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Show POOR FARMS AS MODELS. "Make the county poor farms the model farms of every county where the lessons of good seed, good fertilizing and good methods shnll be taught," this the slogan soon to be proclaimed by a committee com-mittee seeking a practical plan of soil conservation and general agricultural education. The need for some nation-wide, practical method of arousing farmers to the immediate profit of building up instead of depleting their farms, Avas given new impetus by the speech of James J. Hill, at the opening of the great Land Show in Chicago. "If American resources are to be conserved, the farmer must, be educated on his own ground and in a practical way," said Mr. Hill. "Practically all of the so-called expert or practical information on farming disseminated dis-seminated by our colleges today, is too technical to be understood by the farmer. It goes over his head. If the .farmer is to be made to understand the value of the soil and how to replace its fertility he will have to be met on his land and shown how to do it there. He doesn't pay any attention to present methods for conserving the soil, ne is going ahead in the same way that the farmers have done through all the centuries. The same thing -vvas done years ago in Morocco and in the days of Rome. At one. time in the world's history, Sicily produced 12,000,000 bushels ' of wheat and. now it produces onh 1,000,000. The, farmer Avorked ,tlie soil as long as he could without thought of fertilization." |