Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1891-10-29
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THOROuGHNESSy
rg.i HtH 7- 1T - -lHi
rhe Secret of Success In All Farming
To-. Operations.

@
rhe Secret of Success In All Farming
ri Operations.
One of the most successful farmers of
our acquaintance started with little ex-
perience, and attributed his success
largely TO the rule which he adopted
and which has governed him all through
life The rule is: do everything as
well as you know how, or can learn
how" We believe that there is no bet
ter rule for any farmer and that the
adoption of it would do more TO relieve
the agricultural depression than all the
discussions, and resolutions passed by
organized bodies of farmers, Not that
we depreciate free speech and organi-
cation, for they are useful and neces-
sary, but individual prosperity must
come largely from individual effort, and
that effort must be guided by intelli-
gence, and the words "Or learn how"
point to congress, to intelligent study,
and effort to avoid the mistakes of the
past, and to do better work each year
than was done the previous one.
This rule must be applied not only to
the doing hut also to the planning of
the farm work, and often more depends
ON the latter than the former. For ex-
ample, one young farmer, starting in
business, realizing the value of inn
proved stock, and starts perhaps with
but one or two animals of kind, and
those of the best, and in few years
has the farm stocked with horses, cat
tie, sheep and hogs, so superior as to
give fair profit, when scrub stock
must be grown at an actual loss. The
same rule which leads him TO begin
right will also make him persist in this
course, and so each year he learns
more about the management of his
stock, and his profits increase.
We know farmers, and unfortunate
ly many of them, who for a long
series of years have fed and reared UNI
profitable stock, every animal of which
was produced at an actual loss, and who
can give no better reason for doing so
than that they happened to have the
stock to start with, and so have perpet-
uated it.
One farmer breeds cows with teats so
small that they must be MIXED with
the thumb and finger, or from strain
that gives poor milk, or in which there
is tendency to kick and be vicious, or
that go dry third of the year. Any or
all these characteristics are transmit
ted, and the farmer who desires to i'm
prove should recognize this and dispose
of such stock and get better; but it is
not difficult to find farms on
which just such stock has been
perpetuated for generations. Ger
tainly the farmer who would adopt our
rule would soon learn that wintering
cattle cXposrd to the cold and storms
was Improbable. Animals run down
in flesh so as to weigh one or two hun
dred pounds less in the spring than they
did the previous autumn would not be
found on his farm, and he will use both
scales and figures to ascertain whether
or not he is keeping his stock at a
profit.
The same istrue concerning his crops.
He will rot go on from year to year pro.
ducing eight to twelve bushels of wheat,
and twenty or thirty. of corn, to the
acre, for a few minutes figuring will
show him that he can not get pay
for his labor from such yields,
and he will soon discover that re.
ducing the area under cultivation Sc
that the work can be done on time, and
done well, as the land kept in better
condition will increase the yield of his
crops and that while two hundred bush
els of wheat produced on twenty acres
means loss, the same amount on eight
acres means profit. In short both'com
fort and profit in farming depends
largely on thoroughness in work, and
that intelligent progressive spirit which
leads the farmer to put forth his best
efforts to constantly seek to improve,
and to avoid the errors of the past
His pleasure in his work and comfort
in life depends largely on this
In wide personal acquain.
tance with farmers and personal
inspection of their FARMS those
most prosperous and contented, and
who-are getting the most out of life
are the men with small arms, under
such thorough cultivation and wise
management that they rarely till an pn
profitable acre, and find their income
sufficient for their wants. Their farms
produce most that the family needs
ind are ideal homes, and their lives are
peaceful and happy.
1t is not the farmer who tills the
most acres who makes the greatest
profit, nor even the one who has the
most produce to sell, but the one who
Keeps his farm in such condition anc
does his work so well that he produces
1t a profit what he has to sell. Home
md Farm.