CARE OF FARM MACHINERY. PAGE 4
Volume XV. No. 28.SATURDAY. JULY 16.1910. Weekly: $1 a Year.
I HoW the Other Fellow is Beating Vs. I
/T should be remembered that Mr. Poe’s recent letters “What
I Saw in the Middle West” referred only to the part of the
West he saw, referred only to his trip through the richer parts
of Illinois and Wisconsin. He has not pretended that there
are no poor farmirs or poor farming in the West. But the
cold statistical fact that the average income per farm worker
in 1900 was only $189 for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississ
ippi, and only $184 for North Carolina, South Carolina and
Virginia as compared with $663 for Iowa, Indiana and Illinois
is enough to suggest to any man that men of common sense
who like to face fads as they are, may learn something of
value from our Western brethren. And what they may learn
cannot, perhaps, be better or more tellingly set forth than
by the illustration herewith which shoes that the main expla
nation of why the farmer in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois makes
over three times as much a year as the farmer in Mississippi,
Alabama and Louisiana is, because the Westerner (1) uses over
three times as much horse power, (2) over three times the value
of improved implements, and (3) cultivates over three times as
many acres, while (4) the Western farmers in these States not
only keep nearly five times as many milk cows in proportion
to number as our Southern farmers, but sell an average of $212
worth of live stock for each farm worker, against only $13 for
the average farm worker in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisi
ana. We rejoice to say that conditions have improved greatly
since 1900, but the essential principles remain the same now
as then, and this illustration of statistical facts is convincing
proof that the South’s main agricultural needs are :
f ij more ana oetier 1001s ;
(2) More and better horaes to work them with ;
(3) More dairying and stock raising.
We can beat the Westerner farming when we once make up
our minds to do it, and we believe we are fast coming to that
frame of mind. These same Western letters brought ns a letter
June 10th from a Western agricultural editor who while re
gretting that all the West is not so progressive as the section
Mr. Poe visited, yet spoke frankly of a trip to one of our South
ern States last year: “I was very much surprised" he says,
“to see how wasteful the farmers are in that State, also the
crude implements they were using. But I longed for the great
climate that your Southland possesses, also the long growing
season. Why, here we are the 10th of June and some of our
farmers have not finished planting com, and frost may come
before this is matured."
This paragraph from this editor's letter tells the whole
story in a nutshell. “ Wasteful methods," “crude implements,"
but a climate and growing season that make the Northern and
Western farmer jealous with envy ! And as soon as our South
ern farmers begin to combine the Western farmer’s economy,
improved implements, better horaes, and stock raising with cur
own unrivaltd advantages in climate and length of growing
MASSACHUSETTS VIRGINIA IOWA ALABAMA
NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA INDIANA LOUISIANA
PENNSYLVANIA SOUTH CAROUNA ILLINOIS MISSISSIPPI
AVERAGE ANNUAL
INCOME PER
FARM WORKER
AVERAGE NUMBER 1 j.-yf
ACRES CULTIVATED ITT1t
PER FARM WORKER
AVERAGE VALUE Nr
FARM IMPLEMENTS
PER FARM WORKER $150 $22.
AVERAGE NUMBER
OFHORSES-oMULES * *
PER FARM WORKER 1.38 .77
SSET" « G?
PER FARM WORKER
AVERAGE AMOUNT
RECEIVED FROM SALE
OF UVE STOCK TOR '^aa
FARMWORKER $68 $23.
some: figures that tell the whole story.
season—then indeed will we be in sight of the time, as Mr. Walter
Page says, when the farmer in the old slave States “will be
come the most prosperous tiller of the earth.”
But the first step is to acknowledge that right now the \
other fellow is beating us, then recognize these ways that en
able him to do it—and then change our own methods.
INDEX OF THIS ISSUE.
Health Conditions in the Country School . 498
The liosses Resulting Front Tick Fever . 508
Permanent Pastures for the South—II..*. 508
When Good Looks Are Worth Money . 507
Drainage That Pays. 494
Fertilization of Growing Crops. 49-t
Hreeils of Swine—Taiuworths, Hninpshires and Mule-Foots. 502
How to Make Grape Juice. 499
Have You a System of Home Water-Works?. 499
Better Prices for Eggs and Hutte .502—500
Sorghum as a Forage Crop. 500
Winter Gruzing and Cover Crops.495
How It Pays to Take Cure of Farm Equipment. 490
Mid-Summer Work in the Corn Eield . 497
Sectional Sensitiveness and Self-Respect . 500
Unimproved Lands Asessed Too Dow . 590
How to Prevent Typhoid Fever. 508
Getting an Education Without Money . 497