Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1916-01-26
FACTS ABOUT FARMING
A Few Simple Statements That Should
Interest Every Farmer, Man or Boy

Basic facts are the only safe founda
tioA stones upon which to build correc
practice. There Is no one set of fact
in theory and another IN practice
Facts are facts, and true in both theor!
and practice. If anything is not cor
rect in practice 1t is not correct in the
ory, it is false theory.
Let US start out with clear under
standing that facts are facts and thai
while our theories and practices may
be wrong, facts are eternal truth
What we think are facts may not al
ways be facts, but the foolish idea that
anything that ls true IS not always
true in farm practice, or anywhere
else, has done more to retard the spread
of useful facts among farmers than all
other things combined.
Theories may be false and practices
bad, but the only way we can tell
which is correct and which is wrong is
through full knowledge of the basic
facts of agriculture.
Beyond any doubt the class OF men
most influenced by theorles-often
false theorles-is the farmer. This is
because the facts are sc hard to find
out and the experience of any one man
is so small.
He only has experience with one
farm, once year, and each year some
of the conuitlons change, so that the
experie ce of any one man Is so small
that he can never find out the whole
truth for himself. 1t is only when we
bring together the experiences and dis
coverles of thousands OF farmers and
experlmenters for all past ages that
we can find the truth. the averages, the
basic facts, which are the only safe
guide in practice.
EXPERIMENTS AND EXPERIENCE
Again let US fully understand that
experiments mean experience. An ex-
perimenter is merely man who has
special and increased means OF obtain
ing experience. For instance, the ex-
perimenter has experiene one year with
80 or 40 varieties of cotton or fertilizer
mixtures, whereas the far ner has ex-
perience with one or two at most.
What | want my young friends, the
boys, to fully realize is that the plants,
Il Ic rvh tho
perimenter works, have none of the
foolish prejudices, so common among
all people; but grow for him just as
they do for the farmer.
If he experiments with forty varle-
ties he has just 1orty times the expert
ence of the m ian who experiments with,
or grows one. Experience Is the best
teacher, hut 1t IS so expensive that no
farmer can have enough on his own
farm to meet his best needs.
Is it true tnat there Is no more rea-
son why the farm boy should know the
baisc facts of agriculture than that the
doctor should know the basic facts
about medicine, or that the lawyer
should know the basic facts Of the
law: Ihereaone whatever.
Early in life the writer learned that
his influence with those he met and did
business with was largely IN proportion
to his knowledge of the lines NJ work
they were chiefly interested IN. Eight
out of every ten people we meet in the
South are most largely interested IN
agriculture.
If my experience is safe guide,
every boy who learns the basic racts of
agriculture will be better able to lni-
press and influence for good those he
meets, and his lite with those about
1im will be more useful and pleasant
Here then Is a reason, when does not
apply with the same force to other peo-
bic and lines Of work, why the South
I'm boy should know the basic facts of
agriculture.
What will such knowledge do for the
arm boy?
If boy knows why it jars him more /
% Jump off bench stiff legged than 1T |
Ioes when he allows his legs to bend at
he knees and hips, he will not pick /
'ut horse with short, straight front
,asterns (the iportion of the leg be- |
ween the hoof and the fetlock, or as
Is wrongfully called, the ankle joint |
or an easy-riding saddle horse.
If boy knows that the good flavor
# butter IS made by certain germs"