The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-16
HOW TO SUCCEED IN FARMING.

your paper and must say that L am
pleased to see that you are doing SO
much for the great cause OF agrlcul'
ture. [ have read numerous commu'
nications in your paper from mem
bers of the Farmers Alliance. In oil
ferent parts of the South, and have
attended several agricultural conven-
tons at Raleigh and other places and
have heard a great many speeches on
agriculture. If you will permit me,
I desire to elaborate the subject some
what differently from others that L
have herd.
Some of the orators in conventions
attribute all the troubles of the far,
mer to the tariff, others to- the home
stead, others to the bagging trust,
sugar trust, meat trust, salt trust ana
all the various trusts that we hear OF.
Some writers in your paper other
newspapers say that the farmer Duys
too much commercial fertilizer AND
fails to make home supplies. In read
ing Mr.. Jones report on labor statls-
tics from the farmers in North Caro-
lima, I was struck with the diversity
of opinion of the different farmers.
None of them seem to agree
as to the cause of the agr1-
cultural depression, nor do they
agree as to the best way OF removing
the troubles. All of us will conced"
that the problem is a difficult n to
solve, vet it seems to me that the sue
cess of the farmer depends on THEM
leading qualifications-indEstry good
management or judgment and econ
omy. Whenever you see a farmer
who has the industry to work, sutl-
Gent Judgment to direct that labor,
and economy to take car of what he
makes, he is very apt to be successful.
Some persons say there is no money
from farming in North Carolina. L
think they are mistaken. know two
farmers who own land adjoining; the
soil of both plantations is about the
same; n makes money, the other
does not. The tariff, the trusts and
other incidental drawbacks affect both
alike. What is the cause of the diff
ference? The one has industry, good
management and economy; the other
has not.
1 see that one of your correspond
ents condemns the use of commercial
fertilizers. He did not state his case
properly. The reason so many fail to
be benefited by commercial fertilizers
is that they do not understand how
to use them. They put them on land
deficient in humus. All men must
superabundance of manure. Our
lands are too much exhausted to cul-
tivate without a plenty of manure.
We cannot farm on the intensive plan,
cultivate less land and it
heavily. Hands charge no more to
work land highly MANFRED than they
do poor land. The great question is,
how to get the ant Farmers
must make large quantities Of domes-
tic manure and then supplement that
with commercial fertilizers. In pass
ing over our State you see numbers
them out on the range and never
bring them up. The consequence is
that they lose the manure and go to
the merchant, mortgage their crops
for guano at credit prices and hen
attribute all their troubles to the cor
ner in meat, tariff, homestead, mort
gage, trusts, etc. Of course these
things diminish his profits to some ex-
tent; but if one farmer makes money
in spite of all these troubles, another
can, if not deficient in other qualifca-
lions. l have recently seen statistics
to show that the farms in the North
western States are covered over with
mortgages. l presume that the cold
weather is. the cause of it. The
weather in North Carolina is warm
and pleasant. My own hired hands
have not lost over ten days from bad
weather since the first day of January.
With this great advantage, North
Carolina is destined to be a great
agricultural State if the farmers will
use the proper industry, good man
agement and economy. Too many
farmers are moving to the towns and
villages and renting their lands to
negroes. The colored tenants walk
about all winter and spring in idle
security, make no domestic manure,
raise no provisions and depend on
Western meat and corn to supply the
wants of themselves and mules and
buy guano at credit prices to fertilize
their crops Of course people who
manage in that way will come to
grief. +,
I saw a prosperous farmer a few
days ago bring some North Carolina
bacon to a store and exchange for
sugar and coffee. 1 enquired of him
how he made so much money farm
ing, when numbers of others could
not mako both ends mnot2 NJ -