Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-08-06
+" FOOD FOR THOUGHT.%

Commenting on the letter from M. w.
. Coleman &c Co., published two weeks
ago in The Courier, the editor of the
Newberry Observer exclaims:
E"Oh, wonderful, and passing wonder
full! Here is farmer who makes enough
to pay his debts"
Evidently tho editor of the Observer
has misconstrued tho real meaning of the
letter in question, which made mention
of tho fact that Mr.. Ii. j. Huff ''came
down and paid off his guano note in old
corn" Taken by itself this portion OF
the letter might we'll give rise to the
Observers exclamation, but the con-
Guiding words, we think, should have
conveyed different meaning. We quote
the closing sentence:
"Now, tho point is this He not only
pays cash for his supplies, but has sur
plus of corn and can spare enough to
settle of his accounts for guano used in
cultivating his crops this year, and
when he gathers his crops he won't owe
n dollar"
There is nothing singular in the fact
that Mr.. HUFF has "made enough to pay
his debts" the majority of the farmers
do SO every year, and there are "com-
paratively few" who do not. But there
is something unusual in the transaction
and Mr.. Huff did something that "com.
paratively few Oconce county farmers
or South Carolina farmers for that mat
ter" do, in that he 'came down and set
tied of his accounts for guano" early in
July with old corn" These guanC
notes arc almost invariably made payable
in October and November, and it is Ger
tainly true that comparatively few
there are who can pay them off early in
July, in corn from the preceding years
crop, thus liqudating their obligations
from three to four months prior to theil
becoming due.
The letter was sent to us, we presume
in order to attract attention to what one
farmer had done, and to incite others tC
emulate his example, and to carry or
their business as far as possible on cash
basis. We had not even thought of ad
vising, as the editor of the Observer
suggests, the planting of more corn, and
we think with him that the farmer is the
best judge of what he should plant.
But, however that may be, such advice is
not so bad, after all, for the large amount
of corn shipped from the West each yeal
and hauled to Southern farms is abund-
ant evidence that Southern farmers could
do far worse than increase the corn acre.
age. ''But," asks our contemporary, "if
he plants moro corn, and the drought
comes and burns it up, how is he going
to settle OFF his accounts for guano-and
other things?" Brother Wallace seems
to be borrowing trouble. Why plant any
thing at all? If he plants cotton, and
excessive rains come at critical periods
what then? SO far as the Piedmont sec
tion of South Carolina is concerned, we
believe tho yield of cotton is as fire.
quently and extensively cut short by
excessive rains as is the corn crop by
drought.
What we advised, and what we would
like to impress upon every farmer, is
adherence, to the greatest possible ex-
tent, to the cash basis, and n systematic
method as to accounts-hs receipts, his
expenditures the cost Of making his
corn and cotton, what he sells it for and
what he realizes in the way of yrcfit-so
that he can know just what is paying
him best, and what it does not pay to
raise whether it is more profitable to
plant corn that may be burnt up by the
ton that may be drowned out by the rains.