The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-16
M B N Y, w ON EN N
 A ND THIN C s

| II any man on earth is entitled to
 hold up his head and stick out his chest US the farmer who, with his own hands
 and on h's own land, has brought a crop
 through to the harvest.
 expect ! viil rifle the traders, but somehow to me it seems a bigger thing
 10 nave sweated and toiled to help pro
 duce 'he worlds food than it is to take
 toll in selling tt after other, men have done
 the job
 | atn not throwing off on the middle
 man, and at th.s stage of the game
 they are necessary, but as sure as you
 iiVe the problem is going to be to get
 men to stay on the land rather than to get fellows to stay in the stores or manu- ractuiing industries. The trader creates inothins, yet We can't get along without 1 him.
 got to thinking along this line after a conversation with good friend of mine,
 and a corkrg fine chap, who came out boldly and said he had little sympathy | with the farmers who were "beefing' be- cause the price of farm products had gene; and yet l happened to know that in trading be was making more out of cer- tain foodstuffs than the man who raised them.
 l admit that I rather liked the ex- , precision of planter who said that there Is mo three-shelr' business in growing crops. He went a little further, saying: t"Pd rather own one dollar made in crop growing on my farm than in ten dollars made out of a shrewd trade" This in the face of the fact that he had made good deals" at odd times trading in cattle and horses. or taking a profit out of the sale of piece of land. I am sure, however, that only a man with the soul of true lover of the soil could make such a statement without his friends thinking that he was either lying or posing. It must be a satisfac- tion in October to look out on a corn field in the shock and be able to say to
 ones self, T prepared the ground, sowed the seed, cultivated the field and
 in due time will gather and haul the
 ripened grain to my crib" It's the joy of creation singing in his heart. l do not think that the farmer needs
 to be commiserated, and am sure that the great majority of them are upstand- ing men, who resent the usual silly talk about the hardships of the farm. Farm ing is no easy job, and the life of the | a tn rf~t ~,x~ ~ta pd- ards, may be hard; but the man who takes joy in his work of working on his own time on his own land, makes no com- plaints about it's hardships, but finds con- tentment in it.
 I'll admit that too often farmers are found in the Gloomy Gus" camp, and when bad crop year hits them they overdo the crepe-wearing business; but while this is to be deprecated, I'm for them when they want to organize to keep the gamblers from whittling down the price of the staples they raise without rhyme or reason, or raise a howl when for one reason or another they are ham dicapped by tho lack of transportation, or certain markets are manipulated against their perishable produce Try and keep away from it as much as you please, but sooner or later you are up against the problems of transporta- ton and distribution. Successful farm ing is bound up in good roads and better railroad facilities, for with these two functioning properly, it will be much easier to handle the marketing of the crops. There is no limit to the ability of the American farmer to produce food not only for the United States, but for the purposes of export.
 The improvement of farming methods Is going on today lot faster than the ad- justment of the above factors. There is nothing the matter with the land that cannot be remedied by soil chemistry, seed breeding, scientific rotation. and conserva- tion of fertility. It has been wittily ob- served that a convention of tombstone makers wouldn't be complete nowadays without an address from somebody on tie modern farming idea; and of course many times the talk is made by a city man whose knowledge of the matter is gleaned from the agricultural magazines which gre published for town consump- ton.
 But there is a whole new and valuable literature on farming. If you doubt it, jrst look into the subject and you will have your eyes opened. I think I know something about books and the making of books, and want to tell you that some Of the most interesting volumes in my library. as well as some of the best H. frustrated, and also the best written, are up-to-date works on the various topics related to agriculture. It's newborn, Uniformed literature, which in point of red-blooded vigor and value can take it's place proudly beside the libraries of law, medicine and theology.
 Get it out of your head that the farmer of today is "hayseed," for any ambitious t;ller of the soi. who wishes to keep up will nave as sttut a course of reading As any professional man. Not only is this true, but great colleges are being estab- lish~d where experts in every branch of agriculture with proper and expensive equipment are not only teaching. but carrying on the most careful experiment tauen. The colleges of law. letters. medi- cine and theology have nothing on" these schco.s There isn't state in the union without such an institution. Just turn