Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/635

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

471

College at Salem, X'irginia. and after a bril- liant career was graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1872, being then in his twentieth year. In 1872, at the close of a post-graduate course, he was graduated Master of Arts. He began active business life immediately after gradu- ation at the Koiner farm in Augusta county, that being one of the fine properties of the county. Here he carried into practical effect the same whole hearted enthusiasm that marked his college career. He did not make his work a drudgery, but applied to field, orchard and stock the scientific facts he had absorbed, and proved the value of education for the farmer. He farmed very success- fully along these new lines until 1899, gain- ing local fame as a scientific farmer, and state fame through his public service in the state legislature two terms from Augusta county, and national notice as president of the Virginia world's fair commission. In 1899 a vacancy occurring, the office of state commissioner of agriculture, Mr. Koiner was chosen by Governor Hoge Tyler to fill the position. He assumed the responsi- bilities of the office with a determination to make it a valuable department of the state government, and how well he succeeded may be inferred from Governor Tyler's annual message of 1901, two years after Mr. Koiner assumed control. The governor said :

Too much cannot be said of the great benefit the farmers of the State have derived from the Depart- ment of Agriculture under the able administration of Commissioner G. W. Koiner. No money value could be placed upon the results directly attributable to the work of this branch of the State Govern- ment; it would probably reach into the millions. But the good to the State cannot be reckoned in dollars and cents. It is beyond such a calculation.

Later a prominent newspaper said editori- ally:

There has seldom if ever been an of^cial in the State Government who has been more efficient than Mr. Koiner. He has made the department of incal- culable value to the farmers of the State and is improving it all the time.

In his work the personal equation is very large, but he invokes the aid of law when necessary. The adulteration of fertilizers and dishonest weight were made the object of special enactment, and through his "ton- nage law" the farmers of Virginia, who spend $7,000,000 annually for fertilizers, are

safeguarded from adulteration or fraud in their purchases. lUit his work is largely personal until he finds a man or men in each community that will plant, cultivate, har- vest and pack according to the advanced methods, carefully worked out in laboratory and office. Then with an object farm, or perhaps only a field at first, that community is left to await results. When it is demon- strated that this man is earnest and knows what he is talking about when he says seed selection, rotation of crops, scientific ferti- lizing and honest careful packing pays, he has added another company to the army of men who look to him as their guide. He has also instituted the farmer's institutes of the state in his work very largely. Here he meets the farmers face to face, and here he has worked out with them many prob- lems, and sent them forth with a new hope and higher ambition. His practical knowl- edge of farming they know equals their own, while his scientific knowledge of chem- ical values of soil and fertilizers places him in a valuable position to instruct. They know he is not alone a "Book farmer," and are therefore glad to listen to his institute addresses, which have been of inestimable value to thousands of the farmers of Vir- ginia. His mail is very heavy with letters from the farmers, and not alone those of his own state. They submit every sort of a question to him, and it is a fact that he can call thousands of Virginia farmers by their first names and have an item of special in- terest to take up with each one. The selec- tion of crops, fertilizers, seed, cultivation and market is all talked out with him either personally or by mail or bulletin, by many of the servants who have seen the wisdom of following expert advice. However, his path is not altogether one of roses. There are in every community men to oppose any innovation, men who try to belittle and im- pede his work, also, but they are becoming fewer and fewer each day, and soon Virginia wull be a state not alone "Mother of Presi- dents," but the abode of intelligent farmers who yearly are adding to the wealth and glory of their state by valuable crops, so planned that each year finds the soil richer for what it has given. Scientific fertilizing and rotation crops which replace what the former crop has taken, is the new Gospel preached by the state agricultural depart-