The farmer and mechanic., 1911-05-30
CFayetteyiIle Index }

quainted with conditions III hooeeo,
for many years can not pass tnrougi
any considerable portion OF ul'
county with his eyes open "itiioo
being impressed by the great 10,
ward strides made and being Inau'
!, the methods of farming and the
marked Improvement IN the
status Of the agricultural interests.
Progress made in the last Dozen
wears has been both intensive
extensive. But the trend no" IS uie.
tinctively intensive. ms app,.ai
especially to the central, eastern ano
northern portions or the coon'lS
That norton known as Cotton val
lev" which is the rich agrIcuIturai
section in the vicinity Of Rowland
nracticed both extensive and intensive
farming twenty years ago.
Tn the last dozen or fifteen years
the eastern and central portions OF
the county have added so TO - per
cent to the areas under cultlvatlon'
and In some localities, Raft Swamp
township, for instance, the acreage In
cultivation has practically doubled
But Just now, and for the past five
years, the policy has been not more
Acres but better acres. Where former
ly farmer thought he was dolns 3
well to produce a bale of cotton to
every two acres, now he wants a Daie
to the acre and many Of them are
getting it Where formerly farmer
would have thought his land ruined
forever if 1t had been plowed SIX
inches deep, he goes foot. Where
formerly the soil was broken by a
small shallow plow drawn by an OK
or a small mule, now it is broken by
a sub-soiI or disc harrow or
two-horse turning ploW. and instead
of the ploWInan p1odding his weary
IL r.
ten years ago only simple, crude
farming implem ents were in use, one
sees now labor-saving harrows, cult-
yators and sulkey plows and all kinds
of farming machinery usknoWn IN
that section at the beginning of the
new century. Farmers who half
dozen years ago went four to six
times to the row to plow out the corn.
now go but twice with a one-horse
harrow or clean out the entire row
at once with two-horse su1key plow.
The test Of a good farmer now is
not how many acres does he cultl-
vate, nor even how many bales or
cotton and bushels Of corn does he
produce, but how many dollars worth
Of cotton Or corn does he get from
his annual investment in land, labor,
fertilizers, stock, feed, farming i'm
plements and machinery, and time.
talent and attention? In other words,
what are the net profits?
And that is but another way of
SAYING that the farmers haEe de-
come business men and are adopting
business methods They have learned
that while fertilizers and improved
farming machinery and implements
are costly, as well as horses ana
mules, they are still cheaper than
human labor. So they are using less
labor and more Of the other things,
In proportion They have learned,
too, that, at present market prices OF
both there is not a great difference
in the cost Of brain and muscle On
the farm SO they are using more
brain and less muscle in proportion.
In the older days labor was con-
sidered the cheapest thing to be
found about the farm and 1t was
thought that as long as plenty of
muscle was used little brain was
needed to make a successful farmer.
In fact some thought that the only
use for brain, SO far as the farm was
concerned, was to enable one to
scheme out of work, and one who
went much on the use of brain in the
place of muscle was simply lazy.
Now all the successful farmers are
mixing science with the soil and using
more brain and less muscle to raise
a bale of cotton Or a bushel of corn.
And 1t is paying handsomely.
There are two reasons for the
change in methods. One is the high
price and scarcity Of labor The other
is that the farmers have learned that
the best methods of a hundred years
ago, while they may have been the
best possible under the circumstances
that existed then, are not the best
now, and that the fact that their dad
dies did it thus and SO is not in itself
evidence conclusive that their way
was the best.