The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-11-01
The Farming Of To-day.

Farming as business is not what IT
has been in the past. It requires much
more intelligence and skill to farm sue.
cessfully now than it did formerly, and
for variety of reasons.
Our wants have increased, the luxuries
of our fathers have become every. day
necessities for our comfort. We feel that
we must live better, dress better and go
more, work fewer hours, and we require
more in the way of mental improvement,
accomplishments and the like. This is
as it should be. The farmer should have,
and should enjoy, all that is within the
reach of the merchant or professional
man. He is even entitled TO more than
the town residents to make up for the
isolation of life on the farm.
The fact that country people do not
have the advantages of the town people,
that farming at the present time does not
hold out such strong inducements to
young men as other occupations, not only
prevents the town bred boy from becom-
ing a farmer, but it also draws a large
proportion of the bright and smartest
boys from the country to the town, nd
ne have as the result 8 much larger
number of the naturally gifted, shrewed
men of the country engaged in manufac.
lures, transportation, trading, &c, than we
find farming. And it naturally follows
that the smarter men secure the larger
share of the proceeds Of the industries.
Another disadvantage that the farmer
labors under-the outcome of greater
ability possessed by men in other indus.
tries-is the fact that improvement in
methods of manufacturing, trade, trans.
portation and distribution has been very
much more rapid than in farming.
These industries are growing away from
the production of farm crops. q
During the past fifty years the power
Of one man to turn raw products into
manufactured goods, and to distribute to
consumers through the introduction of
improved machinery and application of
scientific discoveries has increased from
FIVE to one hundred or more times; we
have made no such advance in growing
crops. 1t is true the introduction of large
implements and the binder and the head.
er has increased the capacity of one man
tenfold ingrowing and harvesting wheat;
having machinery to nearly as great an
extent in making hay. But we have
only increased mans capacity two or
three fold in making corn; while in
cotton growing it is probable that on the
average one man really produces less, or
at least no more, than he did thirty years
ago. There is still another factor thatis
detrimental to the interest of the far:
mers, and that is the exhaustion OF
virgin fertility of the soil.
Except in portions of the older settled
States, up to the present time farming
has been largely of the pioneer order,
which means clearing up the land and
cropping it in such q way as to produce
8 crop with the least labor, regardless OF
the exhaustion and loss of the fertility
of the soil, compelling Us now to adopt
some system of fertilization that is
necessarily expensive to make the land
produce as much as it did formerly. So
much is said and written at the present
time about monopolies and unjust laws
which are depressing the farmers that
inlany are led to believe that the condi
ton of the farmer may be improved
simply by legislation, which is mistake
in great many measures. While there
may be some injustice, and doubtless il,
done to the farmer by powerful corpora.
tions and lawmakers, still we must study
the underlying principlesof agriculture
and it's connections with other industries,
ard raise it to a par with those pursuits
before the farmer can .securea just com.
pensatiou for his labor.-Laurensuills
Herald,