Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-02-08
farm, @araEn \ a9olsgl1eld.
SHALL, + SELL MY LITTLE FARMY

Farmers and mechanics as well as protes-
sional men, with comfortable homes In the
country, are constantly tempted by the idea
of making moremoney, toabandon old friends,
old associations, and old habits Of life, and
seek to better their condition by removal to
the cities and latge towns.
Passing By, for the present, the sacrifice OF
home feelings and enjoyments which every
man of mature sge suuenders whenever he
changes his accustomed home, We will now
look only at the financial side of the question, |
and see what man on any New England
farm, great or small, gives up when he leaves
it and goes to dweu in the town or city. We
are always complaining that we get nothing |
from our farms, and we fancy if we could on |
~ get somewhere where mony is more abua
dant, where wages are higher, where there is
more going on, we shall have some chance to
be rich, and live more independently.
Perhaps there has never been time when,
in this country, farm, or even a field or gar
deu, contributed SO much to the independence
Of family of moderate means as in these
times of high prices. The reason is obvious.
1t is because all that we buy, whether rent, or
fuel or provisions, costs more than ever be-
fore, and all that we do by way of labor, pro
duces a greater value in the crops we raise.
You say you get little or nothing from your
farm. Let us consider the matter and see
whether we do not underrate the profits of the
homestead. In the first place, you get your
rent, an item of which farmers hardly think.
Go to any large town, and such house as
viii be respectable for your family there as
your present one is here, win cost you in rent
some four hundred dollars. Itmay be newer
aud nicer than the old homestead, but it viii
be no more comfortable or convenient
We say nothing of its being in some narrow,
noisy street, where you do not know your
nearest neighbor, and where you must hire
watchers in case of sickness. That belongs
to the sentimental side of the question, which
to-day we leave out of sight
Next, your farm gives you your fuel, ,-you
don't know how much for yon never had oc
easion to measure it. A farmers family of
halfa dozen persons consume yearly from ten
to fifteen cords of wood at least. Less fuel
would suffice in the city, with liberal outlay
for furnaces, patent stoves and heaters; but
with coal at ten dollars a ton, a ton being
equivalent to about one cord Of the best of
hard wood, rhen kindlings are paid for, an
other hundred dollars would be used up.
A COW or two affords the farmer all the but
ter and milk he can use for his family. A
pound of butter week for each member of
the family is a fair estimate, and at Gfty cents
pound we have for our family of six, three
dollars week or $3.50 year, and if we add
two wine quarts of milk daily, at the city price
Of ten cents, we have $78 more.
A small patch supplies you with potatoes,
Of which you require some thirty bushels,
which win cost you at retail prices as many
dollars, although if you want to sell them at
your farm they viii bring much less, there
being two or three profits between the pro-
ducer and the city consumer.
A few trees supply your apples, worth four
or FIVE dollars barrel if you buy them. And
any ordinary garden gives the family vegeta-
bles fresh in summer, which the city win not
at any price.
The small matter of currants and raspber-
ries, and strawberries, and pears and grapes,
all become large matters when paid for in mo-
ney. The fowls that give abundance of eggs,
and supply of poultry, for Thanksgiving
and Christmas, seem Of little account till re-
duced to specie basis; and two or three
porkers grow up with little cost, and ia au-
tumn are worth hundred dollars almost be-
fore we know it, and TINS our bills for pork
and lard and fresh meat are easily balanced
with the butcher.
In the country, everybody has horse. We
care little about driving, perhaps, but the
boys and girls, at least the boys, ought to
learn to ride and drive, and they do that and
learn how to tend the horse and COW without
going to an agricultural college. In the city
or town, only men of wealth can afford to
keep horses, and hiring them at stable prices
is almost as expensive.
So, brother farmer, when you have got into !
your hired house, with never a wood-lot, nor
a garden, nor potato patch, nor a COW, nor
q hen, you may also set it down that you can
have no horse; and if you, however prosper.
GUS in money matters, do not sigh for the
aesh.pots Of the old homestead come up to
the FARMER Office and tell us the other side
Of the story.-NetC England Farmer.