Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-01-14
FARMS AND FARMERS.
Short Talks With the Men Who Guide
the Plow.
Of General Interest toFarmers.
Will IL Paye

Farming has its bright, poetic side.
The embowered cottage, with vines and
| flowers and shade, the ruddy faced chill
dren, the blooming maiden, the sturdy
| youth, the patriarchal father and moth
erly mother; these naturally spring up
before the mental eye at mention OF the
farm. Green fields, waving corn, lowing
herds, frisking lambs, racing colts, grow
ing cocks and cackling geese, complete
| the picture. "Far more the worlds igno-
BILE strife''-removed from many of the
| temptations that beset the denizens of
| cities and townsville farmer lives in
close communion with nature. The sun
shine, the clouds, the rain, the storm,
cold and heat, touch him on every side
and become part of his daily life. How
how to cooperate with her; how to avoid
| opposition to her laws, these are his con-
stant aim and study. They bring no per-
sOnal animOsities, no iniatiative antago-
nisms. To watch the tiny Seeding spring
from the buried seed; to see it expand
and grow into the lofty corn with its
yellow tassels, flowing silks and hanging
ears, or the branching cotton with its
snowy locks, suggestive of death and
life, of the grave and the resurrection,
! this is the pleasing, ennobling occupa-
ton of each recurring year of his life. In
these he sees his own life pictured ::
birth, growth, maturity death. No, not
death; for in the now perfected grain a
new life is hidden away, seeming death
only-a real immortality. Is it wonder
full that noble natures, with the ripening
and mellowing of age, turn instinctively
to rural life, and seek, or long for, its
quiet and freedom from the chickering's
and strifes Of men and its foreshadow-
ings Of heavenly rest?
But farming has also hard, business
/ side--a matter of dollars and cents, in
the strictest sense. In every venture,
outside of the adornment Of his home, or
the comfort of hls family, the first ques-
ton that a prudent farmer should ask
himself is: "Will it pay, is there any
profit in it?" Why should he labor 'for
that which is naught," any more than a
merchant or manufacturer or anybody
else? in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread" is the divine announce
ment; he shonld sweat, but he should
have bread as the reward thereof. After
taking due allowance for possible contin-
gencies, after careful, sober calculation,
a farmer should have reasonable grounds
for believing that an undertaking will
pay before he begins it. Like Judge
on the bench, he should canvass every
thing for OF against it. Neither blind
hopes nor gloomy fears should sway his
! judgment should be ruled out of
court, and he should look at the naked
facts in the light of tho past experience.
Past experience that is the touch stone,
that is the safest counsellor You need
not fear to follow it, The only point to
J be guarded is, that you do not draw
/ false influences from it, and then substi-
tute these in the place of the experience
itself. Take the naked facts; they are
right hard to get at sometimes; they be-
come mixed up with opinions, and false
deductions, but strip them of these as
much as you can and then be guided by
past experience, whether it is pleasant OF
not. Be honest, whether it reflects on
your past management or not.
Let us PROFOUND some questions which
/ oiN BNAtihNhb " tiic liNoSht otdoph lidNN
you good land to justify your running as
] many plows next year as you did this!
If you had left out the poorest land you
planted this year and put the manure and
labor upon your best land, would you
not have made as much, or possibly more,
and saved the keeping of one mule and
one hand! Would it not be very pleasant
to have the money paid that hand back
in your pocket now, and the feed con
sumed by that mule back in your barn
Would it not have been better to hav,
sowed down that land, or to have left il
TO rest and gather fertility TO be utilized
at some future day? Does it pay you IL
cultivate poor land9 That is the mos
serious, the most important question thai
confronts the southern farmer to-day
Think of it. Look at it, as applied Il
your own farm. Count up the cost o
cultivation, and then set over against j
the actual yields obtained. No ododging
No showing over the matter. Perhaps
one wet year you made far crop on th'
moor land Will volI LET that balanc,