The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., February 17, 1912, Image 1

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
| THE RAILWAY AND THE FARMER—P-.igg ? -— ' ■
Vol, XXVII. No. 7._ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17,~191~2~ Weekly : $1 »Yc»r.
Add to \our Efficiency by Using More Power.
IF we could only induce all the readers of The Progressive Farmer to
turn over to page 4 and read that boxed piece in the upper right
hand corner, we would feel that we had done a fine piece of work.
If we could induce them to read it, and re-read it and study over it
until they had thoroughly fixed in their minds its big lesson—that the
| more horse-power a man directs and controls in his farm work, the
more efficient he becomes and the
more he can make his own labor,
time and thought worth,—we would
be doing Southern farming a tre
mendous service.
We print herewith a picture of a
traction engine at work plowing,
and we ask every reader—especially
every reader who is farming with
only one horse, or with two very
light horses—to take a good long
look at it and ask himself how it
compares with his plowing outfit.
Of course, we do not say that every
reader, or that any certain reader
needs such an outfit; but we do say
that every man who is farming for a
living needs to think seriously of his
efficiency as a plowman.
You especially, Mr. One-Horse
Farmer, how can you, walking round
and round your field every time a
six-inch furrow is turned, hope to be
as well paid for your work as is the
man who gets on his tractor and
turns five ten- or twelve-inch fur
rows at a through?
You will not, that’s all. The
man who has the twelve or twenty
horse power under his control has
uverv advantage, and will inevitably
uc ,U)le u> tend more land, to pro
duce larger crops, to make more money, to secure for himself and
jds family more of the comforts and luxuries of life than you can,
->ctween 1850 and 1900 the power per worker on the farms of the
country doubled and so did the production per worker. It has been so
111 the past; it is so today; it will be so in the future. The man who
u>rks the most horses, or drives the most efficient machine gets the
most for his labor.
But, you ask, ‘‘what is this to me? I can’t buy a tractor, and
don't need it on my farm.”
Probably not. We don’t advise you to buy one—though there are
uts ,,f :eaders who could do so with great profit—but we do advise
. n, begin working toward the place where you will need one and
c >» ,e to own it. If you are working now with one horse, set y our
(|1'1,1' Ior two. If your team is not heavy enough to handle a heavy
h’sk harrow or a binder, set out to get a heavier team. It you
1 a huge farm to tend and heavy work to do, investigate the oai
a‘‘tl see if it will not pay you to buy one.
A MODERN PLOWING OUTFIT.
\\ hether you do ibis or not, the great mass of farmers will. More
horses and larger ones are going to be used on the farm. More en- i
gines of all kinds, especially more traction engines, are going to be I
used, and the men who use them are going to do more and better -
work and make more money. The farm tractor has come to stay, and
in numbers and usefulness it is bound to increase with a rapidity of I
which most of us have little idea. I
Before you decide that you don’t
need one on your farm, you had best
look carefully into the subject and
see if it will not be a paying propo
sition. j
We say this, not to boost tractors,
but to emphasize the fact that the
farmer must do what other men are
doing—increase his efficiency by
adding to the forces under his con
trol, and that he must constantly
be on the alert to make his labor and
time count just as much as possible
by finding and using the cheapest
and most efficient sources of power
available.
Always and everywhere the far
mer with the greatest horsepower
and the most efficient implements
gets the most pay for his work.
This is why we continually urge our
readers to use more and larger
horses; to get more and better farm
equipment; to get rid of stumps,
Relies and other obstructions in
tiiv fields so they can use the
more modern machinery; and to be
constantly on the lookout for any
new means of increasing their abil
ity to do good work.
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
ALABAMA LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATION — A Great Meeting at
Montgomery... “
LEST VARIETIES OF CORN AND COTTON — What Experiment
Station Tests Show.
DAIRY TALKS—How to Test Cows, How to Feed. How to Go Into
the Business .
GOOD TOOLS AND HOW THEY HELP—Letters Left Over From
Last Week. IO
HOW TO CONTROL WATER—Letters em Under-Ground and Sur
face Drainage . "
HOW TO LAY OUT THE HOME GROUNDS—Advice hy a Land
scape Garelener .
LESPEDEZA—Compared Willi Whippoorwill Pe-as . A2
THE BOY QUESTION—What Some Mothers Think About It. 1A
THE RAILWAY AND THE FARMER—By President W. W. Fin
ley of the Southern Railway Cemipany. A
WHERE TO BUY FARM IMPLEMENTS—A Directory of Our Ad
vertisers Which Yeiu Should Preserve . ®
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