The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

| was gOin to DO as tOlO nlm-nlfe OUT
for farm hand.
Meantime while he was gone
wasn't gettin' along very we'll with the
farm. reckoned the land had been
worked out and required to be ferti-
lized. l didn't have the money to do
the job as it ought to be done, and
thought that If I didn't spend lot on
it I'd lose what put into it, so didn't
do anything. l tried to raise such
crops as didn't need much fertilizer.
but didn't get much Of return.
"Jim was away four years, and all the
while l was runnin' down financially.
! He used to write home once in awhile,
but he didn't tell us what he was dom
| But Jim was never good hand at ex-
| p!ainin' things. I've thought since that
| II when he was a boy he'd have told
me sOmep'n about what he was drivin'
at I'd have had more patience with him.
"The only thing Jim did tell us, and
=, he wrote that to his mother the last
year he was away, was that he'd got
sweetheart He said she was the pur-
| test gal in the world and the best
, When his mother told me about 1t
/, said reckOned Jim would have hard
time takin' care of wife, especially if
he was goin to do things his own way
and never take any advice from any
body.
"Well, when 1 had got so low finan-
cially that l had to put mortgage on
my farm Jim come home. He said he'd
been to an agricultural college and had
come home to help me out.
Gather he said, you and all the
rest of the old fashioned farmers have
been laundering along for ages. The
earth and everything in it is big
laboratory, and there's nothing that
: isn't subject to the laws of science Do
you remember when you told me to
trim the apple tree and cut off the
lower branches? Well it occurred to
me that that tree was a mighty big
climb for the sap; that by the time it
got to the top it must be tired out, and
that what apples it produced would be
small and few. Besides, 1t would cost
more to gather apples grown as high
40 thul tIui thCS u DC WOIlu W utll you
got 'em down.
And do you remember the ground
put the chemicals in? Well, that was
failure, but when a boy Of fourteen
/ begins experimenting he's not likely to
succeed without a lot of failures. Some
times a grown educated scientist will
work for years over problem and fail
in the end
When you tired Of me and grand
mother left me the legacy | determined
to use it to learn what there was
known about scientific agriculture. Il
don't claim to have learned any more
than Is known by others, but I've learn.
ed that and its a good foundation on
which to learn more I'm not going to
do much experimenting on my own
hook till l have put you on better
basis in your efforts to make money
out of the farm.
land / must tell you further that
there's business In farming as well as
anything else. My vacations I've spent
clerking in a produce store in q big
city. There I've learned certain of some
middlemen'S methods. I've seen some
thing of how he squeeZeS the consum.
er on the one hand and the farmer on
the other | don't want to squeeze
either myself, but the more a man
knows about squeezing the less likely
he Is to get squeezed.
Now, dad, I'll tell you what we
must do. We must take advantage of
our opportunities such as they are
and turn away from what are not on.
portunities, no matter how attractive
they look. We've got market handy |
for such produce as is used on the ia.
bles of any and every body Well go
into table vegetables on n small scale
at first, and if we find it paws we'll |
Increase the scale. As soon as we can
work 1t We'll open a store for the sale
of our own produce and make the !
whole profit ourselves. But we cant
. too last, must feel our way and |
.'ti.t or plans as we run up against |
stone walls"
The farmer paused in his narrative. |
cast glance over his broad beds OF |
garden truck and concluded:
There's the result of Jim's work
lie didn't do any experimental till !
he'd got the business we'll goin' | !
call it the business because business
is part and a very important part of !
farmin'
I've said that Jim didn't do any ex-
perimentin', SO he didn't in the regular !,
line of the work on the farm, but he's
been dom 1t all the while in a small |
way, and he's found out some things
already
That mortgage / told you of was
paid of in two years, and now there's |
plenty over for all.
Jim married his sweetheart and they !
live In the cottage down yonder. This
little Jim"-putting his hand on the
boys head-"is chip off the old block.
he has will of his own, anyway.
There's his dad now"
sturdy young mar Of tUontv 6ra