Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-07-11
Better Farming Needed.
Moore's Rural New Yorker.

1 j
when poor farming could insure even
the moderate success of making a
living. During the last four or tlVe
years thousands OF farmers nave
steadily lost money, and unless they
reverse the process tits only a queS'
ton of time when they must go un.
der. The losses of farmers have
generally been attributed to the
Zines. and, With the return of pros
nerity and general revival of BUSH
ness. it has been supposed that
farmers profits would return and
everybody could make money again.
Undoubtedly the stress of the times
has affected farmers as well as every
body else; but the time will never
come when any but the best farming
will be successful. The nominal
success which has always heretofore
attended even the poorest farming
has been due to the moderate am
bition of most farmers and the little
with which they have been content
ed. So long as men are satisfied
with hard work and getting little or
nothing for their invested cap
ital, and as an outcome max
ing a bare living, it ought not
to be difficult to satisfy them, Yet
this is what thousands of farmers
have done of late years. During
the war, and for few years after,
in our era of high prices, most
farmers made some money. Old
debts were paid, and in some cases
better modes of farming were
adopted. But the years which
have followed have pinched
US all. The more expensive habits
of living, adopted ten or twelve
years ago, are not readily dropped.
Prices of farm produce have fallen
as low as before the war, and from
almost every quarter we are advised
that expenses Of every kind must
be cut down in a corresponding ra~
ton, or everybody will 60 to ruin.
Undoubtedly this is sensible ad-
vice for large proportion of farm
ers. Wherever the soil has been
allowed to run down wherever
weeds have crept in, increasing the
cost of cultivation wherever, from
any cause, the productive capacity
of the farm has decreased, an i'm
mediate cutting down of living ex-
penses is necessity, dire though it
may seem. But it is foolish for
farmers to look at this subject from
the standpoint of miserly parsimony.
| No class of men work harder,
and none are better entitled to the
comforts and luxuries which hard
work should obtain. While poor
farming may not, and probably will
not, make even a bare living, bet
ter management should give the
farmer something more. Prudent
saving is always advisable, but
mania for retrenchment, such as is
now prevalent, is not wise. Much
that is said about saving, under the
influence Of this mania, is sheer
nonsense. We have heard farmers
talk about reducing expenses by
paying less wages, when it was a
solemn fact that they would steadily
lose money every year if their
hired help worked for nothing.
What such farmers need is better
management, by which the produc-
tive capacity of their farms can be
increased. After this they may
also find it necessary to decrease
expenses as much as possible with
out decreasing production.
Better farming is the specific for
most of the evils of which farmers
complain. The competition in
farming is now so sharp that we
shall need better farming than we
have had to prevent absolute losses.
We have no expectation, and
scarcely any wish, for a return of
days when slip-shod farming could
make money. Poor farming inevi-
itably tends to sterility of the soil,
and it will be blessing in disguise
if we have return of times when
only good farming can succeed.
But the misapprehension which SO
widely prevails that the losses of
our present farming should or can
be remedied by savings, is working
incalculable mischief. The present
year with our currency down to
hard-pan, offers better opportuni-
ties for moderate profits as the re-
suit of we'll directed efforts than we
have seen in years before. The
speculative prices which prevailed
in war times must not be expected,
but farmers who have land in good
condition for cropping, will make a
serious mistake if they do not in
vest the labor necessary to secure a
crop. 1t will probably cost less to
produce anything now than in any
previous year since the war, and
the prices of farm products are
likely to be higher rather than