The Tupelo journal., 1907-03-15
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN RAISE
Are 70. Farming to Buy or to Make
a Living?

1t Is a reproach to your intelligence
and business management as a farmer
to buy anything that you can raise at
less cost. Your merchant, If you have
to buy these things, is glad to sell
you, but he criticises your method,
while he looks with u~ndisguised adj
miration upon the farmer who has
them to sell.
Reader, what are you farming for
to buy a living or make a living?
Which? If you have been raising cot.
ton to buy food for your family ana
stock, are the results satisfactory?
Are you getting ahead as last as yGf
wish? Are you educating your chill
dren. Are our crop yields steadily
increasing because of the improved
condition of the soil? Are the home
surroundings just as you would have
them? Have you a commodious home?
Is it painted? Are the floors carpeted?
Ii you can not answer these questions
affrmatively there must be something
wrong with your system of farming.
Haven't been getting a just price for
cotton, you say. No, nor are you likely
to SO long as you follow the all-cotton
system.
Let's see if we can find where the
real trouble is.
You have been buying hay from
Wisconsin that the farmer out there
raised or 81 per ton and sold to his
dealer for So, thus making 100 per cent
profit. Your home merchant buys it
from the Wisconsin dealer or his
agent, pays transportation charges and
sells it to his customers at $25 per
ton. You can raise hay as cheap as
the Wisconsin farmer; you can raise
it cheaper, for you can get two crops
a year, while he can grow only one.
But counting the same cost per ton,
you have been paying 525 per cent
more for your hay than it would have
cost you to grow it on your W farm.
In other words, you have peeR paying
someone else $25 to do for you what
you could have done for yourself fol
81. Any business about that?
Where are you getting your mules
What are you paying for them? D.
you know that you can raise a mule
as cheaply as you can a steer? Dc
you know that in buying mules from
Kansas or Missouri you are paying
from 5000 to $500 tor a mufe you
could have raised for $50 or SIS? That
is just what you are doing.
The same might be said of the pa
con and the corn that you buy. You
are paying the transportation charges
and middlemen's profit, and thus max
ing your bread and meat cost you
nearly double what it would have cost
had you raised it yourself with a prop
err system of farming. Is it any won
der you find yourself in a bad way?
Another thought just here. The
farmer who raised the hay, the mules
the bacon and the corn that you have
been buying, and all the men through
whose hands they have passed in
reaching you, live ip painted, well fur
nished houses, are able to educate
their children and enjoy the comforts
and. luxuries of life. What is the con
cluSiOn? Can't you see that you are a
philanthropist, that you have been re
ceiving the barest necessities of life
while the other fellow has been re
ceiving all the profits that accrue from
your labor? We are not blaming the
other fellow-it is you we are after.
1t is all because Of your system OF
farming.
Let this thought cheer you: "Tha1
what man has done, man can do and
do it better" And resolve right now
that you will adopt a system OF farm.
ing that will enable you to put your
cotton money in the bank to be USED
in providing conveniences and com
forts for yourself and family.-T. J.
Broof, Union County. North Carolina,