The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-02-27
HARD TIMES AND THE REMEDY.
A Practical Farmer TelIs Plain Truth
In q Forcible Style.

In o Forcible Style.
Rowland Black in Yorkville Enquirer.
There Is now, as well as for several
years past, a spirit of discomfort and
~restlessness amouhg our farmers caus-
ed by a LACK of prosperity. A casting
about for some change more profitable
something that will give more ready
money than the farm, with its short
crops and shorter prices, and the little
demand for the little that is to sell
FROM the farm.
There are only two courses open to
us. The one to leave the farm and go
to the town and seek q better paying
business. The other to stick to the
farm and change methods, and add
new lines and more intelligent methods
until the farm will pay.
Now which will you choose? 1t
must be the one or the other. There
is no escape from making the choice ;
there is no way out of 1t. We have
gone on with poor farming from year
to year until we have gone about as
far as we can go. Our lands are Inn
poverished, many are in debt, and the
general condition Of many of our farms
Is pitiful to behold.
We spoke last week OF the increase
| of population in the towns at the
pense of the rural districts, a shown
by the United States census. This Is
due to the causes above spoken Of.
These farmers who are abandoning
the farm for the town, will tell you that
they ire making the change in order
to educate their children and give
them social advantage. But the real
cause is that they have failed of sue
cess. They have either lacked the
energy, intelligence or business habits
| napaoco ,v fn ornnnoc IN NV h,,oinnoo ,n
quiring these qualifications.
So far as educating their children is
concerned, in the cases of most of
those who desert the farm for the town
for this purpose, the expense of house
rent and the increased cost Of the
necessaries of life, as we'll as many
other expenses that would not be in
Cured in q life upon the farm, would
hire a good teacher in the country ;
and as far as society is concerned, it is
a matter Of grave doubt whether or
not any advantage that might result
from association with this so-called
town society, might not be overbal-
anced by other disadvantages. If you
want your boy. to learn to tie his
cravat in the latest style, to gracefully
handle the seductive cigarette, or to
do q great many other things more
ornamental than useful or manly, he
will get this kind of education faster,
and more perfectly in the town, than
In the country.
My opinion is that in a majority OF
cases the reasons above given are not
the true'ones. The farmer has tried
one way of farming and has found that
it does not pay. He has not had the
vim, energy and perseverance,, If he
had the intelligence, to start out
ot.inhf In tho rtnhf no 70 c,ton0oc ~
the farm.
There is a way to farm and farm
successfully. We have examples be-
fore our eyes in every community. II
Is of no use to say that poor labor and
poor prices prohibit successful farm
ing. 1t has been done and is now being
done. There is no royal path to sue
cess in any pursuit. Success is the re-
ward of patience, toll, care and the
employment Of intelligent methods
There are no remedies pleasant to the
taste of the ills that our farmers are
now suffering from. The medicine is
regularly and continued for q long
time before we ecover from our dis
eases.
The quack doctors will be around
this summer. l mean the politicians
They are going to many of your houses
to see you and tell you why you are no
prospecting. and those they do no
visit they will invite t. come out tt
public meetings, and they will get on
upon q stump and tell you exactly
what is the matter with you, and /
you will come out and vote for them
hat is, place your case in their hand,
for treatment-they will remove al
your diseases that the doctors 20,
hnuA ho2 IN fha >nof lsl ,,D ,-l~x
stand your case, and some of these
quacks will tell you that the doctors
you have had in the past, wanted t.
keep you sick so they could make
money out of you.
Ii you want q days amusement, it il
we'll enough to go and listen to these
fellows; but the world over, these
quacks are a bad lot, and it won't de-
for you farmers to take too much o
their medicine.
l believe in u own homemade
remedies for most Of our ills. Improve
the farm, make home attractive so the
boys will not want to leave it, get gooC
stock and keep them nice and com
Portable, and, above all, make farm
life enjoyable and abandon tho practice
of loating at the stores and talking
hard times, and keep out of debt. /
you can't pay for a thing don't buy it
The farmer who has q good home
and plenty to eat for man and beast
should be happy without money in
these days when he knows that mil.
lions of his fellow creatures in the
cities are destitute Of food. How much
work has been done on our farms since
last July except sowing a few acres OF
small grain and gathering a small
crop ? Idleness has been the rule
among II farmers-work the excep.
ton.
Those who have worked the least
complain the loudest Of the hard times.
But when the farmer, like the me.
chanic and business man, is found with
his business every day in the year, he
is succeeding and is satisfied with re-
suits. You need no say there is moth
ing to do. Every farmer worthy of the
name and of his high and honorable
calling, has so much to do that he
wishes that there were more than 800
days in a year. Don't forget what I
told you about those quacks that will
be around this summer. They can't
cure You; you must apply the remedy
yourself.
Postage Stamps.