The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1880-03-17
but as soon as an attempt Is made to

farmer must know what foods plants
require, and which Of them are dell
cient in bis soil. Hence, science ne
cessarily comes in. We must have
brains, science, expert
encc. The first Is the direct gift OF
Providence, but every one can Go
much TO improve his gift; the second
can be had from books and agrIcul-
tural journals, and the third from
old successful farmers Of The yicin
age and from agricultural journals
also. Furnished with them all, the
farmer must succeed if he is syste-
matte, industrious and economical.
"lnnumerable articles appear on
How to Make the Farm Pay
People should know by this time
that fortunes do not grow, but are
made. Once 10 while one may
stumble over a fortune, as lightning
strikes tree; but these arc proyl-
Dental occurrences and are not in
the every day hands of man. A man
may have the most fertile soil ana
raise the biggest kind Of crops; but
if he has not brains enough to know
how to 60 about selling what he has
TO the best advantage, somebody else
will reap the best profit, not he. Or
he may have the best knowledge in
the world as to where the best mar
ket 10, and the best knack Of finding
out who will give the be; prices;
but il he has no judgment as TO what
crops to raise, or how to grow them,
he does not Get along. How to make
the farm pay is altogether matter
of brains. It 10 no more Of practi-
cal question than how to make the
mill pay, or how to make the store
pay. Not more than half the men in
the world have any brains to spare.
The other half have more than they
need. They spare little for those
that are short, hut charge big in
terest for the use thereof. A piece
Of public work is TO be done, and
here are q hundred men to do the
work, but ninety, nine don't know
how to 60 about doing it. They can
work when directed, but who is to
direct2 The one steps out and some
Of his brain is loaned 10 the other
ninety-nine. He makes twenty-five
or perhaps fifty cents day on each
clearing twenty five or perhaps
fifty dollars q day. This is the per-
ccn,age on the use OF his brains
Without this the men could do moth
ing. They could not earn their salt.
Our dark skinned friend was not far,
wrong when he Indignantly denied
that he had charged one dollar for
killing the cali. 1t was only fifty
cents for killing--the other was for
the "know how" II there be not
more money made at farming than
there Is, We take IL to be for the want
of spare brains. Brains to loan out
as capital to other men who have
none. There is good deal of truth
in the popular saying that no man
can get rich BY hard work. But this
large grain Of truth is only so when
it has to pay large tax to the brain
that directs it. The employer gene
rally works harder than the one he
employs. After he works at hard
manual labor for years, using his
surplus brains to make q little more
than his daily need, and to put that
little away; and wien the time comes
to loan his surplus brains, he has to
work early and late to keep his bus
mess together; while the laborer
knows just when his work is done.
1t is not that the employer has no
hard work to do. 1t is not that he
is making money by hard work. He
is simply making money by the loan
Of his brains to those who have not
enough OF their own, or have not had
time to lay by sufficient OF their sur
plus brain earnings to loan to others
in the same way. 10 make the farm
pay then, one must be capitalist
have brains to lend. Yet how many
eyer.think of this2 by ones own
personal labor, boy or man, or hall
a dozen horses only, how can one
make much2 We never could sec
why farm might not be carried OF
as any other business is-by the EN-
ployment Of large numbers of mer
who have no idea how to manag,
themselves; or, what is the sam.
thing, the larger use of machinery 81
as to do farming work on larg'