The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1904-09-16
FARMER AND PLANTER.
DOES FARMING PAY
Under Modern Conditions, If Taken
Advantage OF, The Answer
May Be Affirmative.

Probably more than third Of the
persor.s living in the United States re-
| ceive their support from the farm. The
| question is red.p-Country Life
in America.
To the farmer more than any other
is due the groundwork of the great
tide of prosperity which has carried
the country to the first position among
the nations of the world, Neither the,
farmer, nor his wife, nor his son, nor
his employee, know the meaning of an
eight-hour day. The farmers time to
work is just as long as there is work
to be done. The work may be drudg-
cry, the man may be awkward, but his
sturdy back, his healthy body, his sim
pie life, have given the strength of
smind and body to the sons he has sent
out into the world to make their way
in other paths of life. 1t is the siren
uous metropolitan life which saps the
Strength and undermines the nerves.
The everlasting push, push of active
serade. ceaseless competition. struggle
for business, greed for dollars, would
soon blight and destroy, were it not for
the constant infusion of the rich, pure
blood and sound mind and nerve of the
country boy who seeks the business or
professional life of our business CEN
tiers.
There is a phase of rural life, how
ever, which is seldom considered in
business. In a measure, the farmers
life is more rural than ever before; his
home is changed for the better. There
is more of comfort, more of education
and refinement than ever, due to the
ease of intercourse with the outside
world, thanks for it belonging to the
railroads. the vast trolley systems,
good roads. quick mails and better
schools. But the rural districts are
devoted to farming. The old country
store has disappeared, CT is fast dis
appearing. Many a reader who in boy
hood clerked in his village store might
find, did he return the old store still
there, unchanged in years; many an
article of stock in the same old place,
waiting, waiting for the purchaser who
never comes. Country stores are
doomed; their day is past. The farmer
ters of trade farther way or buys at
- distance, using the mail for his mes
senger ard the railroad for his horse.
He has learned that he, too, may have
almost equal shopping facilities with
the city dweller. He can buy without
fear, for, whether he sees or not, all
sound business to-day requires the I'M
questioned permission TO return any
article which the buyer finds unsatis-
factory.
The old methods of barter are gone.
The farmer sells his products for cash,
and buys where it suits him best. He
has learned to farm better, to buy bet
ter and to sell better. He has learned
that his hay and corn so to market
cheaper and more prOftably as fat
beef and pork than as hay and corn.
and sent thus, they leave the valuable
Ihanures behind. He has learned to
grow so bushels of wheat on ground
that formerly grew but 25. He has
learned that berries grown in Florida
may be sold at a profit in New York. I
that California fruit may be sent at a
profit to Europe. He is learning that
God never intended the water of his
springs to run to the ocean unchecked,
or to send the rain only when it was
needed. He is also learning that the
wind is tempered TO the shOrn lamb
only through his intervention.
In other words the farmer is becom-
ing educated; he is learning to farm.
He is learning to utilize the water CIV
en- to him and TO feed it to his crops as
they need it, and not alone as nature
wills. He is learning to care for and
improve his stock; he is learning to
concentrate his power, his education
and his energy to make a fertile farm
more fertile, to make a profitable crop
more profitable, and he is doing it. He
has better markets and better profits
than ever before. He lives better, he
dresses better, he has more comforts
and more money, which he spends /
where he will AS customer he is
better satisfied and more easily pleased |
than the city shopper.-Midland Far |