Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-07-29
HOW FATHER AND SON SHOULD
DEAL TOGETHER ON THE FARM.
Father Should Not Scorn New Ideas;
Son Should Use Tact Rather
Than Force His Ideas.
Darn & Preside. J

ence II printed his name IN full, anC
his letter too. IF there is anything
you wish to publish, you need not feal
that my father will read it." says he
He will never see it unless he changes
greatly"
Nevertheless. / am not going to pub
lish the name of my young friend in j
Middlewestern State from whom ] re-
Gently received one of the most inter.
esting letters the mails have ever
brought me. Here is the letter:
"a few days ago l sent a request to
Farm and Fireside for information
concerning the corn-root ,aphis. l re-
ceived a very satisfactory reply, but
when 1 tried to get my father to read
the letter he absolutely refused to look
kat it. These men who write for the
papers, said he, don't know anything
about it. Most Of them never saw a
farm,
Father always has contended tina
the ants eat the corn, and every time
modern farming is mentioned a con-
tcmptuous smile comes over his face,
my father is not we'll educated; but
if he were only willing to learn, how
much better it would be! He thinks
he knows almost all there is to know
about farming-and in fact he does
know every old and WORKOUT way, but
| don't believe he ever casts a glance
at a farm paper. l don't remember
ever seeing him do so. His only read
ing is the newspapers. How can such
a man ever expect to be successful?
But the great question is, What
must do? If nothing prevents I
shall graduate from the high school
this year, and in a year or two 1 want
to go to the state agricultural college
But how can 1 pay my expenses if /
stay and work at home?
II have three brothers, all Of whom
have left home and either gone into
business for themselves or obtained
jobs working for someone else.
81 have a ray Of hope in the form Of
an old sow which my father gave me.
thinking she was of no account. She
has improved since receiving a balanc-
ed ration, for what allied her was that
corn had been her full diet.
Nov, Mr.. Quick, l should like to
get some good advice concerning my
affair, and you are the one I have Sc
1ected from whom to get it. I have
faults, just as most people have, but !
en- willing to learn, and to take good
advice.
How to be Young When You Are Old.
Here is a. typical instance of the
way in which families are broken up
There is nothing bad about this man.
n there is almost everything good
about the boy. A boy who wants to
know about the corn root aphis, who
takes the old SOW and by putting her
on a balanced ration makes her valua-
bic. is a boy of whom any father ought
to be proud. The boy is doing the i
very thing a sensible father ought to
desire. He is making education out of
work. He is preparing to be the best
farmer in his ~neighborhoed. And
whether or not he is the best, he is
getting ready to be the ~happiest. The
man to whom every insect, plant and
clod of earth is a mystery, and whose
life-work is mad up of efforts TO IN
ravel and master that mystery, IS the
happiest of mortals. His life will
never run dry. He will always find
new things in his life-work. Old age
will overtake him in the act of becom-
ing freshly interested in the new
things which will be freshly dawning
the horizon of his mind, and he will
die happily in the harness.
That boy is a boy to be proud OF.
And how sadly strange it is that SEN
men will allow their prejudices
to stand between them and an under
standing with their sons! Suppose it
were true that there is nothing in
scientific farming, what harm would
there be in letting the boy amuse him
self with it for a while? If it turned
out to be a fad. and faked-up notions
of men who know nothing about it
and who never saw a farm, surely the
boy might be trusted to find it out af-
ter a while. If it is the ants and not
the aphis which destroy the orn how
easy it would be to prove the error of /
the Farm and Fireside writer who as
serts that the thing is the other way
about! |,
This man is his own worst enemy,
and the worst enemy of his home. He
has become divorced from his family, /,
anG is welded to his idols-his old no
tions and ways. He is repealed by the !,
idea of a%nyone's knowing more about
his business than he. does. He said
that COWS have the hollow-horn,
and he won't be driven out of that po-
sition by any man who writes for the
or eny college professor, by
George! He has always believed that
ants eat the corn, and he won't admit
hat the ants are active about the corn
just because they are getting honey
dew from those plant lice. No! He ;
won't knuckle down to any ink singer!
He does himself and his family an
injustice. He ought to remember that
It took someone a long time to find out
Just the relations between the ants and
he aphides, and that while he, the
'ather of this boy, was blowing corn,
ne was paying taxes to pay g mar to
the ants and the plant lice. He
rejects the work he has paid for. He I
S as foolish as the man would be
Who would unbind the. grain his hired {