St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-07-03
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FoLLIEs OF FARMERS.
a Few Things to be Avoided and Some t


a Few Things to be Avoided and Some to
! be Observed.
1t is very foolish for farmer to send
| $40, S25, $50 or 500 worth of produce to
an entire stranger, man or a firm of
whom he knows absolutely nothing,
except he or they send out a price list
or circular, and offer him certain prices
for his products
If the offered prices are higher than
snch goods are selling for, he may be
pretty sure the firm is fraud. 1t is
shame to the government of this land
that men are allowed to cheat farmers
/ out of thousands of dollars without be-
| ing checked or brought to prison. 1t
does seem as though laws might be en-
acted with severe penalties, penalties
commensurate with the evil and harm
| done, and that these pirates, sharks and
robbers might be- punished for their
crimes. Perhaps it is one of the follies
of farmers that they do not agitate the
matter until such seoundrels get their
! just deserts. But there is a way to
avoid them-I would say many ways.
| One is to take some really good farmers
paper and deal with commission men.
| who advertise in them. Then it you
have trouble, go for the publisher of
| the paper which advertised them. This
| would make publishers more careful
whom they permitted to use their col
urnns. But right here we meet another
of the farmers follies. Some of them
do not take a single good agricultural
| paper, and far too many of them do
not know enough of business and of
the market end of their business to
| properly pack and ship their produce.
| 1t is always best to write to the dealer
for directions how to put up and ship
| your commodities, and then carefully
follow his advice.
| 1t is folly to send poor products
mixed in with good. 1t spoils the sale
| of the goods, and adds to the freight
bill. Take ten barrels of mixed apples,
sort out four or five and ship the re-
mainder. They will bring more than
| the ten unsorted barrels would, the
| freight will be about half as much, and
the poor apples will make good stock
| feed worth from ten to 15 cents a
| bushel. This is a sample of all kinds
Of shipment. Always keep poor prod
ucts home. Nothing whatever is gained
by sending them to market. If you
want to ruin your reputation, put a lot
of poor apples or other produce in the
| bottom and body OF the package and
| finish off the top with the finest. This
| is about as great a folly as farmer can
commit. Let the grocers and druggists
and makers of frauds and shoddy
shams do all that sort of thing. Let
| the farmers keep their hands from it,
and then they can demand that state
and national governments suppress
these forms of robbery.
There are markets which make no
distinction between good and poor
| products. You don't want to have any
thing to do with such. Once get in
the way of growing fine things, and
you will see the folly of trying to palm
| off poor products. To raise the best,
| one must have the best seed, make the
soil very rich, keep weeds down, attend
to thinning. It is folly to buy cheap
and poor seed, folly to economi1e by
using too little manure, folly to crowd
growing plants.
Another great folly of farmers or
anyone else is to think they know SO
much that ehey do not need to keep
learning. God made man to always be
a learner. Ignorance inheres in mans
nature. Only God has a perfect knoWl-
edge and never needs to learn. It is
pride which makes man think he
knows too much to be a learner Com
mon farmers need the help and advice
of scientific men, and the latter need
| many times to learn of the common
| farmer A mans knowledge is not to
be despised because he has never been
to a college, nor is the knowledge of
schools to be lightly esteemed. Every
| farmer needs to learn all he can from
| his neighbors, from institute lecturers,
from station bulletins, and from agrl-
cultural papers. The best and most
successful farmers write for these pa
pers and that farmer loses great deal
who does not read one or more of such
papers. N. Y. Tribune.
|