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* WESTERN FARMERS. L W w hy They Make More and W ork Less ^ Tlian We l>o. I am going to stop right in the middle of my northwestern co-operation stories to say something about northwestern farming. For .the fact " o is. that the first essential to co-operative marketing is to have something to market, and if a man will not adopt progressive methods in the farm work he is already doing, there is not much hope that he will adopt rrrtOTpcsivp mpflinris in the market ing work he may do some other time. v The fact is, that these western > farmers, apart from their co-operative activities, are making more money than we are making, and with less work?less muscular labor. rFor a double reason, therefore, it behooves us to find out how they are doing this. We should like to get the increased profits they are getting, even with our present amount of lak bor; and we should also like to retfe duce the proportion of fatiguing laK bor on the farm. The answer to this riddle is the f answer that I have frequently given in the Progressive Farmer; namely, that these western farmers are running their brains with from two to four horse-power, while we are runt ning ours with one horse-power. This is an age of machinery. To such an extent is this true that it has been estimated that the interventions and discoveries in use in the world today (chiefly improved macnmery,; increase the average man's productive \ power twelve-fold. That is to say, the man who makes adequate use of improved implements and machinery and scientific knowledge, can accomplish as great results as he could accomplish with eleven slaves working for him in the primitive stage of society. We cannot be too often reminded, therefore, that this is an age of machinery and that the man or the people who neglect to avail themselves l of its labor-saving and money-making * advantages, simply condemn themselves to poverty, unrewarded toil, and general backwardness. Moreover, while I have just said that the western farmer runs his brain with from two to four horsepower while we in the south run ours with one horse-power, I am remindr ed that when Dr. Butler looked up the census facts he found that neither for the farm workers in the Carolinas ard Virginia, nor for the farm itahflma. Louisana and wumcio J.JJ. ? , Mississippi, was there an average of even one horse apiece?there were > * not enough horses and mules to average one apiece for each farm worker, whereas in Iowa and Indiana and Illinois, typical western states, there were between three and four horses apiece for each and every farm worker in the entire territory. And then the census showed quite naturally indeed, that the average farm workers in these western states using three to four horses, cultivated sixty-three acres, while the farm workers in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi cultivated on an average only sixteen acres, and in the Carolinas and Virginia, only twenty-two acres apiece. I saw a great many significant and interesting sights in the west, but I believe the most interesting and sigs nificant of ail was what I saw on Mr. Y A. O. Nelson's farm the Monday morning I left there?his itwelve - - ? ,1V +ri year-old boy cultivating num OlA W | eight acres of corn a day with a two row cultivator?and riding while he did it. In other words, this 12-year-old boy, Hubert Nelson, and he wasn't f twelve years old until the twentythird of April, this year, was (1) doing twice the work of an ordinary grown man in a southern field, and (2) probably doing it better on account of the character of the cultivator, and (3) accomplishing all this result with less fatigue than would have been involved in hoeing corn * + for the same period of time, i "Let the Horses Do the Work," is * v the motto of the western farmer;and jy well do they live up to it. Hoeing is almost a lost art in Minnesota and Wisconsin. "I believe the only 'Man With the Hoe' in Wisconsin is a woman," I remarked to Professor Hibbard. "The only people I see aoing any hoeing are a few women here and there in k gardens. Don't you do any hoeing ^ oil?" t?t' ac an . "Hoeing is almost unknown," was the reply. "Back in Iowa I remember that one man did hoe a little field. But he was an exception. I once cultivated fifty acres of corn by myself ?and, of course, you can't do that . with hoe work." "Tell me your methods of cultivatt ing corn?" I asked Professor Hibbard in this connection, and he answered: "Most of the land is broken in the spring. We plow, then harrow at once and let it lie a week or a month, then disk and cross-harrow. After planting we harrow one to three ' times before the corn comes up. This harrowing kills about all the weeds ( and grass just as they are sprouting so that we have mighty little trouble with them later, if a good seed-bed has been made, and if there is plenty of harrowing before the corn comes up and just after. After it gets up well, we cultivate from three to five times with a two-horse cultivator, one man in this way cultivating from six to ten acres a day; or if he uses a two-row cultivator, from ten to fourteen acres a day. We keep this up until the corn joints, or begins A - x- -.? ^1 ? ^ V. ? X + /-v ^1 f Via r lO IciSStll, LIIclL IS iu oaj, until uic stalks get so they would break if cul- r tivation were longer kept up." s "And isn't there anything you use 1 a single horse for out here?" I ask- i ed Professor Hibbard. c "About the only thing we use a t single horse for out here is a buggy," s was his reply. "The main thing that c troubles the western farmer is that i he can't drive ten horses at the time, t I have driven five." b And the beauty of it is, as I have 1 already suggested, that the man who 1 gets the increased results from using c from two to four horses is likely to c do it with even less "hard work." t One of the things that would most t astonish a southern farmer traveling t in the west -would be the great pro- c portion of farm work done while the r farmer is sitting down. c In the Progressive Farmer a few weeks ago, we printed the story of a r Kansas farmer who said. "It would s take an expert salesman to sell a b Kansas farmer anything he can't sit a on." A similar story was told me by 1 Mrs. Nelson when I was at Svea. A o traveling agent with some kind of a improved farm tool went to a farm- t house when the farmer was away, c The wife was busy, but listened be- o tween the intervals of her cooking i" to the agent's ecstatic appreciation of t his wares. Finally much puzzled to F know whether there was any merit C in the agent's proposition or not, she " exclaimed, "I don't know anything r about it, but I'll just ask you this v question: has it got a seat to it? For a -- - - I v? 1 ^ it it nasn t, men my xiu&uciuu >vuu t have anything to do with it!" s -Another advantage of using the e two to four-horse plows, cultivators, r and harrows is, that the farm boy ac- a quires a liking for farm work. Near- fi ly all boys like machinery and like ii horses. I believe Bishop Kilgo points t out that about the most triumphant- J ly exhilarating experience of his life d was when he was permitted to drive o a four-horse-team when he was a li South Carolina farm boy. Consider a Hubert Nelson, twelve years old in f April: he couldn't do one-third as t much hoe work a day as a negro field e hand would do, but he was driving t a four-horse disk harrow when he a was eleven years old; and Mr. Nelson told me that either his boy or another p twelve-year-old boy in the neighbor- c hood?I have forgotten which?has b been driving six horses to a triple- t gang plow. r How many acres of corn a day do p you cultivate on your farm, using h your two-horse cultivator?" I ask- e ed Mr. A. J. Abbott of Willmar, Min- t nesota. u "From six to ten acres," was his e reply. Whereupon my soutnern as- \ sociate remarked, "I should hate to t have to trot behind horses going at t that rate." t "But we don't trot behind them," o was Mr. Abbott's rejoinder. "We n ride behind them." v And as a result of using all the h modern labor-saving machinery, Mr. Abbott and his two sons cultivate a t 400-acre farm?100 acres in corn, t 70 acres in oats, 115 acres in wheat, c and the rest in barley, hay and pota- e toes; 100 cattle (Red Polls,) 60 to c SO hogs, 70 sheep, 400 chickens, 12 v horses. t Mr. A. O. Nelson has no tenants, p and doesn't even keep a hired hand 1< except in the busy season on his c 120-acre farm, from which he sold s $1,000 worth of hogs last year. One p of Mr. Nelson's neighbors said to me: c "I run a 240-aere farm with the help o of my two boys, one fifteen years old i J ~ ^ ~ ? J ? n rt <4 f TIT n ana one eleven, <tuu a imcu uauu ?,**? u months of the year. But perhaps is may be said that it f doesn't get so hot there in the sum- d mer as it does in the south. My s answer is, that as a matter of fact a it gets hotter. When I asked Mr. o Abbott about the temperature his an- f swer was: "Well, it goes as high as i: 105 to 110 in summer, and has gone p as low as forty degrees in winter." a Them he told me of a blizzard that r raged for three days so that a man f couldn't see his hand before his face, 1 and pointed out places where some settlers froze to death in the great c blizzard forty years ago. s The truth is that we have in most of the south about the best climate of any section of the earth for farm- I ing purposes. We can make good crops from corn planted any time from March to June. Whereas Pro- 1 fessor Hibbard told me that the corn- c planting season in Wisconsin is lim- 1 ited to about ten days, May 20 to May ] 30th. We have twice their growing t season. The west, too, has both c blizzards and sunstrokes, while both \ are almost unknown in the south, s )nly a few months ago a preacher, vhose health had broken down and vho moved from New York to North s Carolina, said he could not work in he fields of New York in the summer )n account of the danger from sunstroke. but found no difficulty in the * ?pen fields of North Carolina in sum- 1 ner. n \ T'Via AT icc-ipcinni O+A nnr>itv? iooinn DT J liC *'H3i3iooippi jiawt )f agriculture wrote the gospel truth a ^hen he said in his 1S76 report, thir- e fi y-seven years ago: "This old nonsense about our cli- a nate and the inabilitv of the white r nan to toil under a blazing southern un, is so transparent that it is scarce- s y necessary to show its falsity. White n mraigration has poured into Florida r ?f late, passed over the negro disricts, and, settling in the extreme outhern portion, the hottest section >f the state, Was built up there amid ^ ts waste swamp lands, an agricul- e ural prosperity that Florida never P mew under slavery and negro labor, "he white men who have poured into "exas since the war from all sections w if the Lnion, have shown that the n limate did not affect their labor in s he slightest degree; but they have worked to such good purpose, that h hey have placed Texas at the head ^ >f the cotton states, the producer of ^ tearly one quarter of the entire rop." What our southern farmers mainlj e >"v ic- ntn r>horic;b thP delu- ^ ICCU lu UV AO UVt W aw ? A ion that farmers in other sections iave a better climate, but to practice i! , better scheme of working hours. c The farmers in the west have not mly found that they can accomplish ^ . great deal more with less labor if hey used improved labor-saving ma- 0 hinery but many of them are finding ^ >ut that they can accomplish just as nuch with shorter hours of work if ^ hey use more system. A case in io:nt was given to me by Mr. N. E. D Ihristensen, of Litchfield, Minnesota. e 'We had a farmer's club," he told ne, " and in discussing the matter, ^ re decided that we could get just s much done with shorter working lays. Instead of keeping at it from 0 unup till sundown now, therefore ri ay field hours are from 7.30 in the . norning until 5:30 in the afternoon, n'd by 6.30 p. m. I have everything inished. And I really do more work q this shorter-hour day than I used n o do when I worked all the time. 0 Ioreover, this policy has made all the ifference in the world in the attitude f our young people towards farm ife. Formerly they thought it was 11 11 drudgery; now they get some time 6 or recreation and I believe it is due 0 o our shorter working day and the ? * fi leignoornooa social meetings xuai hey are 110 longer leaving the farm s formerly." ^ I have no doubt but that eighty >er cent of our southern farmers p ould also accomplish just as much >y working shorter hours. Then if hey lengthened the midday rest peC; iod in summer so as to reduce the Si roportion of work necessary in the eat of the day, farm work would be y ven pleasanter here in the south han in the northwest?provided we gse the same labor saving and labor- ^ using implements and machinery. ^ Vhich reminds me that I was about d o forget to say that a great propor- b ion of the two-horse Cultivators in jg he west are equipped with umbrellas a r canvas tops that enable the farmer ^ iot only to ride while he does his ? /ork, but to sit in the shade while e works! Nor need we delude ourselves with y he idea that we cannot have these t( wo to four-horse plows, harrows, and e ultivators in the south about as gen- A rally as in the north. There are y mountainous sections, of course, rhere the land is too rough; but h he fact is that even in our coastal lain regions where the land is as e. evel as a dancing-floor, it is no un- a ommon sight, in springtime to see ix men plowing a horse apiece. And q erhaps you will find these same farm ^ iwners complaining of the "scarcity f labor" when they are already us- n ng twice as much labor as they ^ .eed. If our southern farmers who have a rom four to twenty horses will quit loing one-horse farming?that is to ey, quit one-horse implementes? nd if tbe farmers who have only h ne horse will use every opportunity h or co-operating with their neighbors h n buying the large two to four-horse lc lows, cultivators, etc., for joint use a nd ownership, we may soon learn to nake as much profit as the western f< armers make and to do it with as g ittle muscular labor. But we can never do it with the e; ne-horse system and the one-crop g ystem.?Progressive Farmer. s< TWO MEN KILLED. larber and Man He Was Shaving Struck by Bolt. t< Savannah, Ga., Sept. 6.?Chesley kVilliams, son of a prominent mer- a; ;hant, was seated in a chair in a bar)er shop at Bridgeboro, a small town " 14 miles south of Sylvester, this afernoon being shaved by John Barks- p lale, proprietor of the establishment, vhen a bolt of lightning struck the r< ;hop, killing both men instantly. b' MOUSE POWER PAYS. m eotchman Derived Income of $1.50 a Year from One Animal. To an ingenious Scotchman goes be credit of being the first person to arness a mouse and make him a loney-earning factor, says The New 'ork Press. He was David Hutton, native of Dunfermline, and his unxpected death alone prevented him rom carrying out his experiments on much larger scale. Hutton erected a small mill at >unfermline in 1S20 and began the pinning of thread. Just how he lade use of the small rodents is set 3rth in a pamphlet called "Curiosity 'offee Room." "In the summer of 1812" he wrote I had occasion to be in Perth, and, *hen inspecting the toys and trinkts that were manufactured by the 'rench prisoners in the depot there, ly attention was involuntaritly atracted by a little toy house with a heel in the gable of it that was runing rapidly around, impelled by the ravity of a common house mouse. "For one shilling I purchased the I ouse, mouse and wheel. In closing ; in a handkerchief, on my journey omeward I was compelled to consmplate its favorite amusement. "But how to apply half-ounce powr (which is the weight of a mouse) d a useful purpose was the difficulty, .t length the manufacture of sewlg thread seemed the most practiable." Though Hutton proved that an orinary mouse would average a run of 0 and a half miles a day, he had ne mouse which run the remarkable istance of 18 miles in that time. A half-penny's worth of oatmeal ras sufficient for its food for 35 ays, during which time it ran 362 liles. He kept two mice constantly ngaged in the making of sewing Iread for more than a year. This thread was so constructed tiat the mouse was able to twist, wine and reel from 100 to 120 breads a day, Sundays not exceptd. To perform this task it had to an 10 and a half miles a day, which : did with perfect ease every other ay. On the naif-penny's worth of oatleal, which lasted for five weeks, ne of these little mice made 3,500 hreads 25 inches long, and as a enny was paid to women for every ank made in the ordinary way, the = louse at that rate earned 18 cents very six weeks. t Allowing for board and for machinry there was a clear yearly profit om each mouse of $1.50. It was Hutton s intention to apply br the loan of the Dunfermline Cabedral, which was empty, where he * lanned to set up 10,000 mouse mills nd still leave room for the keepers nd several hundreds of spectators; ut this wonderful project was never arried out because of the inventor's udden death. outh Uses Pistol Defending Father. Neeces, Sept. 6.?John Williams. T booting in defense of his father, W. J :. Williams, killed Henry Kirkland i the eider Williams' store here toay. Young Williams has not yet een arrested but announces that he ; ready to surrender himself to the uthorities whenever called upon to o so. The inquest over the body of [irkland will be held here tomorrow. Kirkland, it is said, had beendrinklg and was boisterous in the elder Williams' store. Mr. Williams sought d lead him away and the two walk d out of the front door together, .pparently Kirkland did not resent ir. Williams' efforts to carry him out 3r he was heard to call Mr. Williams is good friend. As they left the store door, howv*er, Kirkland stepped back and fired j t Mr. Williams. Young Williams 'hipped out his pistol and fired ? uickly. Kirkland fell, instantly illed. R. W. Williams *'s a well known m lerchant of Neeces. His son, John, orks in his father's store. . Kirkland was a farmer living about I mile and a half from Neeces. j He Meant Well Lowell Sherman, theatrical man, opped on an Eighth-avenue car, omeward bound. As he took a seat e heard the closing lines of a dia- r )gue between a very pretty brunette nd the conductor. "Sorry, miss," the man in the uni3rm said, "but you"ll have to pay or et off." "But, conductor," began the dark- ^ >'ed queen imploringly, "if you'll 3 ive me your name and address I'll 2nd you tne nickel!" , "Can't do it?" he replied. "It's j ay now or get off." ] That was where Mr. Sherman came j ) the front. 1 "May I be of service to you?" he ? skea sweetly. "Oh, yes, sir," she answered. I Please lend me a nickel." "With the greatest of genuine N leasure," said Shermun. C Then he found he didn't have a B' sd cent. The conductor put them E oth off.?New York Telegraph. te I Once Upon a Time | NCE there was really no way out of if IAUi it for the farmer. Plodding home B LSnbr from the field with his team at close p of day, he saw before him the wait- g J fT^t* ing small jobs about the house, g barn, and yard, jobs that took time and labor, |f and never seemed to end. There was water g to be pumped, wood to be sawed, various H machines to be run by hand. It was a dreary g prospect?but that was once upon a time. g Today he lets the engine do it. if Buy from the I H C engine line. I H C g engines are built right and consistently all |g through, to work efficiently for years. Whether S you want it for sawing, pumping, spraying, p || electric ngni piani, ior running sepaj.cn.ui, ui k 1 repair shop, or for all sorts of tiresome energy- | I wasting small farm jobs, you have need of an || I I H C Oil and Gas Engine ! 9 An I H C engine will develop from ten to |, S thirty per cent more than its rated capacity. j? 8 Perfect combustion makes it economical in K 3 fuel consumption. Its simplicity makes it | 1 I H C engines are built in vertical, horizon- K I tal, stationary, portable, skidded, air-cooled jp a and water-cooled styles. The line includes j| 3 sawing, pumping and spraying outfits. Sizes a from 1 to 50-horse power. They operate on | 1 gas, gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, distillate and | 1 alcohol. I H C oil tractors range in size from || 1 6-12 to 30-60-horse power, for plowing, thresh- ? Have the I H C local dealer demonstrate the j| J engine to you and explain its various points. j| J Get catalogues from him, or write the p | International Harvester Company of America I la Columbia S. C ? I?????????? ??? ?? / ??????????????????? Measure and Protection . * : % "One of the best reasons why I would not be without telephone service," writes a Georgia farmer, "is the pleasure it gives my wife and the knowledge that while I am away, she has the protection that the telephone gives." On the farm the telephone dispels loneliness . and is the means of bringing help in any emer- < ? or^nrv that mav arise. > If you haven't a telephone on your farm see the nearest Bell Telephone Manager or write for our free booklet and learn how little this service t costs. FARMERS' LINE DEPARTMENT 10UTHERN BELL TELEPHONE LND TELEGRAPH COMPANY ?A9 S. Pryor St, Atlanta, Ga. 9II DEED i - ?-- vaiiia t nr nnnnriA A mm. IIM 1Mb bHUVt'5 The Old Standard Grove's Tasteless chill Tonic Is Equally Valuable as a General Tonic because It Acts on the Liver, Drives Out Malaria, Enriches the Blood and Builds up the Whole System. For Grown People and Children. t fou know what you are taking when you take Grove's Tasteless chill Tonic is the formula is printed on every label showing that it contains the well known onic properties of QUININE and IRON. It is as strong as the strongest bitter onic and is in Tasteless Form. It has no equal for Malaria, Chills and Fever, ?Veakness, general debility and loss of appetite. Gives life and vigor to Nursing Mothers and Pale, Sickly Children. Removes Biliousness without purging. Relieves nervous depression and low spirits. Arouses the liver to action and jurifies the blood. A True Tonic and Sure Appetizer. A Complete Strengthener. - *--L ttt cnr> Sio family should be without it. Guaranteed Dy your juruggisi. w c mwm I"?' mIISE No. Six-Sixty-Six euralgia, Headaches, Cramps, This is a prescription prepared especially 0UC' nMalnS' Bcf?6S' C-UTtS 3nd r^eMof s* d^?UflTeaLkSafy arns. Old Sores, Sting's or Insects jf taken then as a tonic the Fever will not tc. Antiseptic Anodyne, used in- return. It acts on the liver better than rnally and externally. Price 25c. Calomel and does not gripe or sicken! 25c . 'a ., m - - - * - . *3i"