The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-14
tifc agriculture among the farming
population.

A BETTER SYSTEM OF FARMING.
Many farmers fail to realize the
great loss to themselves and the
country by pursuing such a system
of farming as year by year exhausts
the fertility of their lands. And
again, but few farmers realize the
possibilities of their lands. I am
fully satisfied that the limit of profit
able agriculture will not be reached
until the average per ere of all crops,
including stock, will be more than
double what it is to-day. The Grange
and our agricultural colleges must
teach and demonstrate these posi-
bilities.
The average farmer does not apply
the best business methods in the
operation of the farm and in the sell
ing of it's products. The Grange
must teach the farmers that success
in agriculture can come in no other
way. Good business rules must ap-
ply to every operation on the farm,
and the most important Or these
operations in the selling of it's vari-
Gus products. Farmers must realize
what their products are worth. ANY
course of farming that does not in
clude a thorough knowledge af the
commercial side, leads but to bank
ruptcy and ruin.
PROPER ATTENTION TO LAWS AND LAW
MAKERS.
No successful rarmer a smut his
eyes to the changed conditions that
confront him. The American farmer
is interested in the price of land,
labor, transportation, rate Of inter
est and rate of taxation in every
civilized country of the world. The
reliance of the American farmer
must be upon superior intelligence,
better methods, better system, bet
ter machinery, and to insist upon
such State and National legislation
as will place the agricultural class
on terms Of equality with other in
dustria1 interests. Anything short
of this means of profit, loss of social,
financial and political standing Of
the agricultural classes. The Ameri-
can farmer understands that he can
not be legislated into prosperity, but
he does demand that all laws, State
and National, shall be just and fair
to the agricultural classes
Worthy Overseer D. H. Hale, in
his report, says:
EDUCATION AND COOPERATION.
Brothers and sisters, we have no
paltry heritage. Our fathers have
left us the best country, the best
government the sun ever shone upon,
the grandest institutions with bright
est prospects for the future ever be-
queathed to earth's children. This
grand heritage brings with it vast
responsibilities and it is our duty to
preserve it untarnished for our chill
dren. We must not fold our hands
and sit idly by in these stirring times
of political strife, when mOnOpOlies
and trusts are seeking control of
every industry, and national meas
ures looking to irrigation schemes
and expansion that will bring the
American farmer into competition
with cheap labor and cheaper land.
What then is the duty of the hour?
1 answer, education and cO-Opera-
ton. The farmer must not simply
know how to raise wheat and corn
or produce his beef and pork more
cheaply, but how best to preserve
this grand heritage of ours unfair
nished and u~ncorrupted.
PUBLIC MEETINGS HELP THE ORDER.
The Grange picnics and field meet
ings which r now held in all parts
of the country have become a distin-
guished and most efficient feature of
the work of the Grange, and their
value to the Order can hardly be
estimated. At these annual gather
ings which varied in size from one
or two hundred people to tens of
thousands, the chosen speakers,
nearly all of them direct from the
farm, proclaimed the great truths
and principles upon which the Order
is founded, and discussed in clear
and forcible language the current
questions which directly and indi-
rectly relate to the foundation in
dustry of our country. Another
feature of these meetings which is
perhaps of equal value to the one