The Lexington progress. (Lexington, Tenn.) 1884-current, 1921-07-15

these taxes being burdensorne, but
they must be paid.
And yet we are paying other tax
es that are even greater drain on
our resources, and taxes that we do
not give sufficient thought, for we
could avoid their payment without
violating the law, and with direct
benefit TO ourselves. Let US enumer-
ate a few of the taxes the farmer
is paying that he could easily avoid.
You can go to the majority of
farms and find machinery depreciat-
ing because of neglect. Machinery is
left out in the weather, proper adj
Justment is neglected, oil is not used
when needed. This depreciation
amounts to more than the cost of the
machinery plus natural wear and
tear with proper attention. This is a
useless tax.
Some farmers will tell you that
they work longer hours and harder
than anybody. persuaded one who
told me that to keep an accurate rec
ord of every day he worked and what
he would be willing to pay for it if
he were hiring it done. / believe he
was honest, for he reported eighty
days, and now he admits that wasted
time was the biggest tax that he had
been paying.
Let the man in the city, whose time
is his capital, and who has to buy all
his food, clothing, fuel and pay rent,
work only eighty days in the year at
the rate of pay he gets, and he will
come out badly in debt. No other vo-
cation will provide as many comforts
at the same expenditure of labor as
does farming.
] have seen much waste in feeding
of farm animals for the lack of
knowledge how to feed a balanced
ration. With some farmers feed is
feed, and just so their animals get
fed it is immaterial whether it will
make heat, fat, or build up muscle.
BY intelligent feeding one-half of the
tonnage would have given better re-
suits if properly proportional. The
other half was an unnecessary tax
paid, due either to ignorance or in
difference.
] have seen farmers, when they
were ready to plant corn, go to their
cribs and shell seed corn without any
effort at selection, when everyone
who keeps in touch with the work
that has been done in seed corn selec-
ton knows that by proper selection
of seed, the yield can be doubled. Is
that not a heavy tax to pay for neg
lect?
j have seen men pretend to farm
without any definite plan about their
work | have seen their ground in
splendid shape for working; but they
would do something else that could
have been done when the ground was
either too wet or two dry to plow.
Then when they wanted to pillow, the
ground was either too wet or too dry
to pillow, and there was chance that
it would have to lie idle a whole
season because of this neglect--a
heavy tax to pay for lack of intelli-
genet management. 1t is always bet
ter to push your work than to have
your work push you.
Farmers pay heavy penalties IN
loss of crops by not taking care of
them at the proper time. l have
known hay crops to depreciate one
half by letting stand too long before
cutting. / have known wheat and
oats to nearly ruin in the field by let
ting them stand in the shock after
ready for the barn or stack.
Taxes imposed on the farmer by
law are heavy, but there are numer-
Gus ways in which he pays heavier
taxes through neglect. OF course, in
spite of all precaution, farmers suffer
losses, but many losses they incur are
preventable. Losses can be minimiz-
ed by systematizing farm operations
and keeping up with the work-being
ready to do the right work at the
right time.