The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-09-11


JAMES +. IZLAR, Chairman.
WILLIE JONES, Secretary.
The Southern Farmer.
One often hears remark made to the
| effect that any fool can be farmer, or
tha: education is wasted on one who only
| tills the soil for living. These remarks
were were nearer ca, the truth, perhaps, years ago,
When the country was new. The virgin
soil would yield abundant crops always
without care on the part of the husband.
man. and insect enemies, blight, rust, &C.,
were nearly unknown. But now such
sayings are far from true, and we are
beginning to realize that knowledge is
power" on the farm just as surely as any.
where else in the world. Forty years ago
our tools were of the simplest and rudest
kinds, and not much intelligence 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
advantage, rather than muscle to do the
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 etage. coach aud the
courier were muscle the railway train
and the telegraph are brains. On the
farm, the scythe was muscle; the moving
machine is brains. The grain cradle and
sickle were muscle; the self. binder is
brains. The Mason cotton picker prom.
ises 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 student, instead of simple
laborer, as the farmer Of the past was.
The sooner we accept this and govern
aud educate ourselves and our children
accordingly, the more profitable will our
farming be. If ''any fool can be Il
farmer" and make living out of it,
what are the possibilities of farming
under skiifui and intelligent manage.
ment? Even in the mos, simple opera.
tions of the farm, education will be of
use to Us every day, not only in enabling
us to direc. our work 10 the best advan-
tage, but in giving US the ability to keep
account of everything, and know whether
certain practice CT crop pays ;:s or not.
IA hired man once said to me-" SAYS
writer in The Country Gentleman, ";7ou
are the best hand at guessing ever saw
l had told him there would be over six
loads Of hay to get up, but not quite
seven. He 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.
l knew how wide the rake was, and how
many rakefuls we could put on load.
So, after raking once down through the
piece, little mental arithmetic told how
many loads there would be. One can
tell how much man ought to plow, cul-
tivate or harrow in a day. I remember
once that went away, to he gone all day,
leaving q new hand to harrow piece of
land for wheat. At night / found he
had got over ak acres with a 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, and said tits no
use trying to fool you on a days work, ,
add he never tried it again."
Suppose you are o dairyman, and raise
wheat and potatoes to sell also. You
want ten tons Of corn meal to feed your
cows in the winter, and so you plant
corn. Now careful account kept for O
term Of years may show you that while
you arc making money from your wheat
and potatoes you are losing on your corn.
Or on account of having home market
for the corn, and no good market for the
potatoes, and not time enough TO properly
care for them, the corn may pay best.
knowing the facts you can raise what
will pay you best. The day has passed
when 1t is necessary for farmer to raise
L., l.,
One might go on showing where educa.
ton would be of advantage to you every
day of your life, and in every lot of your
farm. Farming, or agriculture, is an art,
based on q number of sciences, and the
more we know of these sciences, or the
ones pertaining to our line of farming,
the better we can run the farm.
Not long since, when coming out of a
hall with company Of farmers who had
been listening to scientific lecture by a
noted college president, one of them
asked another: "Well, what did you
think of that 2" ooh, suppose it was
good enough" he replied, "but it
wouldn't feed the pigs or milk the cows"
He was one of the kind Of men who sneer
| at book farmers, and think 'any fool can
be farmer" But happily, 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.
! FIVE years old, lin one case he saw three
persons seventy-fve years old in one
load,) get out to farmers institutes and
pay close attention to the lectures. even
when they were quite scientific. This IL
we'll, but let the older ones not forget to
educate the children. You may leave
them good farm, but thay may be swiu-
died out of it. Leave them An education,
and no man can steal il, aud If they want