The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-03-18
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
Something More than Ability to Raise
Good Crops and Stock Necessary
to Warrant the Appellation.

uooo crops and Stock Necessary
to Warrant the AppelIation.
Producing good crops, or breeding
and feeding good stock, does not con-
stitute an ideal farmer. Doing all
this in an ideal manner, and in addi-
ton thereto, improving the fertility
of his soil and exercising good bust
ness Judgment in the disposition of
ali surplus, alone, are not sufficient to
realize our ideal. These are neces-
sary accomplishments, but are not
the whole thing. The kind of farm
ing and farm management that re-
suits in a wide domain and vast riches
may fail as utterly as the commonest
clod-hopper would should he under
take to practice law. medicine or the
ology. An ideal farmer must be an
''all round man." The home and the
farm can not be separated. If home
life is failure, the entire outfit is
ditto. A bad man can never be a
good farmer, nor an ideal one. 1t is
not necessary that he be an angel, nor
that he shall have experienced entire
sanctification. AS matter of predi-
lection, we would rather undertake to
make an ideal farmer of an ordinary
human being, with like passions as
the rest of us; one who could sympa-
thize with his neighbors. because he
lad been there. himself, than of
either angels or saints. We even
doubt the practicability of making
even passable farmers out of either.
Farming is human occupation, or
dained of God, and for which he has
endowed the earth with abundant re-
sources and some men with ample
faculties, if they win only apply them.
Industry, perseverance, self-control,
fair measure of Intelligence, and
determination to make the best posi-
bic use of the opportunities within
his reach-these are all human at
tributes, possessed in common, but
not in the same proportions by all
men, or all farmers,-cr all ideal farm
ers We knew farmer once who
was noted for his splendid crops; the
rains seemed to single him out as
favorite; corn and cotton seemed to
grow better for him than for any of
hisneighbors; his oats seldom rusted,
and the curculio had no taste for his
peaches or plums; his cattle and hogs
and horses seemed to enjoy uninter-
rnpted health; 'possums and chicken
snakes left his poultry alone, and he
was seldom taken out of his crop at
critical time to work on the road or
Sit on a jury. His products found
ready sale at good prices, and so on
and so forth. But he was far from
being our ideal farmer. On the con-
trary, he was as quarrelsome as al
sitting hen and as cross as a hungry
dog gna<ving bone; his wife feared
him; his children ceased their romp-
ing when he came home; his cows fed |
to the farthest corner of the lot when
h entered, leaving patches of hair on
tho ends of the fence rails as they fed |
from his presence; his demeanor was
solemn and forbidding as that of a
and his voice like the
growing of brindle cur. He became
comfortably wealthy, as to property,
cut Pauper in all else. He had pos
'essed himself ola large bodyof land.
ind finally, greatly to the relief of all
he occupied only six feet
~ three. AS an ideal farmer, he was
Weighed in balance and found want
ns. He possessed some of the neces-
AIRY qualifications of an ideal farmer.
md might have been one--if he had
My been somebody else. 1t is said
hat man who will not lie in horse
rade can enter the celestial gate with
nut the password. Such superlative
irtue surely merits the favor of ST. |
'cter, and yet man who will lie in
ny sort of business transaction
nth his neighbor, though he possess
We cardinal virtues and knows as
'rch about corn and cotton as Peters
I Kramer; as much about cattle as I
kard or Vance; as much about swine
s'Singleton or Pierce; as much about I
ruit as Munson or Falkner. or as
luch about domestic economy as I'm
&c Snort or your humble servant, he
an not be an ideal farmer. One who !
'tentionally violates any of the ten
and refuses to quit {
, is barred not only from the COM q
my of just men made perfect, but !
ON our list of ideal farmers.
hough we would not dogmatize. nor
communicate for ordinary peccadil- !
os, but rather consider all such Of a
nses in the light of animus i'm a
'nentis, yet we may justly demand !
lat commission be followed by con- a
ition. before the unregenerate can e
'come ideal farmer.--Texas Farm
I'd Ranch. v