Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1869-08-11
for the farmer.
The Poor Farmer

We saw the other day in one Of our ex-
changes, a little paragraph with this head
ing, in which it was justly said that poor
farmer cannot conceal the fact that he Is a
poor farmer" Nothing can be truer. His
work lies before the world. Every passer
can look upon it and record his judgement.
There are his house, his barn, his out build
ings, his implements, his horses and cattle
If he is poor farmer it will be seen IN all
these. His very house-ya and barn-yard
sneak of his wan1 of industry and thrift, in
clear language. Yet there is no one more
difficult to instruct or reform than the man
who is determined to pursue his own wretch
ed course, in the face of all his neighbors
and the whole community. And there are
two reasons for it. First, be loves the rum
bottle, and if not this, then he is naturally
lazy and poor devil generally. In either
case he has no future to live aud work for;
no pride or self-respect. If he is spoken to
on the subject he replies that he thinks his
mode of managing his farm the best; he
was farmer bred, his father a farmer be-
fore him and he has nothing to learn from
the jimcrack course of modern days, by
which, though the land may yield mo re, the
cost in making it do so is far more than
what he loses. As to his implements, when
they are worn-out, be may think about get
ing others, but sees no use in throwing tools
away that answer we'll enough. As to his
house and garden, they are the same his
father had, and if they were good enough
for his father, what right had he to com
plain?
He has little to send to market and that
kind neighbor takes and sells for him
Ask him why he does not raise more for
marketing, and he replies that it does not
pay; the time and expense consumed in go
ing to market, the wear and tear of horses
and wagons, comes to more than what can
be made out of it. He has reckoned it out
and knows. If asked why he does not sub
stitute different variety of corn, oats, or
other grain, for that from which he derives
only half crop, he replies that he gets a
long well enough with what he has, aud it is
adapted to his land, while new sorts may
not be.
Everything is managed or msmanaged in
the same way. Look at the broken shelly
en- linchpin in one of the axles; the wheel
barrow with one leg: the roller, plows and
harrous exposed all the year round tC
the weather, and some of them still lyine
where they were last used the gears tieC
up with ;wine the barnyard fence broker
and the cattle roaming through the medow
and tearing to pieces his couple of poor hay
stacks; the hogs roofing up the orchard anC
eating up the roots of the remaining grass
the fence in front of the house blown ovel
by the wind three or tour months ago anC
still lying there; the approach to the house
thi OK with mud coal ashes, fat stones or
boards are to be seen. Everything indeed
is in keeping, and however unpleasing anc
even painful it may be to others, and how
ever impossible it may seem to others tina
the poor farmer cannot but see it and de
plore it too, though helpless to improve,
is not so. He does not sec it. He will no
to1on Telegraph.