Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1907-03-16

Are Yo- Farming to Buy or to Make
LiVins7

II 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 undisguised ad.
miraton 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 y6d
wish? Are you educating your chill
dren. Are your 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?
If you can not answer these questions
affrmatiyely 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 50 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 IS, 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 S25 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 own farm.
In other words, you have ueeu paying
someone else $25 to do for you what
you could have done for yourself for
81, Any business about that?
Where are you getting your mules?
What are you paying for them? Do
you know that you can raise mule
as cheaply as you can a steer? Do
you know that in buying mules from
Kansas or Missouri you are paying
from 5000 to $500 FOR mme 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.
er 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 luXures of life. What is the con
Can't you see that you are a |
philanthropist, that you have been re-
oeiying the barest necessities of life, |
while the other fellow has been re.
2eiying all the profits that accrue from
'our labor? We are not blaming the |
other fellow-it is you we are after.
1t is all because of your system of
Let this thought cheer you: THAT
what man has done, man can do and
10 it better And resolve right now
hat you will adopt a system Of farm.
ng that will enable you to put your
'otton money in the bank to be used
n providing conyeniences and com
orts for yourself and family.-T
3roof, Union County, North Carolina.