The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-01-15
THE BEST FARMER WINS
REGARDLESS OF LAND
Alfred G. Smith, in The Country Gentleman Tells of His
Experiences in South Carolina Same Rule
Holds Good in Corn Belt-Good
Land Great Help.

gage on his land and if it hadn't
been for the crop this year the farm
would have been sold out from under
him. You know selling farms for the
mortgage is something that has never
yet happened round here.
"You remember that field west Of
the Kuykendall farm that belongs to
some people in Gibson City? 1t has
been rented out for years and is gen.
orally considered too poor for any
use. Bill Smith has been renting it
for the last three or four years and
farming it in addition to his own
land. He gets it for about half the
average rent, but up until this year
he had about wasted his time on it,
although Bills first rate kind of a
farmer. But this was the time for
that land and it made 91> bushels of
oats to the acre when in an ordinary
year it wouldn't have made 25."
The Metal of Real Farmers.
people have had the same kind Of
experience with wheat. Old, poor land
that ought to have been turned into
grass long ago made as high as so
bushels to the acre. The corn crop
you can see for yourself. Everybody !
has good corn. Why, Arthur Mass,
whom We all consider about the best
farmer We have, is only an average
man this year.
eyes, sir, this is one season that
us right and we have the biggest
crops of corn, wheat, oats, hay, po-
tatoes and tomatoes, the best pastures
and the fattest stock I have ever
seen, and I've been knowing this
country for good many years now."
That's the common experience of
every farming community, North or
South. 1t has it's good years when it
appears that all farmers are in the
same class. But when things go back
ward, it is then that you spot the real
farmer with the real mettle. At the
same time you spot a real American
hero-the man whose family is de-
pending upon him for it's life and
living, and who, facing things over
which he has no control calmly anu
courageously uses his head, fits his
plans to the occasion and comes
through the season with high yielding
crops and family well supplied.
In 1919 the cotton belt farms had
a bad year. The spring started late
and cold, cotton was slow in coming
up and there were abnormal rains
everywhere. Grass, that arch enemy
of the cotton grower, covered the
fields like carpet. The labor and
expense of chopping out the cotton
last season was the highest that has
ever been known. Far more cotton
was abandoned than in normal years,
simply because the rains and grass
made it impossible to tend it.
Through the whole summer the
story has been the same. July, that
month in which most of the fruit is
set, was in some places, one continu-
GUS ran. In South Carolina there
were fewer than five days in which
the farmer could plow. Altogether
it was the worst crop year many
farmers have ever experienced.
Yet, with such conditions, there
are farmerswho have fields on which
the cotton was good and where the
receipts showed substantial margin
over the expenses. 1t is here that
the outstanding farmer is found and
the cause of his success can be trac-
ed, while the cause of his neighbor's
failure is only too apparent.
Late in the season I, transpalnted
product of the corn belt, now cot
ton planter, made brief trip through
some of the counties in South Caro-
lima just to see the crops and find out
some of the reasons that accounted
for occasional good fields when most
fields were so poor. wanted to learn
Just how the good yields were made,
for it would give me ideas on how
1 could make my crops better this
year.
When I saw a good crop hunted
up the farmer and got him to tell his
story-let me say here that when you
find such man the pride in his work
and the real desire to help his fellow
man makes it easy to find the secre.
of hi ssuccess. Not all the farmers
attributed their good crops to the
same. causes, but by talking with q
lot of them some of the fundamental
factors were made clear.
I found that the factor basically