Dl4—Mmcastor FanatiH, Saturday, September 20, ISjP.
Fanners are gamblers.
That’s what I’ve always
heard. They’re willing to bet
against Mother Nature,
Unde Sam, the landlord, and
almost anyone else, that
despite the odds they can
still come out on top.
Yes, I’ve always heard
that fanners are big gam
blers and I accepted the
philosophy and the com
parison without question,
because I had never really
seen a gambler. At least, not
until I passed tbrough.Reno,
Nevada a few weeks ago as
part of a cross-country
vacation.
Tbe experience was
unreal, unlike anything I had
ever seen or even an
ticipated. Thousands and
thousands of people
thronged into these casinos,
bellying up to the slot
machines and crowding
around the gaming tables.
Hour after hour they sat, or
stood or leaned, pouring
their hard-earned money
into hungry machines that
seemed to consume it all and
regurgitate nothing. Or they
stacked it on green covered
counters where fast talking
dealers raked it up with long
sticks.
For as long as I could
stand it, I watched a cross
section of Americana
gamble what they could with
a sort of self-destroying
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determination that kept
them there long past their
normal bedtime,
casinos never dose and that
people stay there for days in
those gaming rooms without
ever checking into a hotel or
getting a full night’s sleep.
If farmers are gamblers, I
reckoned there would be
some sterotypes I would
recognize. So I watched for
similarities. There were the
big talkers who could be
"heard for considerable
distances, usually crowded
around crap tables,
harrassing the other players
and hoping for mirades.
“Let it ride,” seemed to be
,their byword.
Then there was the happy
go-lucky type who gladly
poured silver dollars into a
slot machine and considered
the watchful eye of a curious
tourist as a good luck omen.
He won and he lost, and he
won some more, and he
never lost his sense of
humor.
You could be sure he
wasn’t pouring the rent
money into that piece of
junk.
There was the cautious
little lady who played
Twenty-One with all the
reckless abandon of a Calvin
Coolidge. She always bet two
dollars and would stick on 14
or 15, hoping tbe dealer
tr
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would go bust. She almost
always won.
There were winners and
losers in those great games
of chance, and it was easy to
tell the difference. The
losers that glum ex
pressionless look on their
faces as they went through
motions of trying to win.
Occasionally, one would be
totally defeated and would
be led away in shock or in
tears.
Some are more deter
mined and more op
opportunistic than others. I
watched one would-be
millionaire running three
nickle slot machines at the
same time. It was like an
assembly line. She walked
from one to another, in
serting nickles and pulling
handles.
She so fascinated me that I
checked back two or three
times and never found her
money pail to be over
flowing.
We looked for big-time
gamblers in Reno, Virginia
City, Lake Tahoe; even Las
Vegas. And we saw these
same types and a few more.
And I guess some of them
were like farmers, or maybe
farmers are like them.
Maybe fanning Is just a
big gamble, but I don’t think
so. It’s my conviction that
what most fanners do has an
element of risk involved, but
virtually no element of
gamble.
I’m also convinced that
those fanners who think
they are gambling should be
told that the dealer has
loaded dice.
Consider the South Dakota
rancher I talked with who
was ready 'to go to market
with a lot of beef on a couple
of different occasions when
the administration opened
up the door on imported beef
and killed the price.
What about the corn
farmers who could see a nice
profit at the end of the
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season only to find a Russian
grain embargo thrust upon
them?
Even now, the un
certainty about dry weather
and the potential size of the
crop causes markets to
fluxuate and growers to gain
and lose hope.
Now that I’ve seen
gamblers up closed
thousands of them—l’m sure
I don’t want to be one and.
I’m sure there’s a big dif
ference betweeen gambling
and risk-taking.
Perhaps there are fanners
who are out-and-out gam
blers. They bet their money
and they roll the dice and
they take what comes up.
Those kind probably lose a
lot more than they win. But
risk-taking farmers have a
well thought and properly
financed system. Barring
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the unforeseen, they expect for many years and gam
towin. bling for only a few nights,
- I’m convinced I’d rather be »
Having observed farming farmer.
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