The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-11
New standards OF Farming

Good farming is without doubt more diff
flcult than it used to be, remarks the
american CultiUator. 1t may require less
better thought 1t is within the memory
of many mlddle-aged farmers when the
methods OF those who succeeded and OF
those who fafled differed only in amount
rather tharf7m character. Each followed
very nearly sthe same routine. but the sue.
cessful won their superiority by greater at
tention todetails and by increased executive
ability, SO as TO enable them to get more
work done and to have it done in seasonable
time. These are still important conditions
OF success, but they are no longer its domi-
nant factors. as they once were.
There hasvbeen within the last thirty,
forty and fifty years a noted cheapening of
all farm products. Many who remember
only since theewa- period regard this cheap
ening process as mainly due to the appre-
citation of currency. Money will buy more
of almost everything than it ever did before,
but mems wants have increased in even
greater ratio. This is true in the country
as well as in the city. Unless farmers can
manage to produce moro end much cheaper
than formerly, their business cannot hold
Ia
fixes the standard of success for all.
1t consists not alone nor chiefly in getting
up earlier aud working more hours in day,
but IN producing more cheaply, either by
making soil more fertile by improved imple-
meuts, or by Increasing the product from
stock, and thus enabling what the farm
grows 20 be led with greater profit. The
more az these aids to cheap production any
farmer eau combine in his own practice,
the more successful he will be. The old
methods OF success, the long hours and Sc
we're physical toll, il they interfere with the
thought needed to carry into execution the
new methods, will be found hindrance rather
than helps.
1t is fortunate for farmers, and not I'M
fortunate for the world. that the unnatural
extension of farming by opening up new
and fertile regions in the great west has
practically ended While it lasted IL made
il every year harder for farmers in the
older states to grow crops with profit, and
at the same time maintain soil fertility. So
the process of exhaustion has
continued until the cry of abandoned farms
in once prosperous localities has startled
thinkers with the fear that this exhaustive
process was likely to continue indefinitely. AS
it was caused by the supply OF cheap farms
free of cost at the west, the evil will cease
with the cessation Of its cause. It will not
be worse for consumers that this unnatural
stimulation of farming in the west is at an
end. 1t is not best for anybody to have
everything supplied at a price which does
not give fair living profit to the producer.
Even were it possible, it would not be
best to degrade labor in an effort to cheaper
products.
The south years ago tried that in its insti-
tuition OF slavery, but the enormously
greater prosperity Of the south since slavery
was abolished showed how serious was the
mistake on which that institution was
based.
We do not, therefore, either look or hope
for restoration Of prosperity to farmers by
reduction Of their expenses. Increasing the
amount of labor and fertility adds 80 much
more proportionately to the farms products
that it ia the modern secret of cheap pro-
duction. Nature has always aided the
farmer-is aiding him still; but not as