The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-02-11
FARMER AND PLANTER.
SYSTEM IN FARMING.
Haphaz.ard Methods Must Give Way -
System II the Farmer Would
Achieve Success.

System II the Farmer Would
achieve success.
Taking the business of farming as .
whole there is probably no industry or
trade followed by man that will show
greater number of failures. Accord
ing to the amount of labor and energy
expended there are few vocations that
yield as little profit for toll and
patient effort. There is, indeed, some
thing wrong, and the farmer who tolls
faithfully, year after year, is not to be
harshly criticised because of his vain
efforts. He would be a fool, indeed.
did he not search for the cause and
seek to remove it. But he rarely finds
the true difficulty, and, failing, lays
his failure at the door of the social or
political world. There is no doubt
that great wrongs are done all classes
by these controlling elements ofhuman
progress, and the farmer suffers with
all humanity. He misses the great
cause of his unavailing effort, because
it is natural for man to excuse his
O"h WSohhCSSs CSOn IL lNCOk uiLN0s 0iA0
but few men see their own shortcom-
ings. Fortune does not favor the
brave, when the bravery consists only
of instructed or reckless endeavor.
There is no overweaning Providence
that will award the prize, even to the
most honest and faithful labor. if it
accomplishes nothing. The cause of
the farmers failure is the farmer
himself.
The man, who lives only in to-day,
will be failure in any branch of
business. Especially because of the
nature of his work, is this true of the
farmer. The merchant must prepare
long before hand for seasons trade.
He must study the wants of his Gus
toners and have them supplied from
goods his forethought has secured.
The successful lawyer must have his
mind stocked with ''precedents" and
modern instances" and not wait UNI
til the case comes to hand, trusting
to his natural ability to light upon
the right argument at the proper mo-
ment. 1t is forethought that wins.
The ability to see in the future some
move that will bring good results.
Question man concerning his plans,
and, if disposed to make a confident
OF you, you can tell what his fortune
will be.
The successful man will tell you
what he is working for to-day or what
he will be doing tomorrow; what he
wishes to accomplish this week; how
next month, and the next, and the
next will bespent; what
will be made this winter; what crops
will be put in the different fields next
spring, and thus he will map out the
next two or three years. That man,
If he does not at present own the best
improved farm, and is one of the
wealthiest men of the neighborhood,
will in a few years. Misfortune may
come to him, his plans may fail to
materialize, yet he will win in the
end, and by blessings of Providence
and smiling fortune spend his de-
Ginning years in peace and plenty.
The unsuccessful farmer. that is. the
one who fails for other cause than in
dolence, is always a busy man. His
work is always crowding him and
there are always jobs awaiting him
that would require twice the labor he
has at his disposal to accomplish.
His fences are down, his barns and
cribs dilapidated, and the hooks and
corners of his fields grown up in brush
and weeds. His stock is unruly and in
poor condition and require more time
to tend, owing to weak fences and his
lack of forethought in securing only
the best breeds and wedding out the
inferior individuals. To him hog is
a hog, COW is COW; he trusts to
Providence for the rest. His crops
are never up to the average He hop
ing to get out of debt, puts in far more
than can be tended properly. The
weeds and burs flourish, but the corn
does not. He can not afford to buy
good seed, so puts in his own inferior
or run-out corn, grain and potatoes.
He hasn't time 10 raise garden, there
is no money in that; yet his prosper
Gus neighbor, in a moment of conf
dence, says that the garden is half the
family's living. He can not afford to
put up corncribs, SO piles his corn out
side, if it is a dry fall with no snow,
until he can haul it to market; but if
it is not,there is another great loss in
corn spelling. Then, too, he is forced
to sell when the market is at its low
est, or leave the corn exposed to the
SHOWS of winter. His farm imple-
ments are left in the fence corners or
piled on one side of the barn. He
can not afford to build a shelter for