The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-09-26
BROAD GAUGE REMEDIES sUG
GESTED FOR BROAD
GAUGE EVILS.

causes of this, but am impressed With
four features of the situation as deserv.
ing of more than a passing thought.
These are:
~. Credit farming.
%. A lazy mans market.
(9. The plow and the loom too far
apart.
~. Bad transportation.
CREDIT FARMING
'Credit farming is the result Of be
ing compelled to farm without capital"
This falIacy looks to be plain truth; ;
it is plain absurdity.
Farming is not speculation. It is
not play. It is not idle dreaming. 1t
is business, and business is not done in
this year of grace without capital
money capital, brain capital. energy
capital. The farmer who has these
three forms Of capital uses them in his
busineEs The farmer who lacks one
or all of them hires what he has not.
When you hire workman you be
SOAAO a A4G1SVO4S lag q SC4 N1uVS " uC4
you hire capital you acquire master
and become slave. A slave may make
a profit out of the business of being a
slave, and in time may buy his free
dom. Not many crop lien slaves, how,
ever, ever realiza this possibility. Most
of those who do are those who hire
only money capital. Those to whom
the merchant must also furnish"
brains and energy eventually realize
the boast of one Of them who said:
"When l can't make living working
six months in the year will quit" He
clearly meant he would quit farming,
as he had not made living in years.
The great barrier to the crop-lien
slaves emancipation, however, is the
fact that, in his case, the furn ishipg
merchant is the real farmer. He does
not plant according to his judgment,
but according to his orders He cult.
Yates also by order, gathers his crop by
order, markets it by order, and by or
ders from the same source arranges
his plans for another crop. This man
will never do his best farming till he
can get the merchant out Of the posi-
tion of boss, and the merchant will be
boss till the slave is able to furnish"
himself.
LAZY MANS MARKET
Said a successful farmer to me re.
Gently: 1.-The average farmer is body
diligent but brain lazy. He is willing
to work with his hands, but not with
his head. What crops he can make
only by hard study and real thinking
he will not plant" Cotton is brain.
lazy crop. Brain lazy to plant, make,
gather and sell.
The merchant also is brain lazy. He
is the farmers middlemaD. He brings
the farmer and his market together.
Many times, most times, the farmer
has neither time, money, information,
experience, confidence, nor, possibly,
ability to hunt a market. He must
plant for the merchants marke5-for
lazy mans market. Cotton sells itself
-tor money or a debt receipt. No
other possible Southern farm crop
does. Hence the more laziness the
more cotton.
PLOW AND LOOM TOO FAR APART.
Some years ago the center Of the iron
industry of this country was at Pitts
burg, Pa. The city was furnace grid.
led. The smoke of the smelter's fires
was a curtain by day and blanket by
night Tne town lost it's name and
was known as the IS noky City"
Whoever would smelt iron built fur
mace there because it was orthodox
business doctrine that the factory
ehould be neighbor to it's competitor.
A mixture of iron and rock called ore,
lime to fux it, coal to melt it, all were
hauled from a dozen to a thousand
miles that orthodoxy might preserve a
business CENTER" and the pick and
the furnace dWelt apart.
Ole day there appeared a hereto.
He said the furnace ought to go to the
field. He had the assurance to paint
out that Pittsburg was paying long
freights on five and more tons cf some
thing for every ton OF pig iron made.
His heresy was to make short haul
of the ore, fax and fuel and long
haul of the iron-a short haul Of the
five tons ard put the long haul on the
one ton. Iron orthodoxy laughed him
to scorn.
Capital, however conservative, is not
reverent. Business heresy is good doc
trine if it can show profit. Away
out near the end Of one of Pittsburg's
long hauls furnace was built. The