The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-06-18
SUB-ALLIANCE, No. 588, :
-6138,
It. NJ. H.

OOSAA1A40AA1 w., In. ".
~ June 4, 1889.
Mr. ED1ToR Dear Slr:-It is fire..
quently said by farmers that farming
dom pay. Now Nh. Editor, if they
were to say that farming don't pay
the farmer they would come nearer
telling it exactly as it is; farming desc
pay somebody, and that very beau
tifully too, now the question is who is
it that gets that pay and where dose
it go. Mr.. Editor, not many weeks
ago a tobacco warehouse man and
one of my farmer neighbors, were
conversing together and in the con-
versation the question in regard to
the little towns springing up so fast
came up. The farmer gave it as his
opinion that it was the farmers that
were building of them, but the ware
house man said not so, that it was the
pluck and energy of the town people
that were doing it. Now, MI. Editor,
if a man was to walk into your Office
and say that someone had pluckedsome
of his sheep, you would know at one
that some one had been pulling the
wool off of them, taking what belonged
to the owner of the sheep. Now it
may be that that is the kind of pluck
that is helping to build the towns SO
fast, the undue portion of the farm.
ers produce that they get when the
farmer carries it to town. Mr.. Edi-
tor it is frequently the case that farm
er's get "hard run" for money and in
looking around for something that
they can spare to sell, takes a horse
to town for that purpose. When he
gets to town he takes his horse around
to the livery stable man or the jocky
and says to him, | need some money
and wish to sell,this horse to getit. The
horse now mind you, Mr.. Editor, is
really worth 500, 10 this jockey
having found out this mar was com
PEELED to sell the horse only offers
him S75 for. the horse and sticks to
his offer, SO the farmer finding that
that was all that he could get, takes
the SIS, so you see the jockey got
the advantage of $25, the farmer
lost that amount on the horse. In a
few days another farmer has the mis-
fortune to loose a horse, is very busy
blowing, is compelled to have n in
the place of the one lost so he goes to
town, meets up with this same jockey
and he, the jockey, sells this man the
same horse for 1925 that he got a
few days before for $75, making on
one horse within a few days, off of
the necessities of two poor farmers
$50. Mr. Editor, that is the kind OF
pluck and energy that is building up
the town so fast. Sometimes it is so
that a farmer has some nice beeves to
SELL he takes them to town to the
butcher and like the nan who sold
the horse had to~take what the butch
en- said was market price, which was
but a very few cents per pound
nothing like what it cost to raise IT.
but if the farmer wishes to learn more
about it just let him stay all night
with the hotel man eat beefsteak for
supper and breakfast and then pay
his bill, and he will find that there Is
a heavy profit made by somebody be-
tween the producer and the consumer,
and just in proportion does the farmer
get plucked in nearly everything that
he makes for sale, and as for tobacco,
they get the pluck SO heavy on that
some times that the farmer thinks
himself fortunate if he gets home
with his skin, no wool in the game at
all. Call such pluck and energy II
you want to, but I think that things
ought to be called nearer the right
name than that. Those r some OF
the reasons why farming don't pay
the farmer and those are the very rea-
sons why the towns r growing 50
fast. Pluck and energy, nod mnch
Now Mr.. Editor, i would not have
YOU think that dislike the people Of
our towns, quite to the contrary, but
l dislike for them to get so much
more than istheir portion of our labor.
Fraternally,
JoHN KING.