Oxford eagle., 1902-12-11
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FARMING AND THE FARMER.
Man Who Thinks, Not the
Mere LabOrer.

The farm-the farm; and what is
the farm? This is question that has
as many answers as writers. Many
look upon it as a word of reproach,
and as a place to be avoided-a place
of untold drudgery and unending toll,
dirt, sweat, Crime and grease. Others
look upon the farm as the embodi-
ment of all that is desirable in life
the place of rest. Almost every man
nurses more or less through life the
dream that in his old age he will re-
tire from the active pursuits and busy
cares of commercial life, or what
ever career of life he may be follow
ing, and spend the evening of his
days in peace and quiet on snug lit
tie farm. Here he imagines that he
will find that rest for which his soul
yearns and around which his fancy
hovers, but which no other calling in
life affords.
He pictures to himself a few hum
dred acres, more or less; a snug little
cottage, not hidden in the wilderness,
but close by the roadside; with his
loved ones by him, with his body at
ease, with his soul at rest, he can be
happy in the society of those he loves.
Shade-trees, grassy meadows, purl-
ing brooks, skipping lambs, bleating
calves, frolicking colts, crowning
chickens, all help to make up in his
minds eve the scenes in which he
hopes to linger. Here he will always
think he will find the land literally
flowing in milk and honey, the gift of
the patient COW and the busy bee.
Crops of rich luxuriance will please
his eye, while the bountiful harvest
will fill his smoke-house and crib, the
basis of contentment and happiness.
Such is briefly the living dream OF
the busy man. Alas, how few, how
few. attain reality.
Such a home every farmer has it
in his power to make and to enjoy.
A little more brains and a little less
muscle would lessen the turmoil and
tussle. Better planting and less fret
ting, more study and less grumbling,
more reading and less discussion of
politics, would enable many a man
now living from hand to mouth to
enjoy the fat of the land in hand
some home.
What the farm needs is a farmer
and not a mere farm laborer; man
who thinks and reads, that he may
have something to think about; one
who plans and arranges to carry his
plans into execution. The real farm
er realizes at the beginning that he
must make his living from the farm;
he must produce upon the farm what
he lives upon; he must not live from
the store; his rations must be home
raised. To do this his farm must be
taken care of; the soil must be made
rich and deep and fine; the seeds
planted must be selected with care,
and none planted but the best. The
crops must be cultivated according to
their nature and necessities, and not
according to accident. He must plant
not only the things he needs for i'm
mediate use, but those he will need
in the future. He must look ahead
and provide for the increasing wants
of a growing family. Knowing that
grass is the foundation of all wealth,
and that cattle growing is a necessary
part of all permanent prosperity, he
will arrange to grow a part of the
cattle upon the thousand hills which
picture the prosperity of every
country.
Such farmer will find pleasure as
well as profit in his business. He will
be contented and cheerful. He will
hold up his head in society. He will
feel himself to be the equal of men
in other callings. His children will
grow up happy; for he will be able
to dress them and send them to
school, and to give them little pock-
et-money necessary to supply the
wants which always come to the
youth coming to manhood and the girl
to womanhood.
If such farmers and such farms are
fancy picture, they ought not to be;
they ought to be living reality,
known to all men, and it is our fault
if these things are not so.
Why should we continue to pour
the money which our labor earns so
lavishly into the pockets of ether men?
Why should the merchant live in
plenty and ease when his money comes
from us? Why should the banker
grow fat when his living comes from
our toll? Why should the lawyer
count his fees by the thousands, when
our days work brings but few hard
earned dollars? Why should we con-
tinue to furnish the money to build
fine houses in the cities, and the rail-
roads, and the factories, while we our
selves live in comparative poverty?
These things ought not to be so-and
they need not be so. They are some
what peculiar to the south. In the
north and west the farmers flourish
and the farms are in fiourishing con-
dition. Any yet they have a harder
climate and often a poorer soil than
we have. They have fewer money
crops, and fewer days TO make them
Natures capacities are all in our ia
vor. The southern farmer should be
better off than the farmer of any other
section, and the southern farm should
be in better condition that the farm
anywhere else. Spend some of the ap-
preaching winter days and long nights
in studying on these things and pre-
pairing to do better. You can, if you
will.-Southern Cultivator