The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1919-04-08
FRENCH EARN LESSONS.

American farm boys with the expedition
airy forces in France have been amused at
and interested in the character of the typi-
cal French farm. Most of these farmer sol
diers, especially those from southern farms,
are familiar with American methods of care
lessness and extravaganza in operations
They know all about the American failure
to save acreage and utilize land for the high
est yields possible. They were not familiar
with the methods they saw in France by
which small farm, not sufficient in size to
attract the attention of anyone but a mark
ct gardener in this country, is made to sup
port large family in comfort, while the
land becomes richer every year. 1t has been
a revelation to the Americans, and they will
bring their information home as a part of
their experience.
The French farm contains but a few acres.
The farm home IS not located on the farm,
but in the village, thus maintaining the
community life which is a part of the new
rural policy of this country. The novelty of
the little farm has caused the boys to inspect
and study its possibilities. They find horny
comfort among the people that is satisfying,
at least They find they have sufficient ready
money at any time to change any sized bill
They find that even in war times the people
who live from the resources of these little
farms have abundance of varied wholesome
food. Naturally, the young Americans want
to know why such things are possible. They
know the machinery used is crude primitive
| and laborious Why the prosperity of the
French then?
/ In the first place the French farmer re-
/ turns as much or more fertility or plant
! food to the soil as he removes with his crops
! He has a naturally acquired but scientific
/ knowledge of the elements of plant food
necessary for his crops. He knows what
he must apply to the soil to secure these
foods. He knows that crop rotation is nee
essary to preserve the equilibrium of soil
| fertility, and to prevent the exhaustion of
any particular kind of plant food The
French farmer saves all the soil foods which
| his farm produces, and returns them to it
at the proper season.
The Frenchmar works every corner of
his land. He has no fence areas. He digs up
the corners. He terraces the hillsides if nee
! essary to secure level area for his planting
! He prevents the washing of the slopes. He
nurses every plant as though it were his sole
future harvest. His land is kept free from
plant disease by rotation and the planting
! of crops which destroy dangerous plant
bacilh. He does not do these things because
he has had a course at an agricultural col
lege, but because conditions have forced
him to find a way to accomplish what he does
in order to avoid starvation.
When the American boys return to the
farms they will have the vision of the French
farmer. They, unconscious probably, will
compare the results he obtains from his
American sized garden farm with the prod
ucts of the large acreage of the American
farmer. The returned soldier with his ma
tive iniatiye will apply the practices of the
French small farmer to his larger American
acreage. He will begin to work the acres
that have been ncn-productive, and which
have grown up in weeds, seeding his entire
farm and causing him labor and expenses to
fight from his productive fields. There will
be no patches upon which nothing grows.
Those idle places will be planted.
The fertility of the soil will not be vast
tu. IL Will De conserved ana auQeu TO JUST
as the little farmer amid the hills of France
increased that of the land which has de
seconded to him through generations and
which has been producing crops for twenty
centuries The wasteful methods of the
American farmer will be weighed by these
American boys, and the losses they suffer in
consequence will be appreciated. They will
have no desire to get into the small farm
class, but they Will have a desire to apply
the principles of the French small farm to
the American big farm. 1t will be an appli-
cation of highly intensified farm methods to
large farms. 1t will result in preserving and
even increasing soil fertility. 1t will elimi-
nate many Of the plant diseases which arc
prevalent in this country. 1t will increase
the productiveness of the farm. 1t viii bring
about larger amounts of home food produc-
ton by developing a larger production of the
foods which 90 directly into the family lard
er The important agricultural monev-mak-
ing crops and herds will not be neglected
or weakened, but there will be a fved de-
termination that every plant shall be the
best that science can produce and every an
imal shall be the best that can be brad.