The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-08-19
Farming Is a Business.

II always riles us a little when we
hear folks talking Of the farmer and
the business man in cOntra-dis-
tinctiOn TO each other-as II the
farmer was not as much a business
man as a merchant or manufacturer
or banker, says the editor Of Pro
gressiye Farmer. Now, we know
there are some farmers. sO-ealled,
who are not business men: but these
scarcely deserve to be called farm
ers,- either; -croppers- would be a
more fitting designation.
Farming is a business, and to be
made profitable must be gone at in
a business way. The farmer whose
only aim Il IS 70 see how much land
he can cultivate or how many bales
OF cotton he can raise, Is not likely
20 make his farming permanently
profitable. The good farmers first
consideration In any line Of his work
IS the profit he IS going 20 get Ouc Of
70; and he does not count profits until
he has paid for the labor expended In
the growing and marketing Of the
crop, the interest on the money in
vested in #, the wear Of the tools
used in its making. and the plant food
taken from the soil by #. Many farm
ers have no idea OF how much any
Of these things amount TO, and conse-
quently no intelligent idea Of the cost
of their crops. They have no way Of
comparing with any accuracy the
profits from one crop with those Of
another. and too often they have no
idea Of how TO adjust the different
branches OF farm work to each other
80 as 10 get the most out Of each.
The result Is that they 90 along in
haphazard manner without any def
mite plans or any real understanding
OF the work In which they are en-
gagged.
Business farming means business
like methods; II means that the farm
er must be able TO tell with some de-
gree Of certainty what his cotton crop
paid him. and his corn crop, and his
pea crop; It means that he must have
some means Of Judging with a fair
degree Of accuracy as to how he can
feed his stock most economically; It
means that he must have some assur-
ancs at the end Of the year as to
whether HIS farm is more OF less fer
tile than at the beginning.
These things are not too difficult
for the average farmer to learn. AS
we say on another page, three or four
hours honest study will give any
reader a fair conception OF the under
lying principles Of stock feeding. To
master all the details will require
years of study; but one good hour
OF real, concentrated, determined
thought would enable thousands Of
farmers to save many dollars each
year on the feeding Of their stock.
It Is the farmer who devotes this
thought to his work, too, who is go
ing to win at II. The man who
studies his farming operations Just
as he used TO study a problem in
arithmetic when he went TO school
is the man who will put his farm on
a business basis. 1t is not enough to
think about how long II is going to
take to pillow a feld, and how much
seed It will take 20 plant It. There
should be a definite reason for the
crop that goes on the field, a we'll
thought out selection of seeds and
fertilizer, a nationally planned system
Of cultivation and harvesting.
In short, until the farmer is able
to calculate with something like ac-
curaey, not only the cost of the crop
and the returns from it, but also its
effects upon his other crops and other
lines of work, there is strong reason !
for thinking thas he needs, first and |
most Of all, to put his mind as well
as his muscles to work.
Thought pays better than mere |
hard physical labor, and the greatest |
profits come to the farmer who works
his hands in harmony with his head.