The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1901-05-04
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
FARMING AS A BUSINESS.
Merely "Distributing the soil'' VIII
Not Answer In These Pro-
gressive Times.

Even in the southeast, with unsur-
passed facilities for successful farm
ing, there are men engaged in disturb
ing the soil ostensibly "for living"
who are getting even less than they
&C for. The fault is not in the coun-
try, nor in any PHYSICAL feature of it,
for the soil is rich, the climate salu-
brious, the weather fairly scasona BILE,
and the range of special products
adapted to these conditions is varied
and profitable when jndiciously ham
died. This is proven by the notorious
fact that many of our farmers are
doing well, financially, accommodating
substance with all the rapidity con-
sistent with safety, and that large
majority of plain farm .rs are reason
ably prosperous and contentcd with
present condition. Still. there ought
not to be any agricultural failures
where the opportunities of success
ere open to all. But, like every other
business, farming mas many incom-
petent devotees, who, under any pos
sible conditions would barely subsist
from the soil, and in any other bust
ness would be driven out of it by
absolute necessity. In these condi-
tions farming does not differ from
other callings. Men have diverse
gifts and talents, and some have prac-
tically no talent at all. 1t is astonish-
ing how many men mistake their call
ings. Some are speeding the plow
who should be driving railroad spikes.
end men driving the spikes and SHOW.
cling ballast who ought TO be in the
legislature, and men engaged in max
ing laws who ought to be driving
drays or cutting cord-wood. Always
and everywhere round men are try
ing to fit themselves into square holes,
and square men crowding themselves
into round holes, and perhaps there is
no remedy for these conditions. There
is, however, this consolation from our
point of view: There is no business
or profession in which there are not a
larger percentage of partial and abso-
lutte failures than in farming. This is
especially true of this section. Mer-
chants and bankers and manufacture
ers are failing every day in the week,
and many of them immerge into
bankruptcy with net assets amount
ing to many thousands of dollars less
Than nothing. When a farmer fails he
simply cant make both ends meet"
and that is all there is of it. And gen.
erall. instead of going into the hands
Of a receiver, he sells out, paYs his
tebts and goes where land is cheaper
and tries again. There is, it is true.
but little chance for farmer OF or
binary ability to make fortune rap
idly from the soil; but there can De
no reason, aside from unavoidable
misfortune, who such a farmer Inn
not grow in substance with a GER
tainty and safety unknown in any
other business, and that they do So
grow is fact. Those who fail are
not men of average ability as farm.
ers, but rather men without a ,ilitv
who have such contemrt fer the
soil that they will habitually insult
it with worn-out methods and out-of-
date tools; who imagine that nothing
but main strength is involved in the
agricultural problem, while their sue
cessfui neighbors avail themselves of
every advantage which progress, and
invention has placed within their
reach. Ii a fool should start out on
crutches to keep company on the road
with the driver of Joe Patchen, it
would be precisely parallel case,-
Texas Form and Ranch.
Forage Crops.