The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-08-29
F ARM AFFAIRS.
FOR AGRICULTURAL
LITERATURE AND IMPROVED
FARM MACHINERY,

Sixteen and twenty years back I
told the farmers of this country that
to compete with the Western small
grain wheat growers and the cheap
wheat being raised in India they must
and would have to use improved ma F.
chimes to prepare their lands, SOW,
reap, bind and harvest it, and The
Cultivator Company printed this busi
ness circular I send you for me- in June,
1888, wherein told the farmers then
that they would be forced to use the
improved implements or be driven out
OF the wheat markets, etc.
Farmers hereabout have only with
in the last three to four years seem
ingly come to realize these truths pre-
dicted and pointed out to them in 1888
and now, when poverty c0mpels them,
are purchasing mowers, binders, seed
drills and improved machinery pretty
generally.
IL you could get the farmer to read
good agricultural and other papers we
might hope to see him lifted out OF the
mire and clay of dependency and
placed firmly on the rock OF prosperity
and happiness; but you, Mr.. Editor,
can never do this with them as long
as ignorance is blissful with them, and
this is true with most Of us farmers;
we count it foolish to grow wise and
get wisdom from taking and reading
good agricultural papers. There is
not single issue Of many an agricu!-
tural paper that any good intelligent
farmer could read and not be able to
find in i5 truths, facts and information
worth to him more than the one dol
lar subscription price of il for twelve
months; and Notwithstanding this pet
ent fact let me present an issue to my
farmer neighbors and friends and they
will almost turn up their noses in holy
horror at the thought of pRtr )nizing
book learned farming, although they
ought to have sense enough to know
that if they did not have Gods Bible
to read and it's teachings impaired to
US they would be ruined mentally,
morally, physically and financially,
and at last land in he'll where the
worm dieth no5 and the fire is never
quenched.
You can't nor I can't get the farm
ers, at least nine tenths of them, to
ever see Billy Patterson before he has
knocked them and their daddies down
and gone and left them down to stay.
Mr.. Editor, the principle of free
coinage of silver favor and like it,
because it would put and keep in cir
culation a larger volume o. money
never to be Withdrawn from trade,
and ali men must know the need Of
this; but I assert it emphatically that
the free coinage OF silver, except as
great and vital issue of keeping our
money values on the increase instead
of decrease, is one of the least import
ant and vital financial issues we have
to contend with; and unless political
lines and financial measures are very
much changed in the interest Of the
masses, instead Of as they are run now
for the enriching Of the classes, in less
time than twenty years from this the
American farmers will be degraded
and enslaved under the rule of mer-
ciless and soulless moneyed oligarchal
sway. Mark my prediction in this
and see what is in store for us twenty
years hence without vital change for
the better in politics in every shape.
This ruin shat is in store for US as
nation will fall to one mans share to
day and another's on TO- morrow.
By united, concerted and intelligent
action we farmers could ave ourselves
and our children and their children
from this ruin and enslavemens to the
moneyed oligarchs of this country.
Eighteen or twenty years ago, after
being told by my brother in law not to
do 50, that it was a failure Che being
general agent for a disk harrow conn.,
pany, and had travelled over Georgia,
Alabama, Florida and South Carolina
to sell and introduce theD) he telling
me he had found them in all these
States abandoned and thrown aside as
worthless farming implements,
bought keystone hay loader. in
quired Of him his reasons and farmers
reasons why they were useless, and
from what he told me readily saw
that this fault was not due to any de-
feet in the hay loader, but was due to
improper and unintelligent use of it.
I have used that hay-loader ever
since then in gathering my hay crops,
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