The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-09-09
BETTER AGRICULTURAL
METHODIST

METHODIST
| A lot OF nonsense is being talked and
written 10y the Republican newspapers
about better agricultural methods"
Self-interest. Of course, prompts every
farmer to do everything that he can to
get the best crops possible, and no incen-
tive is stronger than self-interest. There
! are many things that farmers would like
to do that events prevent them from
doing, and there are things which they do
that they wish they had left undone. 1t
is so in every business and with everyone.
II the hay had not been cut this morning,
the rain would not have spoiled it; but
who is wise enough to tell what the tickle
weather will be- If it had not rained for
weeks in the spring the cotton and the
corn would not have been so weedy; it
would have been possible to work il in
season, instead of having TO wait until
other crops needed attention. If it had
not been for the drought, the crops would
have been better; but the farmer is not a
rain-maker and has to accept the weather
that nature provides.
When the people get sick OF Republican
policies and corrupt misrule, some smart
Aleck blames it on the farmers, and "the
organs begin to pipe in the same tune
and demand better agricultural meth
DDS"
When Insurgents insurge, the same ''or-
gans' blame it on the farmers and insist
that they have prospered through Repub-
lican legislation, although they admit the
tariff should have been more scientific. +"
Some railroad magnate has a model
farm where everything that he raises costs
twice what it is worth, and even the eggs
cost one dollar per dozen, and he thinks
that the farmers should follow his example
OF intensive farming" The Agricul-
tural Department experts advise the farm
| erS how to improve their soil and stock,
but if their advice were followed the
| farmers would need the Treasury of the
/ United States to draw upon and then re-
4 qulre an urgent deficiency appropriation
as the experts" often do. TO make both
| ends meet
If the farmers critics would try their
hand at farming. with the present lack of
labor and not very efficient at that, they
would not carp so much. 1t is dollars to
doughnuts they would admit failure,
blame it on the land or the weather and
| then resume their old occupation of scrib-
bling about what they don't know about
farming.
The Agricultural Department has lust
discovered that the farmers ought to raise
more potatoes to the acre, and has sent
experts to Europe to find out how TO do
it. What they will learn will be that the
/ climate there is better than here for that
sort of crop, and any Pennsylvania Dutch
man could have told them so much with
out it costing a dollar, when they will
spend thousands.
ONhNi NChbhliNN dlC oClOlllH CADGIlS
here TO discover how we grow cotton,
and why it can't be grown as well or
better lin Australia, Asia or South Amer
lea. 1t is probably question of climate,
for the darkey and the old mule can
surely be duplicated in some fashion and
there IS no great secret in their meander-
ings.
lfyou have tried farming YOU will know
that il is no picnic, and that through Re-
publican policies all that you have to buy
is at trust prices, and for all that YOU have
to sell you must take what some combine
will pay. Yes it is not all fun being
farmer, nor do they all ride IN automo-
biles, though the Republican metropoli-
tan organs and the funny supplements
would try and make us believe that the
farmers are bigger fools than are other
mortals.