The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, September 11, 1913, Page 7, Image 7
* 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"