Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1870-02-16

viii Farming Pay :?

Win Farming Pay7
When urge the superior advantages OF
. rural life, am often met by the objection
that Farming don't pay.
That, if true, is serious matter. Let
us coasider:
I do not understand it to be urged that
the farmer who owns large, fertile estate
well fenced, we'll stocked, cannot live ana
thrive farming. What is meant i'' tna'
he who has little but two brown nands 70
depcad upon cannot make money or can
make very little by farming.
think those who urge the point have
vesy inadequate conception of their dit
6culty encountered BY very poor young man
in securing . good start in life no matter in
what pursuit. came to New York when
not quite of age, with a good constitution,
. fair education, good health, good habits
and pretty fair trade-tthat of a printer.)
I think my outfit for q campaign against
adverse fortune was decidedly better than
the average yet ten long years elapsed be-
fore it vas settled that 1 could remain
here and make any decided headway.
Meantime, drank no liquors, used no to-
bacco, attended no balls or other expen-
sive entertainments, worked hard and long,
whenever I could find work to do, lost less
than . month altogether by sickness. and
did very little in the way of helping others.
! judge that quite as many did worse than
~ did better and that of the young law
yers and doctors who try to establish them
selves in their professions, quite as many
earn no more than their bare board during
the first ten years of their struggle.
John Jacob Astor, near the close OF
long dilligeat, prosperous career, wherein he
amassed large fortune, is said to have re.
marked that, if he we're to begin life again,
and had to choose between making his
6rst thousand dollars with nothing to start
on, or with that thousand making all he
had actually accumulated, he would deem
the latter the easier task. Depend on it
young men, it is and must be hard work to
earn your first thousand dollars. The burg
lar the forger the blackleg, whether he play
with cards, with dice, or with stocks), may
seem to have quick way of making a
thousand dollars but whoever makes that
sum honestly, with nothing but his own ca
pacities and energies as capital, does very
good fve-years' work, and may deem him
self fortunate if he finishes it so soon.
haze known men do better, even at far
ming. recollect one who, with no capital
but good wife and tour or five hundred
dollars, bought (near Boston, farm of two
hundred mainly rough acres for 81, 500, and
paid for it out of its products within the
next FIVE years. during which be had nearly
doubled its value, 1 lost sight of him
then but have no doubt that, if he lived
fifteen years longer and had no very bad
luck, he was worth, as the net result Of
twenty years, effort at least $IOO,0O But
he would rise at clock ola winter morn
ing, harness his span of horses and hitch
them to his large market. wagon, loaded
over night, drive ten miles into Boston,
unload and load back again, be home at
pretty fair breakfast time, and hastily swal,
lowing his meal, be fresh as daisy for his
days work, in which ho would lead hi:
hired men, keeping them clear of the leas,
danger of going asleep. Such men arc
rare, but they still exist, proving scarcely
anything impossible to an indomitable will.
would not advise any to..work so unmer-
cifully seek only to enforce the truth
that great achievements are within the
reach of whoever viii pay their price.
An energetic farmer bought some twenty
five years ago, large grazing farm in
Northern Vermont, consisting of some l5O
acres, and costing him about $1,000. He
had small stock of cattle, which was all
his land would carry but he resolved to
increase that stock by at least ten per cent,
per annum, and TO so improve his land by
cultivation, fertilizing, clover, &c, that::i,
would amply carry that increase. Fifteen
years latter, he sold out farm ard stock for
$4,000 and migrated to the West. l did
not understand that he was a especially hard
worker, but only good manager, who
kept his eyes wide open, let nothing 20 to
waste, a.d steadily devoted his energies
and means to the improvement of his stock
and his farm.
Walking one day over tho farm of the
late Prof. Mapes, he showed me field Of
rather less than ten acres, and said:
-" bought that field for 81, 400 year