Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-02-25
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD
Preparing 70 Farm.
by HORACE GREELEY.

by HORACE GREELEY.
/ WRITE mainly for beginners-for
young persons, and some not 80 young
who are looking TO farming as the voca.
tion to which their future years are 10 be
given, by which their living is TO be gain.
ed. In this chapter, would counsel
young men, who, not having been reared
in personal contact with the daily and
yearly round of a farmers cares and du-
ties, purpose henceforth 10 live by farm.
ing.
10 those would earnestly say, I" No
haste ~ Our boys are in too great hurry
TO be men. They want TO be bosses be-
| fore they have qualified themselves to be
| efficient journeymen. | have personally
known several instances of young men,
| fresh from school or from some city voca-
tion, buying or hiring farm and under
taking to work 1t and ] cannot now re-
call a single instance In which the at.
tempt has succeeded while speedy fail
ure has been the usual result. The as
sumption that farming Is rude, simple
matter, requiring little intellect and less
experience, has buried many a well. mean.
ing youth under debts which the best eff.
forts of several subsequent years will
barely enable him TO pay off. In my
| opinion, half our farmers now living
would say, If questioned, that they might
better have waited longer before buying
or hiring farm.
When | was ten years old, my father
took job of clearing of the mainly fallen
and partially rotten timber - largely
white pine and black ash-frUm fifty
acres of level and then swampy land and
he and his two boys gave most of the two
ensuing years Q82l-2) to the rugged task.
When IL was finished, Ia boy OF twelve
years-could have taken Just such a tract
of half primitive forest as that was
when we took hold of IL, and cleared it by
an expenditure of seventy or eighty per
cent of the labor we actually bestowed
upon that. l had learned, in clearing
this, how TO eoonomize labor in any future
undertaking of the kind and 80 every
one learns by experience who steadily OBJ
serves and reflects. He must have been
very good farmer at the start, or very
poor one alterward, who cannot grow a
thousand bushels Of grain much cheaper
at thirty years of age than he could at
twenty.
To every young man who has had no
farming experience, or very little, yet who
means to make farming his vocation, l say,
Hire out, for the coming year, to the very
best farmer who will give you anything
|
few choice books Qf you have them not
already) which treat of Geology, Chemis-
try, Botany, and the application of their
truths in Practical Agriculture give to
these the close and thoughtful atten-
tion of your few leisure hours
keep your eyes wide open, and
set down in a notebook or pocket
diary each night a minute of whatever has
been done on the farm that day, making a
note of each storm, shower, frost, hail, &c,
and also of the date at which each planted
crop requires tillage or is ripe enough to
harvest, and ascertaining, so lar as posi-.
BILE, what each crop produced on the farm
has cost, and which of them all are pro.
duced at profit, and which at loss. Al
the years end, hire again to the same OF
another good farmer and pursue the same
course and so do till you shall be twenty.
four or twenty-five years of age, which Is
young enough to marry, and quite young
enough to undertake the management of q
farm. BY this time, if you have carefully
, saved and wisely invested your earnings
! you will have several hundred dollars
! and, If you do not choose to migrate to
) some region where land Is very cheap
! you will have found some one willing to
J sell you small farm on credit, taking q
, long mortgage as security. Your money
, assuming that you have only what you
will have earned-will all be wanted to fix
up your buildings, buy team and COW,
with few implements needed, and sup
ply you with provisions till you can grow
I some: II you can begin thus experienced
l and ,full-handed, you may, by diligence
0 combined with good fortune, begin Il
Q make payments on your mortgage at thj
d close of your second year.
v | hate debt as profoundly as any on
can, but do not consider this really run
r ming into debt. One has more land thar
d he needs, and does not need his pay for /
s forthwith another wants land, but lack
!, the means of present payment. The,
/. two enter into an agreement mutually ad
Y vantageous, whereby the poorer has tn
, present use and ultimate fee simple of tn
. farm in question, in consideration of tn
Q payment of certain sums as duly stipulat
Q cd. Technically, the buyer becomes
I debtor; practically, Idonot regard him q
such, until payments fall due which he
e unable promptly TO meet. Let him rigor
Q ously avoid all other debt, he need no
Q shrink from or be ashamed of this.
r l have high regard for scientific a,
T tainments l wish every young man wer
n thoroughly instructed in the science
8 which underlie the art of farming. Blu
D all the learning on earth, though IL ma
e powerfully help to make good farmer
@ would not of itself make one. When
= young man has learned ali that seminarie
and lectures books and cabinets, can teac
O him, he still needs practice and experienc
to make him a good farmer.
n -" But wouldn't you have young ma
n study In order that he may become goo
l. farmers"
r If he has money, Yes. believe
@ youth worth four or i've thousand dollar
O may wisely spend tenth of his means Il
# attending lectures, and even courses G
: study at any good seminary where natul
a al science is taught and applied to agri
,f culture. But lite is short at best; and h
Ia who has no means, or very little, cannO
n really afford to attend even an Agricultul
n al College. He can acquire so much c
J. science as is indispensable in the cheape
q way have indicated. He cannot wisel
/" consent to spend the best years of his lii
IN getting ready to live
He who has already mastered the art {
Z farming, and has adequate means, may {
course buy farm tomorrow, though h
be barely or not quite of age. He ha
little TO learn nom me- Yet I think eve
= such have often concluded, in after year.
. that they were too hasty in buying Ian
) that they might profitably have waiteC
and doliberated, and garnered the treasure
!, of experience, before they took the gray
y u step of buying their future homes.-Net
Y York Tribune.
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