The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-24
THE FARM AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO HOUSE
WIFE AND AGRICULTURIsT.

The Farmer Needs to Read and
study AS Well as the Doctor-Onts
i'm the South-On the Growing OF
WntermelOns-Sund Farm Notes.
l can't see says my valued friend,
"Essace" Cat whose cozy fireside /
CLEAN many valuable ideas) "how it is
possible for a farmer to be made less
of a practical farmer by reading agri-
cultural papers. 1t is within my recol-
lection when farmer would have been
ridiculed ever so much by his neighbors
If he estimated that he had been in
fluenced to act by anything he had seen
in print. The idea of practical farmer
being affected or influenced in any
way by newspaper editors or contribu-
tors! The final judgment of the wise
neighbors was that If he kept that
thing up he would soon be a ruined
man. AS a matter of course the farmer
that couldn't read was the loudest in
his ridicule and condemnation. 1t
seemed like another illustration of the
Dog in the manger."
"Essace," continuing, went on to say
well, things have changed wonderfully
in the past twenty years. Truly it is
a poor-poor in every way--aud a sore
ly benighted farmer than does not
make use of some of the vast guam
tity of practical, helpful matter made
up weekly or monthly especially for
his own benefit in this day of intel
ligence, of universal reading
/ suggest of "Essace" that by his own
great many thousands of poor, be-
nighted farmers within the limits of
Georgia alone, judging chiefly from the
limited circulation of first-class agri-
cultural journals within her borders
o. replies my friend, negroes and one
gallus white men whose occupation
is holding back on the plow are not
to be reckoned as real farmers, even
II they are enumerated as such in the
bulky volumes of the census return"
They are makeshifts, accidents-that
help out the poor, badly-treated mule
in increasing somewhat the commoner
products of the soil without advance
ing their own condition in life or be-
ing any credit to the state or the
county in which they live out their
squalid existence. They don't read;
they cannot read: they are but one
remove from the patient mule that
orags along the weary plowman just
behind him. The state and their coun-
ty could get along excellently we'll
without such farmers" but there is no
way of exchanging them off for the
desirable emigrant that is only de-
TERED from coming amongst us by
the presence of such ignoble competf-
tors, either as co-farmers or co-labor-
ers, that they would find here. "Essace"
has no patience with the untutored,
unreadlng white farmer who appears
to make no effort to improve his con-
dition, who farms just as his sire and
grandsire did before him-the same
old rotation, corn and cotton-cotton
and corn. a little patch of sweet pota-
toes. No beef, no lamb or sheep. no
Kid, not pig to be seen: no orchard,
though few scraggy trees are dig
nified as such; no grapes. general
Dieakness seems to prevail. Go into
the house; no, we won't go there and
comfort the weary looking poorly
dressed woman, who the poet would
denominate the presiding genius of the
place. AS with "Essace" we will not re-
fer to the negro here as a farmer who
perchance stands in need of a little
lecturing about his ship-shod unfarm-
er-like ways of tilling the soil No!
this class is altogether out of reach.
He must of necessity be left alone
with his idol-as little work as possi-
BILE for the good or bad living that
luckily may be his. Is not the third
class of white farmers" about as hard
to reach as the class just referred to?
OF course, there are two classes of ne
gro farmers, and a vast difference be-
tween the two there is. The third
class of white farmers are a distinct
class to themselves. There insignia is
a lone suspender yclept "gallus."
All the rest following the occupation
of farming are fairly entitled to be
styled farmers, according to the South
ern construction and signification of
the term, are divided into two classes
the larger being composed of those
running from two to eight plows, liv-
ing on their farms and endeavoring to
make the farm self staining appre-
ciating more or less the principle of
intensiveness. They constitute the
backbone of Georgia agriculture
The other and smaller class are the
rich landowners, of which there are a
good many still left who have capital
enough to employ good farm agents.
permitting the landlord to live in town
or city, receiving and depositing his
rents in the fall.
But, after all, are these real farm
ers? According as they may be quail
ified for intelligent farming and real
iZe the duties of the true landlord they
have a beneficial influence and give
a better direction to the farming car
ried on upon the area under their con-
troll than when in charge of undirected
tenants of the class first mentioned.
Finally, a farmer that does not read
does not derive marked advantage
from doing so is an anomaly. If, how
ever, he succeeds in his material eff
forts, raises and provides abundantly
for wife and children, bringing them
happiness, does his reasonable duty to
society must be regarded as having
made a success of life. But we must
believe there. are few. very few, who
can appear in this category Just as
much as the doctor. the lawyer, the
preacher, the mill man and the mer-,
chant, the farmer must be a reading
man.
Oats i'm the SOuth-Must BE Treated