Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-10-21
Ward Beecbsr a. a Farmer.

Mark Twain writes to the Buffalo Ex-
press: Mr.. Beecher's farm consists of thirty
six acres, and is carried on on strict scientific
| principles. He never puts in any part of
crop without consulting his book. Heplows
| and reape, ard digs, and sows according to
the best authorities-and the authorities cost
more than the other farming implements do.
AS soon as the library is complete the farm
will begin to be profitable Investment. But
book farming has lis drawbacks. Upon one
occasion, when it seemed morally certain
that the hay ought to be cut, the hay book
could not be found, and before it was found
it was too late and the hay was all spoiled.
Mr.. Beecher raises some of the finest crops
Of wheat in the country, but the unfavorable
difference between the cost of producing 1t
and its market value after it is produced has
interfered considerably with its success as
commercial enterprise. His special weak
ness is hogs, however. He considers hogs
the best game farm produces. He buys
the original pig for dollar and half, and
feeds him forty dollars worth of corn, and
then sells him for about nine dollars. This
is the only crop lie ever makes any money
on. He loses on the corn, but he makes
seven dollars and half on the hog. He
does not mind this, because he never expects
to make anything on corn, anyway. And
any way 1t turns out, he has the excitement
Of raising the hog anyhow, whether he gets
the worth of him or not. His Strawberries
would be a comfortable success II the robins
would eat turnips, but they won't, and hence
the difficulty. One of Mr.. Beecher's harass-
ing difficulties in his farming operations
come of the close resemblance of different
sorts of seeds and plants to each other.
Two years ago, his farsighfedness warned
him that there was going to be great
- n1n ns,1 4har ha
put in a crop of twenty-seven acres Of fruit,
but when they came up they turned out to
be pumpkins and dead loss was the con-
sequence. Sometimes portion of his crop
goes into the ground the most promising
sweet potatoes, and comes up the most in
fernalist carrots-though never have heard
him express it just in that way. When he
bought his farm he found one egg in every
hens nest on the place. He said that here
was just the reason why so many farmers
tailed-they scattered their forces too much
concentration was the idea So he gath
cred those eggs together and put them all
under one experienced old hen. That hen
roasted over that contract night and day for
eleven weeks, under the anxious personal
supervision of Mr.. Beecher himself, but she
could not "phase" those eggs. Why? Be-
| cause they were those infamous porcelain
things which are used by ingenious and
fraudulent farmers as "nest eggs But,
perhaps. Mr.. Beecher's most disastrous ex-
perience was the time he tried to raise an
immense crop of dried apples. He planted
| fifteen hundred dollars worth, but never
one of them sprouted. He has never been
able to understand, to this day, what was
the matter with those apples. Mr.. Beecher's
farm is not a triumph. 1t would be easier
on him if he worked it on shares with some
| Onp Init bn cannot find anyhodv who ia
willing to stand half the expense, and not
many that are able. Still. persistence in any
cause is bound to succeed. He was very
inferior farmer when he fret begun, but a
prolonged and unflinching assault upon his
agricultural difficulties has had its effect at
last, and he is now fast rising from affluence
to poverty.