Birmingham age-herald., 1894-09-30
THE MODEL FARMER.
A Quaint Descripti on by the Inc '. initable Sam Jones.
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Constant, Everlasting, Never-Let-Up ln- dnstry the First Essential EIement--No Time for Politics-Must study Bus
 mess and Avoid Debt.
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 farmer and have something to say of him in this life.
 To whomsoever the old adage: All things come to him who waits" may apply, surely the farmer can claim this adage as part of his heritage. It is working and not waiting, it is industry and not incidence, which makes the model farmer; therefore we say the first essential element in the model farmer is constant, everlasting, never let-up industry. The model farmer is as busy in January as he is in June, as hard at it in March as he is in October To run a farm wisely it is an all-the- year-round job; blowing and planting, cultivating and harvesting are but four things to be done by the model farmer.
 Everything including land, horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, claim a part of his time and some of his labor and he must take care of his land then his land will take care of him.
 The everlasting taking from and put ting nothing back again has bank rupted many a farmer and ruined many farm. To look after all these things it takes an industrious man, and gives him from ten to fifteen hours work day, twenty-six days in the month and twelve months in Ohe year. 1t gives him very little time to attend political meetings and less time to give to poli- tics and politicians.
 No farmer ever made anything to help him on his farm by his connection
 
 politicians.
 know some good farmers who are bankrnpted to-day because they be- came interested in politics. Politics will bankrupt farmer, @ lawyer, a merchant, preacher or the devil him self.
 Again, the model farmer studies the . character of his soil, the fertilizers adapted to it, and by this means he is able to procure the best results and the most lucrative harvest
 The average farmer in this country knows no more of the component parts of the soil he cultivates than the mule that walks in the furrow ahead of him.
 l believe a fellow can succeed as a farmer better than Tn any other profes-
 
 most any other calling or profession to get along at all; but l have seen first class fools make pretty fair crops.
 Agaln, the model farmer Is a frugal man; he makes every edge cut He never buys a grain of corn, pound of meat, or a bushel of wheat; he lives at home and lives we'll We may talk about Delmonico's in New York, but the model farmer sets the best table to which I ever sat down. The best bread, the best butter and milk the best veg etables. Really, it makes me hungry to write about them. He sells his sur plus in everything, and has surplus of everything to sell that grows upon the farm.
 Again, the model farmer lives within his means He will do it, if in no other way, like Pat said he got rich-by do. ing without the things he was obliged to have. Woe be to the farmer the day he gives his consent to go into debt, and the farmer who is not in debt Is an exception, world without end, to the rule He must raise cotton, and there are farmers producing and selling 1t on the market to-day, as cheap as it is, and taking the money he gets for his produce and buying as much with it as the same produce would ever buy really dollar will buy more to-day than any day in the history of our country, but the dollar to-day don't pay any more debts than 1t did in any other day in times of prosperity.
 He who makes the crop of this year %c>, 6a1, nf lao of n6 cumulated debts of this year is left now. One of the finest farmers in Georgia to-day gave this as his expe- rience. He said he ran along in debt for several years after the war, until finally the mortgage took his place, the merchant took his mule, and the devil was about to take him; he had no credit and no friends; finally he said to his wife and children: We have corn enough to feed our mules and bread for us, and our COW will give us plenty of milk and butter; on thfs rented farm we will make our crop on bread and butter and milk" He said all through the year he sat down to his table, morning, noon and night, not piece of meat nor a cup of coffee nor any delicacies or luxuries went on his table through the year. At the end of the year his part of the crop came to him all in cash; he settled up his debts and had one hundred dollars left; the next year he made the one hundred dollars run him, and to-day he is one of our largest and most prosperous farmers, and says he has not seen a day for fifteen years that he wouldn't knock man down who would offer to credit him. He says that the two years that he lived closely, on bread and but ter most of the time, were the two years that gave him the lessons of economy and frugality which made him to-day almosta millionaire farmer.