The Van Buren press., 1898-08-20
FARMER AND PLANTER.
WHAT TO DO IN HOT WEATHER.
1t In Mistake to Imagine that Hot
Weather Is a Season for
Idleness.

/ have heard great many farmer
friends remark that there is nothing to
do during the hot weather, SO we will
go fishing or squirrel hunting or do
something else that is nothing IN the
end. This is mistake, pure and SIM
pie. There's always something to do
ON the farm if the proprietor thereof
would attain success. No season of the
year should find the progressive farmer
idle Winter should find him in the
woods, clearing, if he has any land to
clear, or attending to his feeding cat
Gle, etc, while summer sees him in the
midst of numerous periods of hard
work-harvesting, threshing, haylns
End blowing, and then sowing in the
sall. So it goes; always something to
tlo-if he will but do it. Here's she
fub. 1t never gets too hot for man
30 work in this country; it never gets
ZOO cold here for plucky farmer to
get in some telling licks. Every tiller
of the soil must needs be an enthu-
siast on the subject of farming; he
must like that particular vocation
more than he does any other; must
have more interest in it than in any
thing else. In short, he must be
gort of a maniac, s'crank, as the
mossbaeks call an up-to-date farmer,
and ought to be continually planning,
devising, experimenting and observ-
ing-always at work for his own in
terests. All the men l know of, this
type, have good bank accounts, and
many of them started without red
cent. This simply shows what brains
will do; muscle may not do so much
it can not. More brains, more fore
sight and better judgment are needed
to make our worn-out and neglected
farms bloom as red rose. They will
do it; it's in them. The farmer must
dig deep down and lift up the richness
of the earth. 1t is for him. Why not
get it?
Just now the war question is agitat-
ing the minds of the people, all classes.
The successful farmer reads the news
once or twice a week, so netimes not
SO often, and does his work, losing no
time with false war reports. like
patriotism and patriotic people, but,
farmer friends, we who are engaged in
the production of crops have work to
do which we must attend, Though the
heavens take a tumble Every min
ute is valuable; put it in by doing
something on your farm. Every little
helps. Hot weather is here, and while
we who labor out in the sun will per-
spire freely, we will reap rich reward
in due season. Fence corners to cut;
weeds in the pastures should be cut
with the mower; a thousand and one
things to do. Do them. True it is
that the teams can't endure the ex-
easy and don't rush-simply keep on
doing it. This will count more in
month than dozen swift gushes. BE
steady, cool and thoughtful. Don't
overdo thing which were better un-
derdone if done at all.
The same thing we can do in cool,
pleasant weather can and ought to be
done in hot weather-work, hard work
and easy work are to be found at all
times on the farm. But it is not diff
cult to make hard work easy. In fact.
it is the way we do thing that deter
mines the ease or difficulty with which
it is done. Be slick. Quinine is hard
to take as powder, but put it in cap
sules and it goes home at once, and
with ease. This is slick work. Don't
let the work go rough; see to it that it
be done smoothly.
No excuse on earth for being idle a
single day on the farm. Then why
spend SO many days thus engaged? If
you have a big farm and are out of
debt, you may be able to sit under the
shade and watch the birds fly. But
if your acres are burdened with a
mortgage, you had better get down to
business and get the kinks out of your
back. A mortgage on a farm hangs
tenaciously and is not easily cast off
Dewitt G. Wing in Economist.
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