The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-11
WESTERN FARMERS.
Why They Make More and Work Less
Than We Do.


northwestern farming. For the fact
is. that the first essential to co-opera-
tive marketing is to have something
to market, and if man will not
adopt progressive methods in the
farm work he is already doing, there
is not much hope that he will adopt
progressive methods in the market
ing work he may do some other time.
The fact is, that these western
farmers, apart from their co-opera-
tive activities, are making more mon
ey than We are making, and with less
worthless muscular labor.
For a double reason, therefore, it
behooves US to find out how they are
doing this. We should like to get the
increased profits they are getting,
even with our present amount Of Ia
bor; and We should also like to re-
duce the proportion OF fatiguing Ia
Dor on the farm.
The answer to this riddle is the
answer that I have frequently given
in the Progressive Farmer; namely,
that these western farmers are run
ming their brains with from two to
four horsepower, while we are run
ming ours with one Horsepower. Thls
is an age of machinery. To such an
extent is this true that it has been
estimated that the interventlons and
discoveries in use in the world today
(chiedy improved machinery IN
crease the average mans productive
power twelve-fold. That is to say,
the man who makes adequate use OF
improved implements and machinery
and scientific knowledge, can accom-
plish as great results as he could ac-
complish with eleven slaves working
for him in the primitive stage OF So
ciety.
We cannot be too often reminded
therefore, that this is an age OF ma
chinery and that the man or the peo-
ple who neglect to avail themselves
of it's labor-saving and money-maklng
advantages, simply condemn them-
selves to poverty, unrewarded toli'
and general backwardness.
Moreover, while 1 have just SAID
that the western farmer runs MS
brain with from two to four horse
power while we in the south run ours
with one horsepower, I am remind
cd that when DR.. Butler looked up
the census facts he found that neither
for the farm workers in the caro-
1inas and Virginia, nor for the farm
workers in Alabama, LOUISIANA ana
Mississippi, was there an average OF
even one horse apiece-there were
not enough horses and mules TO aver
age one apiece for each farm worker
whereas in Iowa and Indiana anu
Illinois, typical western states, there
were between three and four horses
apiece for each and every 1arm
worker in the entire territory. And
then the census showed quite natur-
allv indeed, that the average farm
workers in these western states US
ing three to four horses, cultivated
sixtv-three acres, while the farm
workers in Alabama, Louisiana and
Mississippi cultivated on an average
only sixteen acres, and in the Caro-
linas and Virginia, only twenty-five
acres apiece.
saw great many signlflcant ana
interesting sights in the west, out
believe the most interesting and Sig
nifcant of all was what | saw on MT.
A O. Nelson's farm the Monday
morning l left there-his twelve
year-old boy cultivating from six to
eight acres of corn day with TWO
row cultivator-and riding while ne
did it.
In other words, this 12-year-old
boy, Hubert Nelson, and ne WASH
twelve years old until the twenty
third of April, this year, was CD DO
ing twice the work of an ordinary
grown man in a southern field, ana
(2) probably doing it better on &C.
count of the character of the cultlva-
tor. and 60 accomplishing all this
result with less fatigue than would
have been involved in hoeing corn
for the same period of time.
Let the Horses Do the Work. IS
the motto of the western farmer ;ano
we'll do they live up to it. Hoeing IS
almost a lost art in Minnesota and
Wisconsin.
Il believe the only Man With the
Hoe in Wisconsin is woman re-
marked to Professor Hibbard. Ine
only people 1 see ooing any hoelng
are a few women here and there IN
so. Don't Won do any hOelnS