Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX
Os Interest to the Wealth Creators
THE FARMER DECLARING HIS
INDEPENDENCE.
A
(From the Weekly News, Denver,
Colorado.)
The American farmer is about to
declare his independence of the spec
ulator of Wall Street, and the move
ment has not been initiated a day
too soon.
- The farmer has worked and wor
ried, and his profit has been small.
The bad crop worries were all for
him. He stood the loss alone. The
speculator in life’s necessities can do
as well on a bad crop as on a good
one.
We are glad to be able to tell our
readers that the farmers have made
up their minds to put an end to this
system, and that they have gone- to
work intelligently.
Hitherto the farmer alone has had
notliing whatever to say about the
price to be paid for what he ac
tually produced.
Some man in Liverpool, some m il
owner in the North, might settle t b e
price that the Southern cotton grow
er must take per bale of cotton.
Some other man, thousands of mibs
away, could settle the price that the
Western farmer should have for his
grain.
The farmer alone had nothing to
say about it. The railroads decided
w r hat they should charge him. Banks
decided what they should charge for
the use of the money. Trusts decid
ed on their extortions. Tariff build
ers decided what tax the farmer’s
wife and daughter should pay on
their dresses.
But the farmer was forbidden to
have any say in fixing the price of
his goods.
This is to end, the work has been
already begun in the farmers’ organ
izations. This newspaper congratu
lates the farmers, and greets as pub
lic benefactors the moving spirits if
the gr<at farmers’ organizations.
The farmers of the country are the
backbone of the country. They de
velop the nation’s real wealth, which
is the wealth of the soil. They are
entitled to a full share of that wealth
and of the national prosperity. By
combination, by insisting on fair
prices for their cotton, their wheat
and their other crops, and by re
fusing to sell the non-perishable pro
ducts except for a fair price, they
have already added tens of millions
to the annual returns from the farms.
They add tens and hundreds of mil
lions more annually as their unions
increase in power.
The isolated human being, whether
he be farmer or mechanic, is at the
mercy of every form of greed and
cunning.
The farmer has too long plowed,
harrowed, sown, reaped, sweated an !
fretted to build up bank accoun's
for others, and pay interest on mort
gages. We are glad that he has de
cided, by union, to keep for himself
and family, which means for the peo
ple of America, that to which they
are entitled.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
HELP YOURSELF.
Don’t quarrel with others abo >t
not helping the farmer when you are
not trying to help yourself.
Some farmers do a lot of howling
and no work because they are to-j
poor —they think —to do anything
else but howl the calamity howL „
The man with manhood and plenty
of grit and energy in his make-up,
need never ask others to give him
room; about all this roan needs is Io
put his natural talents to work wrh
a. vim and the world will give him
plenty of room.
Why all this talk about organizing
the farmers of today when our dad
dies and granddaddies lived better
than we do without any organiza
tion among themselves! Because, ou
daddies and granddaddies produced
almost everything they needed to eat
and wear, upon their own farms ex
cepting salt, sugar, iron and what
little money, they needed then to pay
faxes which, for these small item;,
was not very hard to get out of h’s
surplus cotton and other crops and
stock. And now we fool cotton
growers have, for 10, these many
years, been trying to get rich buying
all these things at the other fellow’s
prices, and paying for them with our
cotton also at the other fellow’s
prices. We are compelled to organ
ize before we can price our own cot
ton. —Seneca Journal.
SUGGESTIONS TO FARMERS.
It pays to be amiable in the cow
stable.
Never strike a cow. Never speak
roughly to her.
Anything irregular affects the per
centage of butter fats.
Pet the cows; pet the heifers; give
them a little sugar with the salt.
Sugar will help to gentle any cow
that is inclined to be nervous and
wild. Try it.
A new milker will at first get less
milk from a cow that one to whom
the animal is accustomed.
In no section of the country should
a poultry house be so constructed
that fowls in it will be subjected to
draughts.
In buying a horse reject one with
scraggy hips. They never do credit
to feeding, particularly if also in the
loins.
The larger the animal the larger
must be the sustenance ration, which
must be deducted from the feed be
fore the profit begins.
In order to keep poultry it is not
necessary that they be allowed to
run around the kitchen door. The?
will do just as well if the table
scraps are carried to them elsewhere.
Reject a hoi-se with forelegs not
straight. They will not stand won,".
Stand behind the horse as he walks
away from you and you will be ah’e
to notice -these defects if they exist.
Good profit can be made on poul
try raising as an independent enter
prise, but up to a certain limit poul
try, meat and eggs can be produced
more cheaply on the farm than any
place else.
Oatmeal, boiled and made into 3
gruel and added to the sweet skim
med milk is one of the best foods
for calves. Add a little flaxseed
jelly and your calves will grow like
weeds.
The draft horse has been in de
mand in our market for many years,
and will continue to bring good
prices when other breeds are down
in price. The amateur horseman
will do well to bear this point in
mind in starting in the business of
horse breeding.
According to a California prefes
sor, fowls can be fal tened rapidly
through the agency of electric light.
Every three hours during the night
the light is turned on, causing the
misguided fowls to come off their
perches and eat a hearty breakfast.
This seems to be forcing matters a
little too strong.
Thorough drainage is something
that all first-class gardeners and nur
serymen put a high value upon. The
crops they grow are often more than
the first cost of the land itself.
Hence, it is not uncommon to make
drains on lands leased for five or
six years, as the loss from excessive
water is greater tha*i the cost of
draining it off. —Southern Tobac
conist.
THE FARMERS’ CREED.
More than 60 years ago Hentv
Ward Beecher, the great pulpit ora
tor, gave voice to the following
farmer’s creed which possesses last
ing qualities:
We believe in small farms and
thorough cultivation.
We believe that the soil loves Io
eat, as well as its owner and ought,
therefore, to be liberally fed.
We believe in large crops which
leave the land better than tfiey
found it —making the farmer and
the farm both glad at once.
We believe in going to the bottom
of things, and, therefore, in deep
plowing and enough of it.
All the better with a subsoil plow.
We believe that every farmer
should own a farm.
We believe that the best fertili
zer for any soil is a spirit of indus
try, enterprise and- intelligence.
Without this lime, and gympsum bone
and green manure marl and guana
will be of little use.
We believe in good fences, good
barns, good farmhouses, good stock,
good orchards and children enough
to gather the fruit.
We believe in a clean kitchen, a
neat wife in it, a spinning wheel, a
clean cupboard, a clean conscience.
ROTATION OF CROPS.
Tn rotating crops the idea is tc
so vary the crop that the demandr
on the soil will he different, it be
ing now fully established that one
kind of growth makes one demand
on the soil and another something
very different. Tt is very interest
ing and useful to notice the way in
which the various crops occupy the
soil.
The power of the root deserves
consideration. A plant, like clover,
for example, has great ability in
gathering nitrogen, and another, like
wheat, no power.
The weight of roots varies largely
in different growths. Clover has sev
eral times as much roots as wheat,
and the roots of clover are much
richer in nitrogen than are those of
wheat. On this account wheat fol
lows clover advantageously.
We have known this to be a fact
so striking that twice the ordinary
yield for the neighborhood was so
produced year after year. In this
way the yield steadily averaged
forty bushels per acre. There are
other advantages. By a good sys
tem of rotating crops, the insect and
fungoid enemies that prey upon the
paiticular growths get starved out or
seriously interfered with. This is
based on the fact that each sort of
plant has its own particular enemies.
Such is especially true of the .plant
that is above ground.
We will be more impressed with
the importance of the rotation of
crops if it is remembered how much
call each crop makes upon the soil.
Thus, while wheat, say, takes 1 1-4
pounds of potash for every pound
of phosphoric acid, potatoes take
3 1-4 pounds of potash for each
pound of phosphoric acid. Potatoes
grown continuously would exhaust
the potash of the soil or of that
supplied by manure, long before that
of phosphoric acid would give out.
The character of the leafage is so
be taken into account also. The
leaves vary in their season of active
growth, and are both broad arid nar
row.
The labor element plays a part in
rotation. Also the system is best
suited for home consumption of
crops and the return of the fertili
zation to the farm. The practices of
thousands of years all point to its
importance.—Home and Farm.
**•
GETTING SOMETHING FOR
NOTHING.
Getting good, practical farmers to
quit their work to go out and work
for the Farmers’ Union for nothing
is all that is in the way of spread
ing the Farmers’ Union Organization
all over our Southland in a very
short while.
This prevailing idea among farm
ers to get something for nothing, or
get cheap men to do cheap work in
stead of getting good men at good
prices to do good work is the big
gest stumbling-block in the way of
the progress of the farmers’ organi
zation. It takes a big hook and a
big bait to catch big fish and hold
the game—and a small fly-hook for
minnows.
"V on cannot control the price of
cotton unless you can control the
men who hold the cotton.
The cotton grower cannot prosper
while others price all he sells an.l
buys any more than he could pull
himself out of mire by lifting at the
straps of his boot legs.—Seneca
Journal.