Rocky Ford enterprise., 1896-01-16
NO. 33.
rho Farmers Profcasios.

The time has come when the WORD
profession as applied to tho farmers
business means something. The old
saying that "any fool can be farmer"
Is true, but there Is q great and In.
creasing force Of truth in the modern
maxim that "a fool cannot be . good
farmer" Any fool can be lawyer,
and a large percentage of tho idiots
that cumber the earth have undoubtsd.
ly reached out in that direction. but
the close, hard work Of the profession
requires . well trained brain in
sound body. The lawyer destitute OF
energy or sense goes to the wall and
Is laid to a financial rest In the same
last ditch with the incompetent farm.
er and the same blanket Of debt covers
.helr unfortunate remains. Farms
are no more properly asylums for hui
Ing rooms. or the thronged halls Of
commerce and trade. Farming has be-
come an occupation for brains as well
as muscle. Inventive genius has
turned the business bottom upward and
inside out during the last fifty years.
The true philosophic spirit which first
saw day in Lord Bacon Is turning Q
food Of light upon every principle and
detail of the farmers vocation from
the processes of plant life to the kill
ing of potato bugs. That spirit Of In
Quiry. Of research, Of painstaking In.
vestigation Is constantly ut work. un-
dermining and blowing up popular
humbugs. laying firmly and deeply In
right reason and sound sense the foun-
dations Of agricultural sciHnes. and
running leads in every directmN for
the golden grains Of truth 0'as may
enrich and beautify the farnsss's ;-sn-
fessio:l. For farming is n profession
1t was not in the middle ages when
tillers of the soil were looked upon
as human vermin and christendom ap-
plauded ignorance and knightly BUTCH
cry; 1t is not to-day In Mexico. where q
forked stick serves as plow and where
1t is almost a sin against the Holy
Ghost to have a new idea. But In this
country. where intelligent labor Is
honored, and where laboratories and
colleges and experiment stations and
newspapers and the active brains Of the
farmers themselves are constantly
broader plan 1t is a profession OF such
Importance and such possibilities toaS
no man should take Its name lightly.
It requires health, energy, knowledge,
sense and grit to be a good farmer.
I do not believe that natural taste for
the business is absolutely necessary for
the successful farmer. A man can be
n good minister, or book agent, or poll
tician, or woman's rights man even II
he doesn't like 1t. There may be lit
tie waste OF talent. perhaps. In the
clash of sentiment, but grit can hlI
that gap and the man succeed. Poets
may be born to their inheritance OF
imagery md song. but the farmer who
Is born into the requirements OF his
business is as scarce as angels among
the business men of Chicago. A husi-
ness like farming. which gives play 70
taste, fancy, Invention, originality an
thinking and working. can safe'y DO
called a profession. The man who
pounds stone upon the highway has
no profession. There Is nothing In tho
business to call into play his mental
powers, and but few of his physical.
The workers In the mills and factories
of the country move In the deepest
and narrowest ruts OF mechanical mo-
notony, Numberless farmers drifting
around In the backwaters OF by-gOne
practices and ideas have no profession.
but the active. progressive. thinking
man who finds in the accumulated
knowledge of agriculture food for his
memory, and in the changing seasono
and fluctuating markets, the ups and
downs Of the commercial barometer
subjects for his reason, and In the un-
explored mysteries Of the soil euo1ects
for enthusiastic research, has pro-
fession for which no abilities are TOO
great, and no mental culture can Dc
too thorough. The farmers profession
has the same inherent nobility that any
other respectable occupation mas ana
no more, Honest labor in any calllng'
whether in making shoes, selling call
co. editing newspapers, preaching the
eospel, counting a girl, driving muiea.
or running a great railroad corpora
tion has the same stamp Of divine ap-
proyal.-H. c. Adams. .,
Cork Trees in Georgia-A Georgia
correspondent Of the Galveston Ne~s
Gays: About thirty-five years ago sew
eral young cork trees were sent here oy
the government and set ont to test
their adaptability to this climate. Three
or four are yet living. but the largest
one is in the front yard Of the jack
son house, being two feet or more IN
diameter. Last week 1t was stripped OF
its bark around the trunk under the
direction Of Colonel Richard l.. Warth-
en- who manifests great interest In trees
of all varieties, and samples or the
cork will be forwarded to the agri-
cultural department at Washington ana
to the Atlanta exposition. The bark, or
cork, is two and halt inches thick.
end is good material. Colonel Warth-
en-. who has studied the matter closely,
is confident that this is the first tree
that cork has ever 5eoa taken from IN
the United States. ,.4, .
A Perpetual Study. - Farming Is
perpetual study. when we get to work
k.,Nr Va