When we see a farmer delving with his whole household from daybreak till dark, denying his children the privilege of a common school education, trusting to luck and brawn to carry them through life, we have another illustration of a farmer who does not think. For if he would but think, he would realize that his sons, after he was dead and gone, would prove easy victims to the oily tongued sharper and his hard-earned dollars would go soon to swell the coffers of another man’s son.
A great many farmers do not think, and to them rightly belongs the disrespectful epithets of “Reuben” and “Hay-seed.”
Admitting the foregoing, we are glad to know that there are a great many farmers who keep abreast the times, are thoughtful and studious men.
With the vast area of fertile soil capable of producing vastly more of any crop than is needed, which fact is almost every year proven, with a herd of middlemen manipulating the crop reports and combining to put and keep prices down; with this country a network of railroads, one and all of them clamoring for freight to haul; with shrewd managers to concoct the “rebate scheme” to counteract the “Interstate Commerce Law” and “Railroad Commission,” put the farmer of any section in direct competition with the whole country. When the above facts are considered, it certainly behooves every farmer to “think” and study so that the thinking will be on sure footing.
No matter what the past has been, the day of haphazard farming for success and competency is gone. Farming to-day is a scientific problem, and a problem that requires all the thought that can be bestowed upon it. Not a thought for to-day or to-morrow, but long-headed thought that studies the supply and demand of the year ahead before planting largely of any one crop or launching into any new enterprise. He must study the supply and price before he can tell whether to hold wheat or longer feed his cattle; must know the needs and study the rotation to get the best results from each crop; must think to be able to properly harvest and care for each crop as it matures; must think how best to become his own financier, and not be controlled by any bank or supply merchant. He must think to live on what he makes and make all that he needs.
The life of a shrewd, thoughtful farmer is the most independent in the world—a life that the followers of all trades and professions yearn for, a life acquired only by thought. So, in answering the question, Do farmers think? we’ll say, If they succeed, they do.
Nature Nuggets
By H. Alison Webster.
The sexuality of plants has been known from the time of Camerarius, 1691; and yet, what farmer looks to the strains of the seeds he plants? How many farmers buy their seed corn in the ear? The fact that like begets like should never be overlooked.