The Florida Agriculturist

Clippings vs. Original Matters.

We print an article taken from the Southern Planter, in which the editor makes a great ado about not using clippings. Some well edited papers claim not to use anything except original matter. While others are not above using a good thing when they see it even though it did not originate in their own columns. We believe that it depends more on the writer than anything else. If you print trash, it does not make it any better to say that it was written especially for your columns. On the other hand, if you find a really valuable article in an exchange, it is none the less useful because it was not intended for your paper when written. We should be glad to fill this page, each week, with original matter, but that is impossible. We are very careful about our clippings and if we use anything about which we are doubtful, we make a note of the fact. One of the best of our poultry exchanges contains each week a number of clippings. The editor seems to go on the idea that no one paper can get all the good writers on his staff and that it is wiser to use the best even if not intended for him in the first place. We should be very glad to hear from more of our readers about their experience in keeping poultry in Florida.