The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., January 13, 1912, Image 1

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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THE POOR MAN’S ROAD TO BETTER LAND—Page 5.
I
fcBTTB
A Farm and Home Weekly foi
Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas an. Tennessee.
__ RALEIGH, N. C.—BIRMINGHAM, ALA.—MEMPHIS, TENN.
XXVII. No. 2. SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1912. Weekly: $1 a Year.
tf You Are Going to Farm at All, Be a Good Farmer.
t"V VER fifty years ago in one of the best of all books about farm
■ ing, Donald Grant Mitchell said:
^ “The farmer who neglects any crop, will find, sooner or later,
that whatever is worth planting, is worth planting well; what
ever is worth cultivating, is worth cultivating well; and that noth
ing is worth harvesting that is not worth harvesting with care.'*
After all these years it is doubtful if there is any one lesson most
us need more to learn than this. We need to learn that if one is to
a farmer at all if is hisdiifv
I farm well—to do things as
y should be done; to take a
per pride in his work; to
e for his land, his livestock,
crops, his machinery, so that
of them, in turn, may do
ir work well and thus be
trees of profit and satisfac
a. We need to hold our call
and its duties in more re
ct; to feel more truly what
hould mean when one of us
s, “lama farmer,” so that
can say it with decision and
phasis, in the full confidence
t it is a good thing to be a
aier and that we are farmers
he right sort.
I am a farmer,” says the
a, and sees in his mind’s eye,
well-tended fields, enriched
[ cared for and made more
l more productive, but
itches of briers and broom
ge and seedling pines, lands
scarrea nere ana tnere witn gullies, or marrea witn rea gaus, ana
>arren of even a covering of weeds, or flooded with stagnant water
ind so made sour and sick.
The man says he is a farmer, but what do his fields say? Ages
igo Solomon, the wise king, wrote:
“I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the
man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with
thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone
wall thereof was broken down.”
Today the field of the slothful and the land of the man who
acks understanding tell the same story of neglect and mistrea'ment.
None of us, of course, can have all his fields as he would wish
them, for all of us no doubt wish a domain like that of prodigal Lear—
“With shadowing forests, and with champains rich’d,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads.”
Still each of us should feel that no man is worthy the title of “farmer”
whose fields are not tending toward such a state as this. They may be far
from it yet, they maj7 even be overgrown with thorns and nettles, just as
the sluggard’s were, but they must be getting better and not poorer.
“I am a farmer, and this is my farm.” Unless the man can say
this with that healthful satisfaction and that just pride which come
from a hopeful prospect and the inner knowledge of past progress, he
is not the right kind of farmer. But if he can look out over his land
and see the grass growing where the soil was once bare, or the pros
pects of good crops where once only poor ones grew, or the marks of
orderliness and beauty where once was waste and dilapidation—-if he
see these things, he has indeed a right to be glad and to rejoice in the
work of his hands.
“I am a farmer,” says the man, but what do his horses say, or his
cattle, or his swine? Are his horses poor and gaunt and rough-coated
—under-fed, ungroomed, evidently regarded only as beasts of burden
out of which he is to get all he can and into which he is to put as little
as possible ? If so, it is little satisfaction indeed he can get from his
--- ‘ —=====
horses. They add nothing to his love of the farm; they give no added
sense of dignity and worth to his life’s work. So with the thin,
despondent looking cow. the scrubby pig. the neglected poultry. All
these things, bearing witness as they do to the farmer’s lack of
respect for his calling and of joy in his work, must inevitably tend to
make him less and less of a real farmer—a farmer in mind and at heart
as well as with his hands.
“Whatever is worth planting, is worth planting well; whatever is
wui 111 ^uiuvuuiig, is worm cui- I
tivating well." If all of us I
could only realize the truth of j
these words at this year’s be- |
ginning, and then let this reali- §
zation control our work until I
the year’s end, next year would I
find us more prosperous, more
confident, more aspiring than
we had ever been before. No
man calling himself a farmer
should be content to look on
fields in which he can take no
pride, to handle livestock of
which he is half ashamed, to
see on his farm and about his
home indications of careless
ness and shiftlessness, to feel
that he is making the country
less beautiful and farming a less
desirable calling.
Individually, each of us can
this year make a start in the
right direction. If we begin to
build up our land, to beautify J
our homes, to tend our crops
Dexter, to get net ter norses ana cows ana pigs anu cmcxens, to laxe Dex
ter care of buildings and machinery, to read and study more about our
work—in short, to do the very best farming our circumstances per mit,
and to prepare ourselves for still better work, we will most surely find •
in our farming more of both pleasure and profit and will be helping ;
to bring to realization the dream we have all had of a wonderful rural
Southland, rich with the bounty of luxurious crops, with fattening
flocks and grazing herds, with ample barns and crowded silos,
with fruitful orchards and fragrant gardens, all clustering round and
ministering unto peaceful homes in which dwell farm-folk who find
their work good and receive from it a rich reward of prosperity and
contentment.
ANYONE COULD BE PROUD OF THIS COW.
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE.
FIVE REASONS FOR ERADICATING THE CATTLE TICK—Any
One of Them Would Dc Sufficient . 18
FIXING THE PRICE OF COTTON—Secretary Davis of the Farm
ers* Union Urges Co-operation. 20
HIDDEN TREASURES—Two Stories and a Moral for Farmer
Girls . 12
IMMIGRATION WE NEED—Why We Should Encourage the Right
Sort of Immigrants to Come South . 18
MODERN FARM EQUIPMENT—Recent Information on This Sub
ject . 11
STOP SOIL WASHING—One of the Tasks We Must Not Neglect. . 10
SOILS UNSUITED TO COTTON—Why Plant Lands Which Will Not
Make a Paying Crop?. 8
THE POOR MAN’S ROAD TO BETTER LAND—How to Make the
Soil Better While Getting a Living From It. 5 ?
THE SOUTHERN PINE BEETLE — Detailed Information as to
Fighting It.. 20
WHO IS THE THEORIST?—Jumping at Conclusions as Compared
With Accurate Tests. :j