The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1913-08-16

WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES.

Clarence Poe, in The Progressive Farmer:
What our Southern farmers mainly
need to do is not to cherish the delu-
sion that farmers in other sections
have a better climate, but to practice
better scheme of working hours. The
farmers in the West have not only
found that they can accomplish
great deal more with less labor if they
used improved labor-saving machinery,
but many of them are finding out that
they can accomplish just as much with
shorter hours of work if they use more
system. A case in point was given me
by Mr.. N. E. Christensen, of Litchfield,
Minnesota. 1--WE had farmers club"
he told me, land in discussing the mat
ter, we decided that we could get just
as much done with shorter working
days. Instead of keeping at it from
sunup till shutdown now, therefore, my
| field hours are from 1880 in the morn
ing until s.: 80 in the afternoon; and by
$50 pm. / have everything finished.
And | really do more work in this
shorter-hour day than | used to do
| when | worked all the time. Moreover,
this policy has made all the difference
| in the world in the attitude of our
young people towards farm life. For
merly they thought it was all drudg-
cry; now they get some time for rec
reation and | believe it is due to our
shorter working day and the neighbor-
hood social meetings that they are no
longer leaving the farm as formerly"
| have no doubt but that 80 per cent
of our Southern farmers could also &C
complish just as much by working
shorter hours Then if they lengthen-
ed the midday rest period in summer
so as to reduce the proportion OF work
necessary in the heat of the day, farm
work would be even pleasanter here in
| the South than in the Northwest
vided we use the same labor-saYing
and labor-easing implements and ma
chinery. Which reminds me that
was about to forget to say that great
proportion of the two-horse cultivators
in the West are equipped with umbrel-
las or canvas tops that enable the
farmer not only to ride while he does
his work, but to sit in the shade while
he works!
Nor need we delude ourselves with
the idea that we cannot have these two
to four-horse plows, harrows, and cul-
| tivators in the South about as general
lily as in the North. There are noun
famous sections, of course, where the
land is too rough; but the fact is that
even in our coastal plain regions where
the land is as level as dancing floor
it is no uncommon sight, in springtime
to see six men ploying horse apiece
And perhaps you will find these same
farm-owners complaining of the scar
city of labor" when they are already
using twice as much labor as they
lneed!
If our Southern farmers who have
from four to twenty horses will quit
doing one-horse farming is tc
say, quit one-horse implements and il
the farmers who have only one horse
: will use every opportunity for cooper
ating with their neighbors in buying
the large two to four-horse plows, cul
, tivators, ETC., for joint use and owner
ship, we may soon learn to make as
much profit as the Western farmer:
make and to do it with as little. mus
cular labor.
But we can never do it with the one
horse system and the one-crop system