The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1853-11-10

BY HORACE GREELEY.
Farnsers and FriendS-Istand before
you at your Society's invitation, feeling
the full force of the criticism which
denies 10 one of my habits and pursuits
capacity to Instruct farmers as to their
own especial vocation. Shoemaker,
stick 10 your lastw is sound though
sometimes misapplied admonition, and
every man can see little farther on
his own proper pathway than can be
seen by any one else. fully realize
and cheerfully admit that any one of
you, who has devoted the last twenty
or thirty years 10 agriculture. must
know very much more concerning it
than |, who abandoned it at fifteen to
master and pursue most exacting me-
ehanical and intellectual vocation, and
have since been able to snatch but
here and there an hour from constant
pressure of imperative duties and op-
pressive cares to revive the memories
of my youth among the busy seed
planters, or within sound of the mower
sharpening his sythe. If were to es-
say lecture on the Complete Husband
man-to fix the proper time for plant
ing this or that vegetable, and for har-
vesting this or that grain, and SO on
might, OF course, be corrected, on
many points, by some of the youngest
of my auditors. Little as l know of
farming, | know too much of it TO at
tempt any such teaching. What /
shall endeavor is 10 set forth some of
the principles which underlie the whole
fabric of productive art and industry.
(my calling as well as yours and to
show their application. as correctly as
may, to the farmers vocation as well
as others. ] may err in this or that ap-
plication; but shall endeavor 10 base
my inculcations on principles so broad
in their scnpe. and so vindicated BY
centuries of successful experience in a
great variety of pursuits, as to be justly
entitled 10 place among the aXioms of
industrial science.
The frst point, then, which | shall
endeaYor 10 illustrate, is that Of econo-
my of neans-perhaps | should rather
say, harmony of proportion in the
management of farms as of every
thug else For when say economy.
| mean something as remote as posi-
Bile from parsimony. Cheap lands
cheap buildings, cheap labor. cheap
stock, cheap trees or gratis; are as far
from economy as anything well could
be. By econnny of means, | imply
snch a disposition or distribution Of
means be they <canty or abundant, as
shall ensure 10 the operator the laroes,
attainable return for his labor and skilt
For example: ] pint newspapers for a
living. and am obliged. by the extent
of some of my editions 10 use presses
costing $4,000 to $4,000 each. There
is real economy in so doing, because
Iconld not otherwise dispatch my pa
pers TO their subscribers in acceptable
season. But if any journal printing
one-third or one-tenth so many copies.
were to buy and use such presses, the
D plicy would be wasteful and rninons.
although the editions wonld be thrown
off with unwonted celerity and efi-
cheney. The interest on the capital
needlessly locked up in presses would
probably absorb all the profits of the
business, if not more. And yet this is
the Identical blunder that thousands of
farmers persists in, by holding on 10 |
large farms, which cost thousands of
dollars, and are very likely mortgaged |
or otherwise encountered, while able |
or willing only TO apply thereto the Ia
b6r, science, skill and manures which |
are requisite and proper for farms one
fourth so large. Here is enormous
waste-a loss of interest on three
fourths of the capital invested in land
"a loss which may possibly be endur-
ed in farming, but which could not fail
TO prove ruinous in almost any other
business.
Every farmer seems aware of the
reality and magnitude of the general
error in this respect, yet the great ma
ioriiy persist in being wise for their
neighbors only, and not for themselves.
And apprehend the error with many
originates rather in want of thought
than lack of knowledge. They plod
on in the path beaten ont by their
gFandfathers, not reaecting that a
course which might have been advisa-
Bile, or at least excnsable, when farm
of 300 acres was worth but $1,000 in
/
cash, has been rendered utterly inde- !
feasible and suicidal by gradual ad- {
vance in the value of that farm to '
$4,000 or perhaps $4,000 He who \
buys land at ten shillings per acre may {
afford to leave it untitled and unfenced j
tor years, until its timber or its grass /
become decidedly valuable but when 3
that timber shall have disappeared, the t
grass become the watched-for prey of
lroves of other mems cattle, and the h
and worth $50 per acre. it is fragrant $
Ind culpable waste 10 blunder on as t
hough it were still worth but ten shil- i
ings. siag s. r
i once went to look at farm of so v
lcres that / thought Of. buying for a d
pmmer home, some 40 miles from the n
,iiy. of New York. The owner had is
,een born on it, as believe had his il
ather before him: but it yielded only e
meagre subsistence for his family. b