The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1868-09-04

And now let US preciser the whole matter
ald get rid of that interminable question,
Does farming pay?
Will shopkeeping pay? Win life pay?
How do these questions sound? And yet
they are as reasonable as the one we come
to consider. Tell me of the capacity of
the doctor-of the tailor; tell me Of his To-
cation and aptitude for the business, and 1
can answer. Tell me Of what material you
propose to make a farmer, tell me of his
habits, and Of the condition of his soil and
markets, and l can tell you if he can find
profit or none; and this without regard to
Lebig, short horns, or the mineral theory.
Successful farming, it must be under
stood, is not that which secures a large
moneyed result this year, and the next
year. and the year after; but it is that which
secures TO the land a constant accumilating
fertility ia connection with remuneratiye re-
suits. The theory Of the agricultural doc
tors that every year as much of the nutri-
tive elements of land should be restored as
the annual cropping removes, may be good
ruling for virgin soil, or for the Lothians,
or Belgian gardens; but for neglected or
poor soils larger restoration is needed; if
not by manures, then by tillage or drain
age. Exact equipoise is difficult, and I'M
plies no advance. 1t is neither easy nor
desirable to be forever balancing ones self
upon tight rope. If progressive farming
won't pay, it is quite certain that no farm
ing will.
l know there are many quiet old gentle
men among the hills who have a sleepy way
of putting in their corn patch year after
year. and sleepy way Of clearing out
their meager pittance Of drenohed manure,
and a sleepy way of never spending, who
drop off some day, leaving money in their
purse; but such success does not tempt the
young-it gives no promise Of career
Pork and beans for dinner, and the land
lean" might be written on their grave
stones.
The faculty OF not spending is cultiva-
ted by many farmers a great deal more
faithfully than their lands, but the faculty
of right spending ie at the bottom of all
signal success in agriculture. as in other
business pursuits. This kind of enter
prise is what farmers especially lack; and
the lack is due to the secure tenure by
which they hold their property. Their
shopkeeper who turns his capital three or
four times in a year, and who knows that an
old stock Of goods will involve heavy loss
es, is stimulated to constant activity. The
farmer, on the other hand, inheriting his
little patch of land, and feeling reasonably
sure of his corn aud bacon, AID none of
that incentive which attends risk, yields
himself to a stolid indifference that over
laws all his faculties. Yet some of the ag-
ricultural papers tell US with pride that
bankruptcies among farmers are rare
Pray, why should they not be rare? The
man who never mounts ladder will most
surely never fell from one. Dash, enter
prise. spirit, wakefulness, have their haz-
ards. and always will; but if man sleep,
the worst that can beiall him is only a bad
dream. This letbargy on the part Of so
many who are content with their pork din
ners and small sPendings, is very harmful
to the agricultural interests Of the country.
Young America abhOrs sleepiress; and
does not gravitate, of choice, toward pur-
suit which seems to encourage it. The
conclasion and the conviction have been,
with earnest young men, that profession
which did not stimulate to greater activity
and larger triumphs. and a more Christian
amplitude Of life, could not be worth the
following. Nothing about it OF in il seem
ed to have affinity with the great springs Of
human progress; otherwise, lumpish. serf-
life it seemed-bouud to the globe. and
cropping It's nourisLment thence like kline.
Again, the extravaganza Of those who
have undertaken farming as a mere amuss-
mcnt, has greatly damaged It's character as