The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1904-05-18
What Farmers Need Most.
Training for a Special Work and a
Genuine Respect fer it.

Ask group of farmers and their
most sincere sympsthizers, or any
set of men interested in agricultural
pursuits, what farmers need most,
and hear the various answers-edu-
cation, cooperation, economy, com
mon sence, etc It is not what the
grain, or the cotton grower, or the
fruit grower, or any particular class
needs, but what does the great mass
of farmers need most, whether the
individual farms on the Atlantic or
the Pacific coast, or near the Cana
dian or Mexican border, or in any
o.ler part of this great country
Perhaps the msjority will answer
s.Education. To this I agree, and
T will try to define the kind of edu-
cation I think thu farmer needs.
This does not necessarily mean a
literary or q technical education, but
a thorough knowledge Of the branch
of agriculture which he pursues.
I do not wish to depricate the
value of literary or scientific educa-
tion, but there are too many people
who plead lack of advantages as an
excuse for accomplishing little
Nearly all of the men who are the
most conspicuous examples of thrift
and success in the business world
today made their way to the front in
spite of difficulties. The farmer
needs practical business education,
obtained the way other business men
obtain theire-by close application
and hard study. Make farming q
business, not chance occupation,
and conduct it on business principles.
In every occupation training and
experience are considered essentials
TO success, but it seems TO be the
accepted opinion that any one who
can pillow can farm. Hence, the true
farmer suffers in reputation for the
failures of others.
I should say that the farmer
should have genuine respect, if not
love, for his calling, for no man auc-
ceeds in a business which he con-
siders degrading. He should also
cultivate friendly interest in other
farmers. It is common saying that
you cannot get farmers to unite on
anything, even when they agree in
opinion, and this is too true.
He should learn the varieties of
seed that are best suited to this Sec
ton; the most successful methods of
preparation. planting, fertilizing, cul-
tivatiou and harvesting. As help
in obtaining this information he can
procure free bulletins, detailing the
results of experiments on all these
points. The agricultural papers,
which can be obtained at small cost,
are often reliable. Every sensible
business man takes his trade paper,
so as to be posted on everything per-
tanning to his business, but a great
many farmers consider it q useless ex-
penditure to pay for farm paper.
He should study to practice strict
economy in all transactions, but it is
not true economy to use old tools, or
even a good one, if the purchase of
an improved one would save time
and strength. It is not economy to
plant cheap or faulty seed, and it is
not economy to labor twelve or four
teen hours day, thereby fatiguing
the body so that there is neither in
clination nor strength for intelligent
thought. He should cooperate with
his neighbors in the purchase and
use of expensive machinery and in
marketing crops. It is said that
''competition is the life of trade" but
competition often means expensive
production and flooding the market
with Indifferent products, resulting in
ruinous loss to the producer.
A great loss is sustained by far
mers through ignorance of business
forms and current prices. To illus
trate: 1 read during the winter of