The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-06-14
A BAD PRACTICE.
Many Farmers Who Sell Their Crops in
the Raw state.


the Raw state.
1t Is the custom with most farmers to
run their farms to their fullest capacity
and sell the crops in the raw state, thus
reducing the soil from whence all this
material comes. If the farmer could
realize that he is manufacturer and
the farm his factory, and to sell tho
crops off the farm is selling the raw ma
terial which always brings the lowest
price, that he is thus losing more than
half the profit he should obtain from
the farm, there would be less poor run
down farms; less run-out fields; less
heard of hard times; less poor bankrupt
farmers; and that farming is after ALL a
vain delusion and does not pay.
The farmer should consider that the
farm is not only a factory, but it also
produces its own raw material from
which to manufacture articles of sale.
Thus he has the advantage of most
every other manufacturer. The soil and
air are the sources from which the farm
er draws his supplies of raw material,
and the plant and animal life are the
machines by. which he works up this
raw material into useful manufactured
articles, such as milk, butter, cheese,
pork, beef, mutton, wool and cotton.
Instead of the farm being adapted to
single crop or single occupation, it is
really ombination of a great many
pursuits. The implements and ma
chincry are varied, and the products are
not limited to any particular article.
Let us look at some of the farmers
machines and see what advantages he
has over other manufacturers. The
COW, which is the machine for convert.
ing the farm crops into milk, butter or
cheese, is unlike other machines, is
self-sustaining and self-repairing. Now
the farmer finds great deal of matter
produced on the farm which has cost
him something to make, that there is
no sale for and would be lost but by
the assistance of the COW he is enabled
to manufacture it into form for which
he can find ready sale; while at the
same time she returns portion of the
original cost in the shape of manure for
the purpose of assisting to further in
crease the amount of raw material.
The eve, another farm machine,
comes to help the farmer dispose of his
crops at good profit by manufacturing
them into greater variety of salable
products in the shape of wool, mutton,
lambs and manure, besides keeping
down briars and other pests of the farm.
Notwithstanding the great advantage
this valuable machinery is to the farm
er, there are many farms now without
head of sheep upon them, who buy their
family supplies of wool and mutton, and
dig up the briars and sassafras bushes
with elbow grease, while much of the
production of the farm that is not sal
able in it's present form could be eaten
by the sheep.
The SOW, another valuable machine,
enables the farmer to cultivate crops
that are rarely salable except at low
prices, and manufacture them into pork
and valuable progeny that mature
quickly and reach a market in short
time, and thus makes the farmer moro
independent and farming more profit
able.
Then comes the mare, that gives us
the power with which TO perform tho
work required, and adds her offspring
to the revenue. There are but few
farmers, if any, who do not keep horses
to work their farms, but how many avail
themselves of this advantage of keep
ing a mare as a machine and working
her to her fullest capacity? If the
farmer will give the mare chance she
will take much of the farm crops that
do not sell at prices much above cost of
production, and manufacture it into the
shape of colts that will make him inde-
pendent of the market and fill his pock-
cts with money.
Then comes the hen; though but
small part OF the whole, she is an effect
i've and capable machine to pick up all
the wasted seeds of every crop and man.
facture them into ready-selling car
casses and eggs.
Thus we see the farmer ought not to |
sell his crops in their crude or raw |
state, but feed them to the various farm |
animals and birds which act as so many |
performing their work by |
different methods, manufacturing the |
crops of the farms into variety of manu-
products which are salable at |
Ill times and seasons of the year. Farm
ers, consider yourselves manufactur-
ers, your farms your factories, and work
them to their fullest capacity. Sell |
nothing of of the farm until it has been
Utilized by the farm machines, unless
wisdom points out that the most profit
would be in selling the raw material
Thomas d. Baird, in Ohio Farmer.