The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-11

whose health had broken down and
| who moved from New York to North
Carolina, said he could not work IN
the fields of New York in the summer
on account of the danger from sun
stroke, but found no difficulty in the
open fields of North Carolina in sum-
mer.
The Mississippi state commissioner
of agriculture wrote the gospel truth
when he said in his 1876 report, thlr-
ty-seven years ago:
This old nonsense about our eli
mate and the inability of the white
man to toll under a blazing southern
sun, is so transparent that it is scarce
ly necessary to show its falsity. White
immigration has poured into Florida
of late, passed over the negro dis
tricts, and, settling in the extreme
southern portion, the hottest section
of the state, has built up there amid
it's waste swamp lands, an agricul-
tural prosperity that Florida never
knew under slavery and negro labor.
The white men who have poured into
Texas since the war from all sections
of the Union, have shown that the
climate did not affect their labor in
the slightest degree; but they have
worked to such good purpose, that
they have placed Texas at the head
of the cotton states, the producer of
nearly one quarter of the entire
CROP"
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
a great deal more with less labor If
they used improved labor-saving ma
chinery but many of them are finding
out that they can accomplish just as
much with shorter hours Of work II
they use more system. A case In
point was given to me by Mr.. N. E.
Christensen, of Litchfield, Minnesota.
1--WE had farmers club" he told
me, " and in discussing the matter,
we decided that we could get just
as much done with shorter working
days. Instead of keeping at it from
sunup till sundown now, therefore
my field hours are from 7.30 in the
morning until $50 in the afternoon,
and by $50 p. m. I have everything
finished. And I really do more work
in this shorter-hour day than l used
to do when I 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. Formerly they thought it was
all drudgery; now they get some time
for recreation and I believe it is due
to our shorter working day and the
neighborhood social meetings that
they are no longer leaving the farm
as formerly"
1 have no doubt but that eighty
per cent of our southern farmers
could also accomplish just as much
by working shorter hours. Then if
they heightened the midday rest pc
riod 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-provided we
use the same labor saving and labor
easing implements and machinery.
Which reminds me that was about
to forget to say that great propor-
ton of the two-horse fultivators in
the west are equipped with umbrellas
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
cultivators in the south about as gen.
orally as in the north. There are
mountainous 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-foor, it is no un-
common sight, in springtime to see
six men plowing a horse apiece. And
perhaps you will find these same farm
owners complaining of the scarcity
Of labor" when they are already U.s.
ing twice as much labor as they
need.
If our southern farmers who have
from four to twenty horses will quit
doing one-horse farming-that is to