The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-12-05
The Folly of the Farmer.

The New Orleans Daily States
under the above caption has the fol
lowing to say about the ''farmer,
every word OF which is truthfully
said:
Next to journalism end steam
boating, agriculture, is the most
delusive of pursuits, If not judieious-
ly and economically followed. The
fact that ''hope springs eternal in
the human breast" is especially ex-
emplified in the case of the farmer
That drou.h, flood, or the caterpll-
lar Injuries or totally destroys his
crop one year serves not at all to
dampen his anticipation OF remun-
erative one the following year.
Not content to run his farm on a
scale commensurate with the means
! in band, he is ambitious to control
large plantation, and to do this he
must perforce put himself III the
power Of the merchant, who, like
all other of us selfish and sinful
mortals, is on keen scent of his own
interest, ignoring those of his Gus
toners, except so far as they may
advantage him in the time to come.
If the farmer could but see and
decipher it, there is over the en-
trance door of every merchant who
advances money or supplies to make
crop whose seeds are not yet in the
ground and which must run the
gauntlet of all the vicissitudes of
the seasons, a sign which reads:
"Let him who enters here leave hope
behind"
The planter who annually clears
five per cent on his investment may
be considered fortunate, and yet he
pays for his advances twenty-five
per cent at conservative estimate.
Are not the consequences of SO stupid
a policy inevitable? The end of the
year shows that the planter has the
experience (Which he will not profit
by) while the merchant has reaped
the harvest. Thus, while the one
tolls and lives mayhap in log
cabin, on bacon and bread, his
wife and children clothed in cheap
calico and coarse shoes; the other
at least until the day of his bank
ruptcy shall have come-in pala-
hal residence upon the choicest
viands, drinking Krug or Vim
Lafitte, while his family are clothed
in purple and fine linen.
| But let not the farmer complain
of this; he has no right to do so, as
it is the deserved fruit of his own
folly. Moreover, reverse the posi-
tions and he would do it unto the
merchant even as the merchant does
it unto him; the warp and wool of
human nature are precisely the same
in the one as IN the other.
And this condition of things is
the more deplorable when it is con-
sidered that the pursuit of agricul-
ture should be and could be. made
the most independent of all others.
The mercantile class, the lawyer, the
doctor, the mechanic, even the
banker and the railroad magDate
must needs pander to the public for
patronage in their respective call
lings; while the farmer, by the excl
else of a policy clearly within the
scope of his capacity, can make him
self Independent of all men-depend-
ent only on HIM who controls the
seasons, who giveth the seed-time
and the harvest.
BY diversifying his crops, by liv-
ling within his legitimate means and
at home, by combining his operations
to the limit of his capacity to pay
without calling in outside help, the
farmer could make himself the real
autocrat of this country, to whom
all other classes would look for pat
ronage and support. He could thus,
too, be power in legislation and, if
need be, bring the boycott into effec-
tual operation. As 1t is, he is COM
PEELED to play the role of mendicant
and alms-seeker to those who favor
Legislation that may injuriously
affect his interest if not absolutely
wreck them. In short, the farmer
has his destiny IN his own hands and
observes no sympathy if he fail of