Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-25
CHE farut aud fireside.
THE SOUTHERN FARMER.

erect that any 1901 can De FARMER, OT ClldI
education is wasted on one who only tills
the soil for living. These remarks were
nearer the truth, perhaps, years ago, when
the country was new. The virgin soil
would yield abundant crops always with
out care on the part of the husbandman,
and insect enemies, blight, rust, &C., were
nearly unknown. But now such sayings are
far from true, and we are beginning to real
ize that knowledge is power" on the farm
Just as surely as anywhere else in the world.
Forty years ago our tools were of the sim
plest and rudest kinds, and not much intel
ligence was required to use them. To-day
some of the finest machinery made is on the
farm, and the farmer needs skill and brains
to use these improved tools to the best adj
vantage, rather than muscle to do heavy
work.
The day has passed when muscle rules
the world. The battle-aXe and spear were
muscle; the rifle and the cannon are brains.
The stage-coach and the courier were mus
Gle; the railway train and the telegraph are
brains. On the farm, the scythe was mus
Gle; the moving machine is brains. The
grain cradle and sickle were muscle; the
self-binder is brains. The Mason cotton
picker promises to be to the cotton fields
what the self binder is to the grain field.
The farmer of the future will need to be, to
a large extent, an engineer and director OF
labor, and a student, instead Of a simple
laborer, as the farmer of the past was. The
sooner we accept this and govern and edu-
cate ourselves and our children accordingly,
the more profitable will our farming, be.
If "any fool can be farmer and make
living out of it, what are the possibilities
of farming under skillful and Intelligent
management? Even in the most simple
operations of the farm, education will be OF
use to us every day, not only in enabling us
to direct our work to the best advantage, but
in giving us the ability to keep account OF
everything, and know whether a certain
practice or crop pay us or not.
"a hired man once said to me-" says
writer in the Country Gentleman, "'you are
the best hand at guessing l ever saw l
had told him there would be over six loads
of hay to get up, but not quite seven. tie
made the remark when we were going to
the barn with the seventh load not quite
full. Now, there was no guess work ABOUT
it. I knew the width of the strip cut, from
the number of swaths, each one of which
was six feet. I knew how wide the rake
was, and how many rakefuls We could put
on a load. So, after raking once down
through the piece, a little mental arlthme-
tic told how many loads there would be.
One can tell how much man ought to
plow, cultivate or harrow in a day. re-
member once that / went away, to be gone
all day, leaving new hand to harrow a
piece of land for wheat. At night found
he had got over six acres with harrow SIX
feet wide. He insisted that he had done all
he could. But after he had seen the figures
on board, and found that he had travelled
less than one mile an hour, he was quite
ashamed: It's no use trying to fool you on
a DAVIS work. and he never tried it again."
Suppose you are a dairylnan, and raise
wheat and potatoes to sell also. You want
ten tons of corn meal to feed your COWS in
the winter, and so plant corn. Now care
full account kept for a term OF years may
show you that while you are making mon
ey from your wheat and potatoes you are
losing on your corn. Or on account OF hav,,
ing home market for the corn, and no gooId
market torthe potatoes, and not time enough
to properly care for them, the corn may
paw best. knowing the facts you raise
what will pay you best. One might go on
showing where education would be of ad-
vantage to you every day OF your llfe, ana
in every lot of your farm. Farming, or ag-
riculture, is an art, based on number OF
sciences, and the more we know OF these SCI
ences, or the ones pertaining to our line OF
farming, the better we can run the 1arnl;
Not long since, when coming out OF a nall
with a company of farmers who had been
listening to a scientific lecture by noted
college president, one of them asked anoth, n,
er: 'TWell, what did you think of that?'
ooh, I suppose it was good enough" ne
replied, butit wouldn't feed tn the t,p pigs g;1% or
milk the cows" He was one of the KIND
of men who sneer at book-farmers, and
think ''any fool can be farmer" Buthap,-
PLY, we have some farmers who are not
content merely with being able to carry
swill to pigs and strip the COWS. The writer
above quoted was surprised last winter to
see so many old men and women, seventy
or seventy-fve years old, Gn one case ne ne
saw three persons seventy-fve years ola IN
one load,) get out to farmers institutes and
pay close attention to the LECTURES ;nhS even =;
when they were quite scientific. rms is
well, but let the older ones not forget to
educate the children. You may leave them
good farm. but they may be swindled out
of it. Leave them an education, and no
man can steal it, and if they want a farm
thew can soon earn it.