The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-10-11

voted to this important feature every
year. The diet on this place is not con,
fined to fat meat and corn bread. He
sets table, that for good substantial
eating, is not equalled by many veal
thy city dwellers. We know this for we
have partaken Of his hospitality. This
is as it should be. The fact that we
wish to impress on our readers is this,
what this man has accomplished is
within the reach of every reader of
this paper in the central south. 1t
rests in your own hands as to whether
you will improve your opportunity.
The Southern farmer, as a rule, des-
pises, or is at least Indifferent to small
things, and with that frame of mind,
he loses the profits. We were talking
recently with a gardener in the vicin-
ity of Atlanta, who had half acre of
strawberries. He told us that he sold
from that half acre last spring $2S7.
worth of berries. We asked him why
more OIL his neighbOrs did not take up
stra wberry culture. He replied, "they
thing it beneath them too fool along
with little thing like berries. They
prefer to cultivae 10 to 25 acres of cot
ton to get the same cash returns that
do from the half acre."
We know this statement to be true.
1t, or the results of it, are shown on al
most every average" farm in the
country. The vegetables, fruits, poul-
try and stock are neglected or dispens-
ed with so that a greater acreage may
be worked into staple crops that barely
pay cost of production, and in the
meantime the farmer and his family
60 on short or inferior ratiOns and are
ill clad, and he may spend his leisure
time in cussing the governments,
trusts, etc., for his hard lot. The real
trouble is not with the trusts or Admin
istration but with the individual far
mer in his neglect Of small and ap-
parently insignificant things.
There is little in the way of farm
and garden notes in this article, as
usually presented. The visit to this
DeKalb Co., plantation was an inspira
ton to us, and we only wish that every
reader of the Ruralist could go over il
and become imbued with some of thai
same inspiration and enthusiasm. II
is an object lesson to all who see it.
We saw a quotation from Benjamin
Franklin the other day with lots OF
hard, solid facts in it. 1t was as fol
lows:
"Friends and neighbors, the taxes
are indeed heavy, and if those laid or
by the Government were the only ones
we had to pay, we might more easily
discharge them. We are taxed twice
as much by our pride, and four
times as much by our folly, and from
these the commissioners cannot ease OF
deliver us by allowing an abatement
1t would be thought a hard govern
tenth part of their time to be employed
in it's SERVICE but idleness taxes many
of us much more if we reckon all that
is spent in absolute slOth or doing of
nothing"
We tax ourselves more than any gov
eminent ever taxed it's citizens by
our failure to grasp and make the most
of our opportunities. The south, as a
section, has more opportunities to
take advantage of than any other
vet not one-fourth of our farmers are
living up to their opportunities and
therein lies the heaviest tax, the heav-
lest farmers burden-H. G.. Hastings,
in Ruralist.
PLANTING and Cultivation of Citr,1s