The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-08-19
FARMER AND PLANTER.
Seek Lighter AvOcations In
the Cities.


move to town to seek lighter work?
Why do our sons abandon the country
home and HE themselves away to the
stores in the villages and towns to en-
gage themselves as clerks at small
wages? There is reason for. these
things. It requires so much brains, 50
much brain. education and training to
become a truly successful farmer
and comparatively new farmers recog-
nize- this fact. As rule, it is the
opinion among nearly all classes that
almost anybody can be a farmer. And
1T is true, he can-but what manner
of farmer? Even when raising good
crops, and at the same time impover-
fishing the land year by year-this is
not good farming. The capacity of the
soil is limited, and it is only matter
of time when it's fertility and pro-
ductiveness will fail. 1t requires good
brains and management to raise pay
ing crops year after year, and at the
same time keep up the fertility of the
soil. A man who is soil robber, pay
ing back nothing to the soil--in the
true sense-he is not farmer. To
know the needs of the soil; to know
the best system of rotation of crops,
sc as not to draw too heavily on the
soil of any one or more element of
fertility by any one crop; to know
much of the chemistry of soil and
plants-in fact, to possess fair sci
entific knwledge of all those things
that enter into the formation of the
soil itself-how plants grow and how
they feed and their elements of food
these, and hundreds of other subjects
must be thoroughly studiedand under
stood before one can be denominated
true farmer. But added to this theo-
retical and scientific knowledge must
be that of personal practicability; the
man must possess the virtue of con-
verting theories into practical appll-
cations. He must know how to discard
false or useless theories, discovering
the wheat in the chaff and separating
it
In the matter of the dairy, how lit
tie we know as individuals, and how
great is the knowledge we presume to
possess! Fools that we are! Do we
know all the marks and requirements
of a good cow? Do we thoroughly un-
derstand all the laws and science of
breeding and rearing and developing
dairy cattle? The secrets of milk Sc
erection, the composition of milk in all
its varied stages, the chemical compo-
sition of feed stuffs and their best
combination for mich cows-are We
all up-to-date on all these matters?
The great value as fertilizer of the
excrement of the cattle-do we real
ize 1T all and understand how to make
the best of it on our landA and crops?
There is so much to know! There is
great work for the brain to do as well
as the hand; they must work together,
devastating each other.
Any ordinary man can do manual
labor fairly well. Any average person
can keep store aud sell calico and
canned goods, and dispense soda wa
ter, and give fair satisfaction to him
self or his employer; but be first
class farmer, in it's true sense, it re-
quires brains, and a high order of
brains, and brains well-stored with
knowledge and well trained Tens of
thousands of men may prove success
full as preachers, lawyers, doctors,
bankers, storekeeprs, etc, who, in
fact, have not sufficient brains to in
sure real success as South
ern Farm Gazette.