The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-05-21
correspondence
FARMERS PROBLEMS.

How a Former Farm Boy, Now a Successful
Business Man, Looks at Some o fThem.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
Being reared on the farm till l was
twenty one years old, I have since
that time either clerked or acted as
employer in a store, either whole,
sale or retail. kept a country store
till April, 1877, and have been in the
wholesale grocery business here
since.
think L have some experience in
farm work, also some in advancing
goods to farmers. The man who
tends a small farm, he and his
family doing all the work, is more
apt to pay his accounts promptly
than any other class of farmers.
The large farms to be we'll managed,
you must have capital and labor {;
besides that use much energy and
discretion in the management. You
must live on the farm, (not in town)
and work six days each week and
see that the work is all we'll done.
Make enough corn, hay, fodder and
other crops on the farm SO that you
will not have to buy these things
from others. The freight-money
farmers pay on corn and hay from
the West would be a nice yearly
profit on their investment. After
making the above crops, then plant
some cotton, tobacco, peanuts and
other kind of ''money crops" to
which your land is adapted. Never
plant more land than you can first
prepare we'll, and then tend we'll. I
mean in the preparation, haveit we'll
ditched and we'll fortified.
Never go in debt if you can help
it. You had better stint yourself
to keep out of debt than to have to
stint yourself to get out of debt. If
you must go in debt to get the neces-
sary capital to work on, then go to
the money lender, either bank or in
dividual, and get the best terms pos
sible, and make the time long enough
so that you are sure you can meet it
when due, and if you ever did cut
close and economic, then do it while
you W that money. Economic on
time as we'll as on everything else.
Always recollect time is money.
Never misrepresent or lie in bust
ness transactions. Character first,
credit second and capital third, is
the way we should look on life. A
man is a fool who has not got sense
enough to act square and honest, and
be prompt in business transactions.
When you want to approach a man
on business, don't commence off yon.
der and work up to your subject,
but ask in the most direct way for
what you want, and offer your col
lateral, a surplus of it if it is money
you want, and you will be sure to
get it.
There is no ironclad rule or royal
road to success in life, but keep push
ing and manage we'll and you will
succeed. You may not climb over
the fence exactly where you expect,
but you will climb over, or dig
under it somewhere. Each man is
an architect of his own fortune to
a great extent. We r creatures of
association and environment, no less
in the people we associate with than
in the books and papers we read.
And, by the way, money never
was better spent than in getting
good magazines and secular news
papers. Good books too should be
bought as you get able, but first get
at least one good weekly magazine,
and one good secular newspaper, and
the books can come along gradually
after that. D. l.. GORE.
New Hanover Co N. @.
FARMERS OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
as LAW MAKERS.