The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 01, 1900, Image 30

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    26
THE BATTALION.
and, putting faith in your stock of such
learning, reap the rich harvests that
we know await the improved meth
ods of cultivation of the soil and the
greater values to be derived from
propagation and production of all
kinds of earth growths. Of what value
has your training to you or youi- coun
try if you can’t surpass your fathers in
the selection of soils and seeds—in
the times and tools for cultivation? If
there’s anything in your agricultural
education, put it into practice and an
swer the question yourself, “How can
Texas fortunes be reached tb-day?”
There are fortunes hidden in Texas
soils to-day for everyone of you if you
will but dig for them. They no longer
lie on the surface. There are millions
in the home manufacture and pre
serving of Texas soil products. Why
should we use northern canned fruits
and vegetables? All we need to turn
the traffic from one of imports to one
of exports in all these lines is the in
vestment of a goodly amount of intelli
gence with a little grit and energy. We
need not argument, but action. There
are thousands of .dollars sent from
Texas annually for rose plants alone,
saying nothing of the more expended
in northern markets for the many
other shrubs that grace our flower
gardens. Why not keep these dollars
at home by propagating these plants
in their native soils? Hundreds of
ignorant bunglers are trying in their
way to do these things all over the
State, but your knowledge they are
lacking to make that success that na
ture has guaranteed to our soils and
clime. Why not you become our nur
serymen? There are hundreds and
hundreds of carloads of potatoes
brought to Texas every year. We can
raise them at home. Can you tell how
to keep them for winter use? ’Tis not
the man of muscle nor the man of dol
lars that is needed in Texas to-day,
but the man who knows the why, the
what, and the how, and who thinks
it not a disgrace to soil his shirt in
applying this knowledge. Young men
of the agricultural department, there
are yet many fortunes in Texas for
you if you will but apply the brain
power you have acquired here to get
them out. By scientific fertilizing the
wornout hillsides will produce again,
by proper ditching and levying thou
sands of acres of swamp and glade
lands will yield their abundant income,
by a little experimenting hundreds of
untried crops will be found of surpass
ing value. Brains, properly applied,
is the great demand in the Texas agri
cultural industries to-day. Thro’ the
waste channel of ignorance the Texai
farmers and stockraisers lose every
year enough to support their families.
In the face of this our best young men
have, under a false lash., been driven
from the farm and ranch to the city
life and the professions. In the past
as fast as country boys could prepare
themselves for college work, they hied
themselves off to the city to be a law
yer, a counter-jumper, a doctor, or a
school-teacher. Some have been wise
in their choice and successful in their
practice, but many have but spoiled a
good farmer or breeder. The time
has come when this must stop. And
the entire State of Texas is looking
to this institution as the leader to ef
fect the great victory of turning the
tide of the intelligent and scholarly
from the professions to the farm life.
We are looking and pointing to you
from every point of the compass as
leaders to lift us from the misery and
poverty of misspent energies and ig
norance in our farm life into the pros
perity and content of the scientific
strokes and well chosen seed of the en
lightened brain. The time is upon us
when we must have no limited num
bers of country people who may be