Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-04
A CnnnIaininp Farmer.

A Chatham county correspondent, wht
signs himself Young Farmer" does no
fully agree with some of the conclusion
reached in the article on lizard Labor
which appeared in our agriculture
columns last Monday. He says that hi
and other truck farmers in Chatham
county have worked about as hard as
they could reasonably be expected to
work, and that they have not succeeded
in making any progress towards securing
a competency.
He wants to know, therefore, why
young men are so earnestly urged to stick
to the farm instead of seeking to improve
their fortunes in business or in the pro-
fessions.
If the facts could be gathered with re-
4 spect to the boys who leave the farm and
goto the city it would be discovered that
a very small percentage of them succeeds
in making even a comfortable living. A
few-two or three in a hundred, perhaps
become rich or prominent. The great
majority fail utterly to realize their eX-
pectations. Their great regret is that
they ever left the farm.
A farmers life does not offer great OPP
! perfumes for the accumulation of wealth,
or for acquiring a distinguished name,
but it has about as many cOmpensations
/ as the life Of a business or a professional
man. Farmers work hard, but not harder
/ than those who succeed in business or
the professions, and the percentage Of
| farmers who have all the comforts OF life
and finally succeed in accommodating a
competency is very much larger than
that Of those who earn a living in any
other way.
Our correspondent, however, doesn't
have so much fault to find with the life of
a farmer as he does with the Northern
sharks as he calls them, who handle the
products OF the truck farmers of this
section of the South.
Dishonest men are not confined to any
locality. Men who resort to dishonest
methods in their business are found
everywhere. 1t is possible that some of
the New York commission merchants who
handle the truck OF the farmers Of this
county, and other counties Of this State
and Florida, are ready enough to take
advantage OF the ignorance Of their con-
signors respecting the ruling prices of the
market.
1t ought not to be forgotten, however,
that the market for all kinds of early
vegetables and fruits fluctuates greatly
and quickly, and that that which is in
great demand one day may be worth little
or nothing the next. 1t ought not to be for
gotten, also, that fruits and vegetables are
frequently sent TO market in very i'm
perfect condition, and that if they are
tit to expose for sale when they arrive at
their destination their condition may be
such as to render them undesirable. In
the hurry to get to market the fact is often
overlooked that the consumer, while he is
ready to pay big price for a really nice
article, doesn't want an unripe or a poor
article at any price.
1t would he difficult to devise a scheme
for the handling of early farm and or
chard products that would be satisfactory
to both cOnsignor and consignee. 1t is
not always easy to convince "A cOnsignOr
that he has been dealt with fairly when
the returns for his shipment are far below
his expectations. If the early fruit and
vegetable business continues to increase,
however, as it is now increasing. it may
become necessary to establish great de-
pots at the principal distributing points,
and offer the products of the vegetable and
fruit farms for sale at public auction as
fast as they are received. There would
be no chance for the middlemen then to
get the lions share of the profits unless
they combined to control prices, and
there would not be much danger OF that.
An active competition would insure the
farmers the best prices for their products
that could be obtained.