The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-01-06

BY PROF OERALD N. u,
EXPERIMENT STATION.
The following paper was read before
the Hole and Corner Club, No. l, Orange
county. at their last meeting at Nj.
Stovins' farm, and was handed to us with
the request that we would publish the
same:
The ease with which the average
farmer is misled, imposed upon, and
swindled, by sharpers and adventures, S
smatter of common notoriety. It is as
true, too, as it is deplorable, that enlight-
ened men, who most sincerely desire and
work for the betterment of the farmers
condition, too often find tt cir most
earnest and well planned efforts nulIifed
BY the apathy and unreasonable con-
seryatism of the farmer himself. As a
class, farmers depend too much upon
unaided muscle and too little upon the
power O: a disciplined mind. The time
when ~improvident, hand-to-mouth old
rut farming was profitable has passed by.
Farming has become a profession, and,
ike all other successful professional men,
the farmer must study his business and
its relations to other professions, and to
SUClCLJ at ldASCs LIZ huSl COulIlNO, W
adapt, and call to his all all the hep
which science and skill can suggest. He
must economic in muscle, which is
becoming the N )st expensive commodity
used upon the farm. He must, in short,
bear in mind Solomon's maxim, that
unless the iron be sharp, the worker
must put forth-waste-more strength"
Neither successful farming, nor any
other business, is now conducted IS they
were fifty years agol The railroad,
telegraph, reaper, thresher, gin, and other
labor-saving tools, have revolutionized
methods in all civ lized nations. IN
wisely conservative or slothful farmers
have chung t. obsolete methods, and, as a
result, have gone to the wall. They
have worked as hard as their fathers ever
worked, but they have not rear ed the
rewards their fathers did, because circum-
stances are not now as they used to be.
On the other hand many, chiefly among
the mercantile and manufacturing classes,
have been alive to the spirit OF the age,
and have profted enormously thereby.
They have literally realized the experience
Of the youth in the Arabian tale and
secured fabulous wealth and power by
much the same means-viz: the posses
SOL and ~judicious use Of a clamp" and
the geni which attended it.
In a few words, the successful men Of
to-day are not those who lie under a tree
or sit on a fence during the best hours of
the day; nor yet are they those who
reduce themselves to mere mechanical
drudges. They are those who have
learned, by patient and prolonged study,
how to harness to their tool the powerful
and tireless forces of nature. They are
foreSighted men, who read Alright the signs
OF the times, and in S asons of abundance
lay up provisions against times Of dearth.
They are men who know how to sell as
well as how to produce.
Modern society has become a very
complex organism, and made up of many
distinct classes, whose apparent interests
often conflict, and require, therefore
wisely calculated mutual concessions. The
spirit of these classes Is to look out for
their interests alone, and to take as
much and give as little as possible in the
commerce just referred to. Farmers have
not until very recently, appreciated the
necessity and power of combination and
cooperation for securing their rights,
ana, as a natural result, have suffered
greVouSly at the hands of the more
pr0Vldent w!de-awake and selfish classes.
The first and most urgent need of the
farmer is more education. Not technical
education merely, but that comprehensive
training of the mind which predisposes to
lafge views and enables a man to clearly
distinguish his rights and duties from
nose of his neighbor, and the duties
winch different classes W to each other,
Gothelr common country, and to humanity.
Without such a training, the recen,
admirable and already fruitful uprising of
Nne farming class viii eventually prove
SGCftlVe by intrusion of unprincipled and
selnSn s2hemers, who will wrest the
power OF the Alliance from its legitimate
purpose and IN the end make the farmers
PoslIion more hopeless than ever.
principle.
The American farmers, as a class, are
~" called upon to assume their proper
p1:e as the foundation of national pros
EEolIty-tnec chief depository of the ma
fo onaI spirit, power, and wealth. The
nIn u0r Il true to himself, will take his
oftime," 'W0 lOi0moS' NA0'
The following course of reading has
t6s prepared with special reference to
nc development of those faculties toe
s Snae ! neglected by farmers, but which
man. OSoS9'e!y necessary to a we'll developed
noaoyy 'sloed mind. The course presup-
sdUos no more than a common school
ysIUsS ion to begin with. 1t is equally
baon AGie Tor both sexes. The course has
il ulVlded into terms whose sequence
Important and should be strictly
6TaJ Sed, but no particular time has beer
nns+ 5or completing each term. Thai
aDV uepend upon the amount of time
JUG can give to study. Let no one