaj seem surprising, and jet It Is true, that the ti'ofutnis of nn agricultural paper depends almost al-most as much upon the readers of th" samo ns upon Its editors The aim of every honest editor should be to put his own best thought Into his work, nnd to clvo tho same for tho benefit of his renders. He will glvo tho best that ho has. Uvery tlmo the paper reaches Its readers It ought to carry with It tho choice-it treasure of his mind The piper pi-per Is his altar, nnd In Its every Issue he pourB out a llbutlon in sacrifice as It wcro to the welfare of his readers Jlut this Is only a part of his ilut llii Is or ought to bo a scavenger of useful Information, betrlng upon agriculture, from every legitimate source And what ho gathers from tlmo to time will bo presented to his readers In forms new nnd old Hut this will not nnko a paper what It ought to be, though It may go a considerable con-siderable length In tint direction Tho thought and writings of no one man can mako a paper what It ought to be, and for the reason that no ono man Is broad enough or versatile nouch to grasp tho wholo of the great subject of agriculture. Ho may know much about It and may be considered n great authority au-thority upon It. but he will not. bo-cause bo-cause of Its vastness nnd many-sidedness, grasp It In Its entirety, nnd bo-caufo bo-caufo of this, his own personal productions produc-tions will only partially cover tho field. How, then, Is It to be covered? How aro tho readers to bo given all tho fool they ought to get and In that condition which villi bo at once nppetlzlng nnd helpful? The paragraph now BUbnilt-ted BUbnilt-ted will answer this question. Tho readers of the paper must furnish fur-nish much of tho Information In no other way can thosa chatfges nnd differences dif-ferences In method called for by changed conditions or dlfercnt conditions condi-tions bo ascertained. In ono locality n certain way of doing a certain thing Is bost. In another locallly It may not bo best, In fact to adopt It may provo disastrous Now thosa methods that are best adapted to those varied conditions con-ditions can only be ascertained by those who till tho lands In these lo-spectlve lo-spectlve localities. In other words, such knowledge Is tho outcome of thelt experience liccnuse of this tho helpfulness help-fulness of experiment stntlons tn tho line of field agriculture Is not nearly whatJt would ho wero tho conditions ascertained by actual experiences. Theso variations In method enn only bo proved by thosa who till tho lands In each locality. Such Information cannot can-not be given out to those who need it, save by those who havo gathered It. It must be given out by them directly or through his agents. They must themselves send It for publication, or the editor must gather It directly or through his ngents. The Immense advantage ad-vantage of tho former over tho latter method villi be at onco apparent. Prof. Thomas bhaw In the St. Paul Parmer. |