The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-05-04
SUCCESS AND FAILURE.
WHY SOME SUCCEED AND
OTHERS FAIL.
Two Lessons for the Consider
alton of the Farmer and Manu-
ia cturer-New Methods Needed
in Our Agricultural System.
iWarrentOn Gazette.

iWarrenton Gazette.I
During the past ten years, the South
has made wonderful strides in material
progress. Her mining and manufac-
turing interests have grown with
astonishing rapidity. Men and money
have been attracted form the North
and Europe by the extent of our
wonderful resources, and the move
ment gathers force rs it goes on,
promising a future in the development
of these lines Of industry and in the
growth of our towns, exceeding any
thing the world has ever witnessed
before. All this is gratifying to every
Southerner who feels pride in his
section, but there is one line of in
dustry which we are sorry to say, has
not experienced the same degree OF
prosperity: and that is, our great agri-
cultural interest. While the manu-
faCturer, miner and town builder has
prospered and grown rich, the great
mass OF the farmers have grown poorer.
1t is true that some large fortunes have
been made farming, and thousands
have been thrifty and become inde-
pendent, but this is not true of the
great majority, and on this account
the merchants and professional men
have not been prosperous, and the
towns, dependent upon agriculture,
have languished.
For this state of affairs there must be
a cause and it is the part of wisdom,
for those engaged in this industry, to
try to find out the cause and remove
it. One way 10 get at this matter IS,
to examine into the methods OF those
who have succeeded and compare them
with those practiced by those who
have failed, and in this way we may,
to a considerable extent, be able to
determine the cause of failure. So far
as our observation has extended, and
the observation of Others thoroughly
accords with ours, the men who have
succeeded at farming, have been the
men who have made what are known
as market crops, subordinate to food
crops. TO this rule there has scarcely
been an exception, and it applies not
only to North Carolina, but the entire
South. There is no use figuring on
| this matter because facts are worth
more than figures, and actual results
| count for more than theories. II it be
true that those farmers who have sue
ceeded have been those who have made
their food supplies at home, ought not
this to be taken as one of the secrets
of their success, and indeed, the chief
cause?
Another cause of failure is the cult
vation of poor land-lands run down
by heavy cropping. The farmers ofthe
South have never given proper atten-
ton to raising manure at home and
have depended entirely too much upon
Thought fertilizers. 1t is not only
bad farming but the extreme OF folly
to cultivate land which is too poor to
make a good yield, and yet this Is
what our farmers have been doing, and
are continuing to do. 1t is a tact
which no intelligent farmer will deny,
that the intensive system of farming
must be adopted. In order to do this
great attention must be given to rals-
ing manure, and the improvement o
the soil by peas and other crop:
adapted to that purpose. The manure
question lies at the root of the matter
Its neglect means failure and poverty
When we say there are not dozer
farmers in the county who make ont
half, if one fourth, the manure they
might make, with proper effort, W.
do not think we transcend the bound
of truth. Ten acres of land as fertile
as our vegetable gardens, would yielt
more than a hundred acres of such a
is usually cultivated, and the cost o
cultivation would only be one tenth
This is common sense and everybod.
knows it. In the cultivation Of tn
one there would be handsome profit
and in the other, certain loss.
Making manure, improving on
lands and raising all our supplies 4
home, would in themselves, brini
prosperity to the farming community
An esteemed friend, engaged in farm
ing, said to US recently, that what W
said about farming, figured out nicel
on paper, but was difficult TO put il
practice. We think he is mistaken
1t is certainly not difficult 10 raise on
! food supplies. TO bring our land
into high state Of fertility require
time, but it should be t!one, and what
more, must be done, if we would max
farming profitable, and there will neve
he a bftter timf. Ia hepIn the work