The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-02-09
A FARMER SEVENTY-SIX YEARS
OLD GIVES HIS OPINION
j. II. FOUsuEE, Sect'y.
4 SuEANn N @

ASHLAND, N. 4.
MIR. EDITOR: VIII you pordon me for
doing that which [ very seldom do
write an article for a newspaper. | see
50 many silly things nova days in the
papers going the rounds why farming
don't pay. [ have this bad weather,
as it is no time for an old seventy SIX
to be tramping GbOHt in the snow and
rain, thought [ would give you my rea-
son, probably some may think it as
silly as some of the other reasons given.
l have never had any difficulty on
my mind on the subject why farming
don't pay and why the farmers are
getting poorer and poorer every year.
In days gone by, farmers were in the
habit of properly preparing their land
and planting no o than they could
cultivate we'll, but now it is plant,
plant, plant, without seeming to have
any idea how much they can manage
properly, forgetting that one acre we'll
prepared and properly cultivated, will
produce as nue. as two or three acres
lily prepared and cultivated in the
same manner.
There is another thing, what the PEG
pie call credit and some seem to look
upon it as a great blessing, but | am
silly OLIOuSH w SOIhNLACI IL a S1C1b
curse to our land and country. many q
farmer today, had it not been for
credit, would be free Of debt and have
plenty to live on, as it is his land is
mortgaged and the interest is eating
him out of house and home, whereas if
he had paid cash, and thought more
about what I can do without instead
of what I would like 70 have, he would
today be very differently situated.
Another mistake most farmers make,
they neglect having their land we'll
set in clover and grass, which would
not only improve the land, but furnish
them with plenty of hay and good gra-
zing for their stock, and as most farm
ers are pretty we'll supplied with two
legged stock, there is nothing much
better than to have plenty OF milk and
butter for the little fellows, much heal
thier than too much coffee or tea, too
much 'kaughphy', as acertain member
Of a certain legislature once spelled it,
Is not a vary healthy drink for two leg
ged household stock. Every farmer
should first aim to make mis- W sup
plies, Imean his meat and bread and
then (as | live in what is called the
golden belt) some tobacco for his mon
ely crop, which he can do by proper
management without spending all his
money buying fertilizers, keep his
stalls well Uttered and with homemade
manure in connection with chemical
fertilizers, he can keep up his planta-
ton and make farming pay. But if he
makes One crop, either cotton or to-
tobacco to buy everything else with,
he will sure go out the little end of the
horn or up the spout, as the saying Is,
l see a good many reasons published
in the Chronicle, some very good, but
one poor fellow who signs himself a
Farmer, I really feel sorry for. 1t is
bad enough to be poor, but worse I
think to use such language as he does,
l hope his life may be spared to an old
age and be enabled to feel better as the
country becomes more prosperous
which l think in d few years it will,
as the farmers are beginning to see
the folly Of their present course
The farmer I consider the most in
dependent man on earth with prudent
and ]judicious management Of his farm
and household.
LENEx G.