The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-20
DOES FARMING PAY.

DOES FARMING PAY:
Many young men, reading of the
successes of Morgan, Rockefeller, Car
negie, Gates. Keene and others who
make or have made fortunes by ma
nipulating corporations or specializing
in their stocks, reach the con-
clusion that wealth is to be won only
in the cities. in the shadow of tall
buildings and amid the roar of the
streets, Nothing could be farther
from the truth. The cities contribute
largely to the prosperity of the coun-
try, but as a matter OF fact the great
ness of the United States is builded
upon the products of their soil; the
greater part of the wealth of the
country comes from the products Of
the farms. Recently published Stats
tics show that the incomes from the
farms of the United States
last year Q9O2) amounted to
more than s5,25OOOO, OOO The value
of farms and ranches. with
the stock and implements there
on, was nearly $4,000, 100000. The in
come of the farms, therefore, was
in the neighborhood of 25 per cent.
of their value. Does that not indi-
cate that farming pays? There are
few lines of business that yields such a
dividend.
So profitable is farming, as a matter
of fact, when it is managed with the
same care and attention to detail that
is given a commercial or manufactur-
ing business, that great corporations
are being formed to engage in it. The
industry is being syndicated-Mor-
ganized, so to speak. In the Dakotas
a syndicate has been formed to farm
something like a million acres in
wheat. We printed an item a few
days ago about a 100000 corporation
that had been organized in Pennsylva-
MIA to grow rice in Louisiana.
But the corporations have not, and
cannot have, a monopoly in this good
thing" There are numerous individ-
ual cases going to show that farming
pays, and pays we'll, when it is man
aged rightly. Hon. Frank Adams of
Hamilton county, Florida, who is
just forty-one years old, has
been chosen president of the
Florida Senate. Twenty years ago
Mr.. Adams was worth less than
800. To-day his wealth is es-
timated at $25O,O00, nearly all
made out of the soil of his native
state. He has a farm of $4,000 acres,
spoken of as 1.-The most highly cult
waited in the South" In our own
state we have a farmer, James NJ.
Smith of Oglethorpe, who is credited
with having made $1,0O0,00O or more
by farming, and he is adding to his
wealth season after season. And Mr..
Smith, like Mr.. Adams of Florida, dug
Rankin of Tarkio, Mo-, is another man
who has demonstrated the possibili-
ties of farming in the South. Ran
kin's start in life consisted of a SOL
itary little ill-favored colt. This he
traded for yoke of oxen, which he
plowed until he had money enough
to pay for a small plot of land. From
this beginning he worked up until at
the present time he is regarded as one
of the richest and most successful
farmers in the world. He has farm
of $4,000 acres under cultivation, from
which he receives a profit of more
than 100000 year and his fortune is
in the millions. These are exceptional
cases, it is true. but they show what
is possible. There are, as a matter of
fact, hundreds of successful, even
wealthy, farmers to be found in every
state of the Union. Georgia has a
number of them; so has Florida and
the Carolinas and Alabama. And we
hope and expect to see a great many
more during the next few years. Dr.
versif1ed farming and the application
of business methods to the farm are
coming more and more into favor; and
when those rules are followed, success
is practically assured, especially in
this section where there are so few
crop failures.