The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-05-09

sixty acres, he could farm some Of Il
and rent out the rest, and take Il
easy. Or he could. like the man rent
ed from, rent out his house to one
party and his land to the adjoining
farmers, and trade in cattle and hogs,
feeding them and shipping them into
the cities.
After the boys were Fl they were
out for themselves, and were perfectly
able not only to take care of them
selves, but they had learned their
trade" and could support a family.
Mostly, the farmer boys marry early,
and race suicide is something they
know nothing whatever about Big
families are the rule, not the excep-
ton. Anywhere from seven to ten
children is good average sizable fam
lily In the country. The idea Of strag-
Cling around with one or two children
would seem queer to most of them.
After the crops are in. and especial
ly after corn is "shucked" and cribbed,
there Is an almost complete lull In
farm work. The winter wood is often
gotten up" before cold weather be-
gins, and from the last days in Novem-
Der until along early in March there IL
practically nothing to do on q farm
except the everlasting chores"
These consist Of feeding the stock.
currying and rubbing down the horses.
bringing in wood, milking and doing
a few little other odds and ends. A
family OF two or three boys and the
head of the household can do all this
in an hour and half for morning and
night. The rest Of the time for . Pc
Rod of about, II not quite, three
months, is just nothing at all but rest
ing by the fireplace or the stoves.
reading the papers, visiting, going to
the dances or to town, attending court
and hearing the speeches, and in other
ways enjoying the leisure time.
One-fourth, therefore, of the aver
age farmers life on the farm. apart
from many extra stormy days, taking
1t year in and year out, is a vacation.
OF course, he may go out and nail up
a fence occasionally, and chop little
wood, CT do some other mild stunt"
But the crops have been gathered, the
fall blowing is done, and there is real
ly nothing for him to do. Some OF
the more enterprising boys In our
neighborhood went into the coal
banks, along the line of the little
streams among the hills and with
pick and dynamite unearthed many
tons of soft coal, and made good
money at it. But this was business
venture separate and apart from farm
ing, and only the huskiest of the hust-
lers tackled 1t.
Now Just imagine, II you can, any
clerk, or working man, or professional
or business man, laying on three
months in each year. Wouldn't that
be something like the happy land Of
Canaan? l suppose a few hundred
thousand of the overworked "cits."
would hate to think of "holing up"
about December first and reappearing
about March first to go to work again?
Talk about eight hours q day! Why,
these farmers have got the entire
world beaten on living easy and es-
Gaping worry. What do they care II
stocks go up or down? They don't
own any stock. What difference does
1t make to them If the trusts corral
things? Not bit. 1t may beat them
out of some money, but the loss IL
only few dollars to each district, and
there's only a little grumbling about
It.
Can you get the farmer into cor
ner? Not in one thousand years. He
can always make living, and at least
a little more. And he can always be
independent where the man in the
cities must duck. and cringe, and wear
his soul out against the stones Of hard
ship and misfortune. The farmer can
have daily metropolitan paper at his
gate in most rural districts now, on the
day the sheet is issued. He can have his
magazines, his piano, his library-all
these, and his telephone, and other
conveniences.
1t is true that he does not get the
glare and glitter of city life, but that
is purchased with much travail and
sorrow, the maximum Of toll for the
minimum of gain. He is his own mas
ter. and there is no visible or fnvtsf-
BILE whip raised over his shoulders.
We saw this very plainly as the farm
ers about us sent their teams ahead
in the burrows. or tossed the shining
sheaves of wheat aloft in the July
sun.
They represented the sane life; the
sanest way Of living. If there was the
saving grace of social communion In
the prairie states, there, too, the farm
ers would be happier; but statistics
show that farmers wives in the west
ern states, where the farms are scat
tered and visiting task, have been
unable to stand the isolation and have
broken under the strain. But In the