The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-17
TALKS ON THRIFT
Thrift and the Cattle Tick

TaS yod So tutOusl tDc tOQHlTN you are frequently impressed with the appearance of a farm. The house. outbuildings and fences are fin good repair and neatly painted, the lawn is well kept and a general air of prosperity surrounds the place. If you were to examine more closely. you would fino the farm ma cfinery in the toolhouse. well protected from the weather. and If winter Is ap- preaching, greased to prevent rust. The cattle are well housed. warm and fat. You conclude that this farmer is wealthy because his farm looks so neat, but you have reversed the proposition-he is wealthy because he keeps things in good order. Thrift is good management, and he makes money through his good man. agement. He is thrifty because he makes money: he makes money because he is thrifty.
 You will also find (perhaps more fre- duently) other. farms with a run-down- at-the-heels look. The fences are falling down. the bouse has never been painted the roof leaks. the barns are full of holes and the cattle are ill housed, cold and lean
 If you were to examine the premise, you would find the farm machinery scat tered all over the place. The moving machine. new 1t may be this year, is in the orchard: the blow srands in the fur row last plowed. and tne hay rake in the field last moved The cattle are bare ly protected from the clements the cows give poor milk, the hens do not lay in the winter, the farmer buys his vegetables and the whole place has look of decay. It Is simply thriftlessness gone to seed, and the bank that holds the mortgage knows 1t. Everything shows it.
 If there Is any place where thrift is manifest. # Is on the farm. If there is any place where thrift pays 1t Is on the Iarm. It may be the farmer thinks he works hard. but he may fritter his time away; he may not do the things that count. His energies may be misdirected; he may not know how. Perhaps he takes no farm raper and farms as his father did. with his hands instead of with his head
 He may have hard heart and not care 1T the cattle suffer. He is too busy to patch up the holes in the barn and wonders why they "eat their heads off and still ere lean: they eat to keep warm. and he is stoking the boiler and does not know It. He raises poor crops and blames the weather man. when the n.anure pile is at fault. lie IS not willing to spend money to get money. A ton or fertilizer means. no. a bumper crop. out s2c But you can't raise crops with cut feeding the soil any more than you can raise boys without food.
 The farm is full of pests. and the farm CT must decide whetho: ne or they will ran the rlace. For insvauce, the cattle tick cost the farmers over 80. GOO GOO last year ana could be eradicated for a trif- hrg sum in comparison It is stated that $z0Cooo.00o is lost yearly through de- caSlng corn stalks. rorty million dol lars worth of eggs are broken in transit each year, and 7O0,000 bushels of Maine potatoes are wasted every year on their way to market. We could build six bat tleships with the money saved throurh killing the cattle tick.
 You can't feed the ticks on a cow and get good milk-the ticks get the sub stance that should go into the milk. The farmer Who feeds cattle ticks and knows 1t is throwing money away. The hide is less salabie. the meat poorer. and inc whole proposition is Costly
 Machinery rusts if left to the clements and soon becomes scrapped. A house runs down unless constantly repaired. A Socd animal becomes impoverished if not properly fed ana housed Thrift pays the surest dividends of any invest inent known.
 You may let parasites live on your property until they own it. The worst parasite is decay. If you don't paint yo'r house 1t soon rots If you don't patch the roof. watch the plumbing and Keep doing little all the time, it will soon prove costly job. You can't eat up the rents of your property and keep 1t in condition. You can't have your cake and eat 1t. You can't plant corn in the same patch year in and year out and never put something back Thrift ia not the mere saving of money-it is as often the spending of 1t. The thrifty farmer will plant field and blow under for two and three seasons to bring back his soil. This is thrift. He wilL spend s5 any day to get Sl0; but if you don't spend the s, ycu may lose your s1O
 There are cattle ticks on every farm, anc in every life-the little things that take our strength. Your success denends upon how you regard them, a pest to he endured or pest to be conquered. AMERICAN BANKERS AsSOCIATIoN