Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-05-19
Money Making Farmers---Sketches of New
England Rural Life.

Where are the men, then, VINO nave grub
bed out of the reluctant eastern soil their
stockings legs Of specie and their funds at the
bank? They are not wholly myths there are
such. Find me a man, who, by aptitude at
bargaining Qetus not call it iockeyism) can
reduce the labor estimates in the foregoing
accounts by a third; who, by kindred quail
ty can add to the amount of sales a third :;
who can, by dint of early rising and perpet-
ual presence, stretch the ten-hour system into
twelve or fourteen; who by conquest Of
all finer appettes, can reduce the home con-
sumption to third of the figure named in my
estimates, and you have the type of one
class. union Of tremendous energy and
shrewdness; keenly alive to the phases of the
Market an ally Of all the hucksters; sharp
to pOunce upon some poor devil OF an emf
grant, before he has learned the current rate
of wages gifted with quick scent Of offal,
which may be had for the carriage, and which
goes to pig food or the fermentation of com
post
think | have limited a character which
those will recognize who know the neighbor-
hood of large New England towns; a prompt
tall1er-not bashful-full of life-sclectman,
perhaps; great in corner groceries, fore
handed" interchangeable, trenchamt, with an
eye always to the windward.
If | were to sketch another type of a New
England farmer, who is, in small way, sue
cessful-it would be a sharp-nosed man, thin,
wiry, with blueness about the complexion
that has come from unlimited buffetings with
north-westers one who has been moderator"
at town meetings in his day, and upon school
committees over and over one who has
sharpened his tongue by occasional talk at
society" meeting-to say nothing o. domes-
ties practice.
| think of him as living in two-story
white house, with green blinds (abutting close
" upon the road, and whose front rooms he
knows only by halt-yearly summations to Il
minister's tea drinking, or the seyercr ordeal
of the sewing circle. His hands are stiff and
bony all the callositics of AK and scythe and
hoe, have blended into one horney texture
the whole of the epiderms; yet his eye has
keen, shrcwd flash in it, from the depths of
sixty years; and under the hair of his temple
you may see a remaining bit of bleached skin,
which shows that he waS-hfty odd years ago
"a fair compleXioned boy.
He has grown grayupon his struggling farm
of one or two hundred acres yet it is doubt
full if the farm will produce more now than
on the day he entered into possession. Some
walls have been renewed and the old ones are
lettering. Broken barways have been re-
placed by new ones; and the wood pile has
its stock year after year; and every tenth
wear, when oil is down, the house has its coat
of paint-himself being mixer and painter
save under the caves, for which ladder work
lie employs country journeyman, who takes
halfpay in pork and grain. When ''help" is
low he clears some outstanding rye field and
cc-mences a new bit of waI-a disunited
link, which possibly his heirs may complete
Every year six, ten or twelve hogs grow into
plethoric proportions; every year they are
butchered, under a great excitement Of hot
water, lardtryings, unctious fatty smells
sausage-stuting and sales to the packer" of
the town. Every year he tells their weight
to his neighbOrs, between services at meet
ing, with his forefnger in the POCKET of his
black waist-cOat and the same sly twinkle in
his eye.
Every spring he has his "veals -four, six,
ten, as the case may be; and every spring he
higgles in much the same way with the town
butcher, in regard to age, to price, and to fat
ness. Every summer see him in black hat
black dress coat, on his wagon box, with but
ter frkins behind, (the covers closed on lin
en- towels by the mistress at home,) driving
to the market. And if l trot behind him on
his return, see that his exchange has pro
cured him a two-gallon jug of molasses, a saw
ory bundle of dried Goldfish, mostly paper
parcel Of brown sugar, tight little bag OF
timothy seed, and a new hoe, or dung fork
But ne never allows his spendings 70 take up
the gross sum of his receipts always there
goes home modicum, which grows by slow
and gradual accretion into notes Secured by
mortgage) of some unthrifty neighbor, or an
entry upon the columns of his book at the
Savings.
There is no amateur of them all, who re-
ceive as much as into Il third, for what he
NAV have to sell, nor any one who spends as
little, bv o-thirds, for what ne may have tc
buy 1t is incredible what such man will
save in the way of barter; and equally in,
credible how rarely he finds occasion to pay
out money at all Yet he is observant OF
proprieties; his pew rent at the meeting
house and tax bills are punctually honOred
# l bargain with him he loves deliberation
he has an opinion, but it only appears after
long travail and comparison of yiews-in the
course of which he has whitfield stout billet
of wood to a very fine point. fl address
him IN the field, he stops leans on his hoe,
and is willing to lavish upon me the only val
liable commodity for which he makes no
charge, to wit, his time.
Such man repairs his barn promptly,
when the sills are giving way; he does not
hesitate at the purchase of a likely pair OF
cattle at a bargain he will buy an occasion
al bag of guano, upon proof in his turnip,
patch, or on his winter rye; but if a sub-soil
pillow is recommended, he gives a sly twinkle
to that grew eye of his and a complimentary
allusion to the old Eagle No. 4" which set.
ties the business.
Such men are, in their way, money-makers;
)ut rather by dint of not spending than by
large profits These back-countrv gentlemen
have their tamilies-educated thanks to our
shool system); boys, lank at the first, in
short-armed coats, and with a pinch of the
vowel sounds in their Speech but they do not
hnger around such homestead; they come
to the keeping of hotels, or of wood-yards on
the Mississippi; many are written down in
the dead-books of the war
Our money making farmer has his dauoh-
ter too, with her Chrysanthemums and strined A
grass at the door, and her pink monster of a
Hydrangea. She has her Lady's Book, and
her Ledger, and on such literary food grows
apace but such reading does not instili a
healthy admiration for the dairy or butter.
making; rosy cheeks and incarniadned arms dc
not belong to the heroines of her dreams.
do not think she ever heard of Kit Marov's
song:
60 Come live with me, and be my love-"