The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-04-23
Thoughts for Farmers.

AVsA8ASO IVA "a aA1A Ss
What the Southern Farmer
!. Needs to Bring His Profits
Up to the Western Farmer is
to Stop Running His Brains
With One-Horse Power, and
Substitute Two. Three and
Four-F Horse Power as They
Do.---Diference in Farming
Methods Sharply Contrasted.
Editor Clarence Fl. Poe. of the Pro
gfeSsive Farmer, recently delivered
an address before tile Sampson Coun-
ty Cotton Growers Association, from
which the following is an extract:
The plain truth is that, not even
excepting the needs of diversified
crops and more attention to general
stock-raising the main reason why
we are making only 1858 worth of
salable products on each farm in this
State as compared with 81 i SO worth
Oh each Iowa farm is that down here
the farmer works his brain with one
horse power, while in Iowa we find
farming done by two, three, and
even four-horse power brains.
What l mean is illustrated by the
simple fact that if one man with a
two-horse cultivator can cultivate
two rows at time, while with one
horse plows it would require two
men and two horses, then it is plain
that the one-horse man is operating
his brain with one-horse power, and
the cultivator man with two-horse
power.
| Travelled out West, last summer,
and my friend, Mr.. C. C. Moore, of
the Cotton Association, Travelled all
over the Southern States. Mr..
Moore says that in q fourteen-day
trip in the States between North
Carolina and the Mississippi river he
saw only three two-horse cultiyators
at work, while on the other hand, i'm
the Middle West through which
Travelled last summer, one of our ia
vorite -One-horse plows for land
breaking would be as much an OBJ
| ject of curiosity as your grand
fathers sickle for cutting wheat. ]
was in Iowa and it took little more
to explain why they are making
three times as much per farm as we
make, when l was told that by ac-
tual statistics, with one-half the
number of farm laborers we have
they work five times the number oi
horses. Down here, where the farm
er multiplies his brain by only one
horse power, he uses an eight-foo,
harrow and one horse; in Iowa
where the farmer works his brain
with from two to four-horse power
he uses twenty-foot harrow will
three horses drawing it. In Other
words, he multiplies his own strength
by that of three horses and does two
and one-half times the work of thu
Southern farmer, this explaining il
a large measure why he makes oveI
two and one-half times as much sala
BILE produce.
A friend was telling me only this
week OF seeing one of our big plant
ers hauling fertilizer in six one-horst
carts with six men, when two mer
with one four-horse wagon would
have done the work better.
Mr. A. L. French, in a striking
article recently, showed that OF
many of our big cotton plantation,
land is being plowed by the one
horse system at a cost OF two dollar,
per acre, when the cost might bt
steadily reduced by increasing the
number of horses until, with the
gang plOw system the total expense
would be only seventy-five cents pei
acre.
DR.. TAFT Butler told me only yes
terday Of seeing six two-horse plOws
at work on one of our largest farms
and said that this farmer had exact
ly three times as much labor as he
needed.
And DR.. Butler agreed with Inc
that the biggest problem in bringing
Western profits to Southern farmers
is to bring our farmers to do their
executive work, their brain work,
with two or four-horse power instead
OF one-horse power.
We may be just as capable as the
Iowa faemer, but we are not using
our capabilities-just as you may be
as strong as am, but if you use a
frow in trying to cut wood andT use
a sharp axe, there is no question as
to which will have the biggest wood
pile. We may have just as much
brains as our Western brother, but
| if he runs his by three-horse power
and we run ours by one horse power
well, we shall find that our being
too slow here meets the same pun
ishment such slowness usually does
in the West:
He had sand in his eraw,
But was slow on the draw
So they buried him under the daises'
! repeat-and l would emphasize
it above anything else in this address
what we need in the Soutd most of
all, is to get every farmer, who can
do so, to stop running his brains
with one-hOrse power, and substi-
tute two, three and even four-horse
power.
William H. Anderson, NJ. D.. OF Soda
Springs, Ida, says that Bees Laxative
Cough Syrup has relieved coughs aud colds