"Yet the farmer must have clothing. He must have plows, hoes, wagons, etc. No man who tills the soil should have to suffer for something to eat. Perhaps no one will question the farmer's right to make the crop mortgage. He must and ought to have plenty of good, wholesome food to make it possible for him to do his work well. But for his own good, the good of his family, for the good of the landlord, and the community in which he lives, we do dispute his right to manage business as many of our farmers do. He should not make a mortgage he cannot easily lift.
"If it requires $150 to supply a farmer for a season, at the end of that season his debt will be about $180—an extra $30, the average value of a bale of cotton, to do a credit business. If it requires $75 to carry him, he will owe about $90, costing him half a bale of cotton to do a credit business. Now, do you note that the smaller the amount borrowed, the smaller the amount of interest, and the easier it becomes for the farmer to lift the whole thing? Don't load so heavily. Put two thousand pounds on a thousand-pound wagon and see what becomes of you, your load, and your wagon. One man tries by main strength to lift a large load. He fails and gives up in despair. Another man gets a long pole, or lever, and with the greatest ease raises and places the load where it is wanted. The first uses only muscle, while the last mixes muscle with brains.
"Could we not say the same thing of the unsuccessful and the successful mortgage lifter? If you will use your head and go at that debt in the right way, you will be surprised with what great ease you can get it out of the way. Well, how can this be done, one man asks? What would you advise? A wise man listens to advice. If he thinks it good, he will try to follow it. The farmer who is in debt must—
"Not make bad bargains. He must work all day and sometimes part of the night, and buy only what he is compelled to have. He should raise everything he eats and a little more, and then cultivate as much cotton as he can.
"Some of the farmers buy shoddy goods at fair prices. They allow the boys and girls to buy cheap jewelry. They buy a sewing machine on credit for fifty or sixty dollars, and when they get it paid for, if they ever do, it has cost about a hundred dollars. They pay ten and fifteen dollars for a washstand and bureau when an upholstered box would do for the present. The industrious farmer works from sunrise to sunset every day in the week. If there is some light work he can do by putting in two or three hours during the long winter nights, you find him at it. It takes this to lift the mortgage.
"The sensible farmer will not buy five hundred pounds of bacon if there is any way to get along with two hundred and fifty. If he must buy it on credit, he will eat butter, drink milk, raise and eat eggs and chickens, kill a young beef when he can, and dry or pickle it, so as to supply his wants from his own produce as long as possible.
"The farmer who wants to get out of debt will have large patches of greens, his garden will have something growing in it the year round. His table will be loaded with wild fruits, such as blackberries, huckleberries, plums, etc. His potatoes will keep him from buying so much corn meal and flour on credit. He plans to raise more than enough corn, oats, and wheat to do him another year. Then he makes that cotton crop count. He gathers every lock of it as fast as it opens and tries to sell it for every cent it is worth. He walks up like a man and pays every cent he owes when it falls due. Then his neighbours, both white and coloured, learn to respect him because he is an honest man, he owes nobody, his store-house, smoke-house, and barn are loaded with fruits, and home-made produce. He is a happy man because that mortgage is lifted."