Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-05-19
BACK TO THE FARM PROBLEM
Professor Bailey Says Man Probably
viii Find II Most Satisfying
Business II Location Good.


or all the problems that confront
humanity, none has received more at
tention, perhaps, than that involving
the wisdom Of the movement, or agita-
ton, to encourage men Of the city to
go back to the land for a living. II
Is a question that will not be put
down. II hobs up every day, and
with especial frequency In the agri'
cultural college. where boys and girls
are making out the programs for the
future. 1t is hard to answer, too. be-
cause no two men are likely to go at
task in the same way. One city man
might make good and another, In the
next field. fail miserably. II is big,
big problem.
Some OF the most successful coun-
trymen l know were city folk, and
many Of the most disastrous failures
were also city folk" says Prof Lib
erty H. Bailey of Cornell. in Country
Life in America. 'If my reader knows
farming and Is country-minded, he
may go on q farm with assurance, II
he is not too old and II he has sufi-
Gent capital He probably will find 1t
most satisfying business, II he Sc
cures a good location. He must ex-
pect many discouragements. for the
things that can happen on a farm are
beyond all Imagination, particularly If
the place Is left more or less In the
hands Of a hired man or a tenant.
Wells will go dry; pigs will lie down
and give up the ghost; eggs will re-
fuse to hatch. sheep will have them
selves killed by dogs; plows will 60
to smash; horses will acquire the
heaves or run nails into their feet;
trees will infest themselves with San
Jose scale; the cellar will freeze and
the roof will leak; sickness will in
wade the hired mans family; and no
end Of tools and things viii take them
selves into parts unknown or vanish
into thin air; and the perplexity OF
1t Is that the books and the period
icals do not give recipes for all these
torments and troubles. My city en-
thusiast will reply that the unex-
pected happens In town as well as in
country; know 1t, but l want him
also to understand that It happens In
country as we'll as In town, and that
he must lay by capital stock Of
patience. good temper. and ready
money.
Il care nothing where the farmer rs
born-whether in city or in the coun-
try or on the sea-if only he Is really
a farmer. To be really farmer Is to
be farm-minded and to know the bust
ness; and the way to learn to be a
farmer is to practice II, and while
practicing 1t to call to his aid all good
advice In books and otherwise. He
should learn the business from a good
farmer, or II he has the time and
money to spend, he may teach him.
self, but he is likely then to have n
very long course of study and very
incompetent teacher. The more school
ing he has-particularly In an agri-
cultural institution-the sooner and
the more fundamentally should he
learn, and the better should be his
results; but he must really learn how,
nevertheless. One can never run a
farm by admiring it and by reading
about 1t. Nothing is easier than to
figure a profit on a paper farm; one
has only to choose product that
yields heavily and sells for high
price, then estimate the cost Of cheap
land. and the thing Is done"