The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-07
CONDITION OF FARMING
SUCCESS OR FAILURE DEPENDS
MAINLY ON THE FARMER HIMSELF.
Some Illustrations of the Changes in
Farming That show the Value of
Brains-COmpetency Wins.

1.-The depressed condition of farming in
| this country is urged of the chief
| reasons why silver is needed as cheap
| money to make times better, and the gen
eral dissatisfaction of the farmers over
| their hard lot is held responsible for the
! birth and growth of the Populistic senti-
/ ment that has swept through the Western
/ States. There is constant talk about
| farm mortgages the scarcity of money
| in the rural districts, the inability of the
| farmers to make a living, and the de-
| pressed condition of prices for all farm
products. From the cotton fields of the
| South. and the wheat and corn farms of
| the great West and Northwest and even
| from the dairy regions and fruit orchards
| of the East, there is represented as coming
| up d great cry from those who feel that
| their homes and farms are being taken
| from them by some relentless law of an
unjust civilization. If this picture CT the
| farming class were true (and there is no
| doubt of it in the minds of many, we
would have to acknowledge that the chief
! industry in the United States is al a lower
| ebb than elsewhere in the world, and that
| our farmers, who have always been the
| backbone of country and its institu-
| llOiiS, are III a more OeDIOTaDle cOnQltlOn
| than any of the agricultursts in Europe
! The English farmer has hard times to en-
| counter, but by frugal economy he can
| make a living: the German and French ag-
| ricultursts are so poor that they possess
| only a few acres apiece, but from these
| they raise enough to keep out of debt and
! even the Chinese farmer, living on his rice
| and cultivating his crop with the crudest
sort of agricultural implements. exists and
/ is net robbed of his few square rods of
soil. Why is it, then. that the greatest ag-
/ port its farmers?
| DO not make a fair living, on the average,
| in this country fail convince people I'M
| less they are repeated so many times that
| the mind gets into the habit of thinking so.
The bald assertion that farming does
not pay has been said many times that
| the majority of people believe it from no
other reason than that they have heard it
| from so many sides, and a good percentage
Of farmers at Ike to believe it as an excuse
told SO many times by politicians that
Farming does not pay that thousands are
remedy is proposed. There is no industry
| that numbers among its employees so many
incompetent and careless people as agr-
culture. There is prevalent among nine
tenths of our population Il feeling that
anybody can raise corn, wheat, vegetables.
cattle chickens, and that no special ca
pacity or training is needed to make them
farmers After spending twenty Years as
travelling agent. somebody concludes to
invest his few hundreds or thousands in a
farm to make living the rest of his days
in a quiet, congenial way. A clerk in a
motion poor. and he decides to borrow
money to go into truck gardening or
chicken raising An Eastern mechanic
hears much of the bonanza farms or fruit
orchards of the West South, and he
decides to give up toiling endessly for a
| meager living in order to enter into pleas
ayn rxr
line of work turn to farming as the one line
of industry that does not require skill or
experience.
A WRONG BEGINNING.
This is reason why incompetence is
found on the farm. A good percentage of
the so-called farmers were formerly me-
chanics merchants ordinary laboring men,
store clerks, lawyers or something else and
most of them have drifted to the farm be-
cause they failed in their first calling.
They go upon farm, renting or buying the
place, generally with a mortgage at a high
rate of interest, and then learn by expert
ence, meanwhile letting nature take her
course This latter means that the seed
is put in the ground and the grains and
fruits are supposed to come all right in the
natural order of things; the eggs put
under the old hen and profitable chickens
are supposed to come forth, and the calves.
and the ewes, and the COWS all come Just
as easy and naturally the April showers.
In the end they find that things do not run
so smoothly. Sickness kills the cattle. the
hens refuse to lay when eggs are high, the
price of vegetables and fruits has dropped
because they happened to raise some, and
everything goes just contrary to all eXpec-
tations. Then farming doesn't pay. and
a few more Srumblers added to the long
list who demand some change.
A correspondent who is practical farm
er, in a recent number of the Country Gen.
tleman. after giving some plain talk to a
travelling agent who wished to go into
farming, makes these pertinent remarks:
What we need in successful agriculture
as in successful manufacturing. merchan-
dising. and professional life. is the posses
sion and of good common sense and
of business principles. The farmer that
average as well as his neighbor who is en-
gagged as a merchant mechanic. lawyer,
family as well, give his children as good
an education and good start in life,
and when he dies he will leave. on the
average much of this worlds goods be-
hind him, and stand good chance as
any of them OF getting to heaven.
No better statement of the needs of agrl-
culturists should be required than this.
There are thousands of intelligent farmers
in every State of the Union who are MAX
teaches them that there is room for plenty
more of their same caliber. There are up
journals published in this country. whose
columns devoted entirely 20 the dis
semination of farm news and experience,
and not politics.: They leave the latter
severely alone Their pages are filled al
most exclusively with news direct from
the field. correspondence from practical,
everyday farmers, giving the results of
their experiments and experience. If one
searches these papers carefully month by
month and reads the letters published in
them he will Father a better idea of the
condition of farming III this country than
if he should listen to q thousand political
speeches and read a bushel of campaign
documents. Statistics do not always tell
the story as graphically and accurately as
pen picture by those engaged in the bat
tie Samples of these reports from the
farms that are paying could be selected to
fill volumes. and with but little variations
they tell the same story. few extracts
from different letters might be of interest.
THEIR OWN VIEWS.
J. NJ Rice, farmer at Winview Okla
homa,, writes in the Nebraska Farmer:
II have perhaps written that the Western
farmer needs to be a rustler-that is. he
must be one who is quick to take adj
vantage of any sudden change of outlook.
whether favorable or unfavorable. ! read
ilv see that there are peculiar conditions
existing here, but there are such long sea-
sons and such rich soil that in some way,
if we are quick to take advantage of the
opportunitieS presented, fair results al
WAYS be had. but there must be no waiting
when the favored time comes: il must be
..I1ila tho iron