The Van Buren press., 1894-09-15
FARMER AND PLANTER
INTELLIGENT FARMING.
Failure In Farming the Accompaniment
of Lack Of Proper knowledge.

Of Lack Of Proper knowledge.
As far as l have been able to Judge.
from careful study of the experiences
Of the men who have succeeded in
farming and those who have failed, |
find that the failures can be traced gen.
orally TO a lack of the proper knowl.
edge of the principles underlying the
profession.
There are certain laws connected
with farming that must be understood
before one can ever hope to succeed.
Perhaps il is not too much to assert
that many of those characteristics that
fitted the Romans for conquering the
world and perfeeting their celebrated
Jurisprudence, were acquired, or at all
events, nourished and matured by
their skill foresight and persevering
industry, so needful for the intelligent
and successful cultivation of their soil.
There is no occupation in life that in
wolves such a combination of circum-
stances and sciences as farming; and
yet the men who know least about
these and their relations to agri-
culture are those upon whom the world
depends for support.
The evils that hinder the farmer from
rising at present, know to be numer-
GUS, and will take the most cultivated
brain to correct them.
One evil is the great need of diversi-
fed farming, that effort which will in
crease the productive capacity of the
soil; that which will render fruitful
the barren places; that which will
level the hill, terrace our mountains
and cover them with vineyards, and
our valleys with golden harvest.
The greatest evil among our farmers
is the idea that they can not raise their
own supplies at home. and that cotton
is the only paying crop l believe if
we had one or two model farms, con-
dastsa on strictly business principles,
to demonstrate to the people the falsi-
ty of these ideas, we would soon al
levite an oppressed people from a
burden that now forces them to the
wall.
Strange to say, but from all appear
ances there are but few farmers who
apparently seem to be awake on these
burning questions of to-day.
The masses of farmers do not seem
to realize that i'll buying their supplies
from abroad that the men who act as
middlemen are getting vastly rich on
the profit that they themselves ought
to have. The great reason for this is
that the farmers, the most of them do
not know how to sell their produce.
In the first place, they do not under
stand their market. They are in need
of knowledge as regards the prepara-
tion of their produce for the market,
and therefore they are compelled to
take less for it. The consequence is
that these middlemen buy and
store away all the produce they
can get, and wait until the
farmers are in need of the same again.
Thus they resell to the very farmers at
per cent ranging all the way from
per cent. to 400 per cent.-a far greater
amount than any planter can make
under the present system of farming.
To illustrate just what l mean will
say: If farmer can buy mule or a
horse for $50 and does not do SO, but
buys it from the stable, which is the
medium, for S126, to be paid In eight
months, on this trade he pays
100 per cent. II he can grow
pigs. and kill his own meat at per
cent, and does not do so, but
buys of merchants at per cent.
and pays the bill in nine months, he
pays 400 per cent. on the purchase.
Again, if he can raise bushel of corn
for 40 cents, and does not do so, but
buys of the merchant for $1.25 per
bushel, and pays the bill in three
months from time of credit, he pays
500 per cent. on this bargain. Let us
see how this interest compares with the
interest of business pursuits, such as
bankers, merchants, spectators, etc.
In commercial circles interest ranges
from per cent. on bonds up to per
cent. and s per cent, and good
commercial paper 10 per cent,
and on certain kinds Of loans
Is per cent. on a dollar. These
rates are considered ruinous to such a
business, but they do not at all COM
pare with the interest of the farmers.
And until the farmers are able to dis
riminate between these interests they
shall ever remain behind. There is no
reason in the wide world for one set of
men to borrow money at Is per cent.
and another set pay 500 per cent. on a
dollar. This is enough to cause utter
failure to silver miners of Nevada, with
the advantage of free coinage, much
less the farmers.
Depression is felt everywhere on ac-
count Of the manner of farming; and
as farmers, we need never hope to have
these conditions changed so long as the
price of cotton is below the cost of pro-
duction, and our smokehouses and corn
cribs are in the far west.
We should reduce our number of
acres and cultivate that which is plant
ed more thoroughly, fertilizcd more
abundantly, and make as much fertil-
izer as we possibly can at home. There
are but few farmers who seem to real
ize that they can make better and
more effective fertilizer than that they
are getting from the merchants, which
often proves to be more detri-
mental than profitable. | know
from actual experience that you can,
by using the same complement Of fer
tilizer on one and a half acres. that
you use on three acres, save more in the
operation. That which you do not save
in overproduction the first year, you
will save in labor.
There is a tract of fifty square miles
about Shanghai, called the Garden of
China" And while we of this south
land are lamenting at our worn-out
fn, nd 4allri.ae.