Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-05-11
wAhHAlLA. SOUTH oARoLrSA. MAY ii, 1904.
WHAT FARMERS NEED mosr.
Training for Special Work and Genuine
Respect for II.

Training for Special Work and Genuine
Respect for u.
Ask group OF farmers and their
most sincere sympathizers, or any
set of men interested in agricultural
pursuits, what farmers need most,
and hear the various answers-edu.
cation, cooperation, economy, COM
mon sense, etc. 1t is not what the
grain, or the cotton grower, or the
fruit grower, or any particular GLASS
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
other part of this great country ?
Perhaps the majority will answer,
"Education." To this / agree, and
| will try to define the kind of edu-
cation think the farmer needs.
This does not necessarily mean q
literary or a technical education, but
a thorough knowledge of the branch
of agriculture which he pursues.
l do not wish to depricate the
value of literary or scientific edu-
cation, but there are too many peo-
pie 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 to-
day made their way to the front in
spite of difficulties. The farmer
needs practical business education,
obtained the way other business men
obtain theirs-by close application
and hard study. Make farming
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 plow can farm. Hence, the true
farmer suffers in reputation for the
failures of others.
should say that the farmer
should have genuine respect, if not
love, for his calling, for no man sue
ceeds in business which he con-
siders degrading. He should also
cultivate friendly interest in other
farmers. 1t 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,
cultivation and harvesting. AS q
help in obtaining this information he
can procure free bulle> ), 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,
30 as to be posted on everything per.
tanning to his business, but great
many farmers consider it useless
expenditure 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 good one, if the purchase of
an improved one would save time
and strength. 1t 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 80 that there is neither in.
clination nor strenth for intelligent
thought. He should cooperate with
his neighbors in the purchase and
use of expensive machinery and in
marketing crops. 1t is said that
"competition is the life of trade"
but competition often means expen-
sive production and flooding the
market with Indifferent products,
resulting in ruinous loss to the pro.
ducer.
A great loss is sustained by
farmers through ignorance of bust
ness forms and current prices. To
illustrate read during the winter
of 1900 in the Rural New Yorker a
report from the cabbage districts, in
which the statement was made that
the cabbage growers lost consider.
able because they would not accept
bank cheeks from direct buyers in
payment, preferring to sell to middle.
men, as had been their custom, tax.
ing less and waiting for the pay
in the bargain. In the same
paper was the statement that
the apple growers had been de-
moralized by reports of an enormous
crop, and had sold their crop on the
trees ruinously low; some being 80
disheartened that they sold their or.
chards, and in some instances the
buyers had paid for the orchards
with the apples from the trees.
There ere numbers Of farmers
throughout the land who sell just as
recklessly, and then denounce the
middlemen who live and in some in.
stances grow rich, from what should
be the profits of the farmer. But
who is to blame The farmer will
have to look out for No. 1. There
are papers in every section of the
country which print reliable reports
of crop prospects, prices, supply and
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