The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-01-24
What I Know of Farming,
BY HORACE GREELEY.
/.
Will Farming Pay

commence my essays with the su-
psrior advantages Of rural lie, am
often met by the objection that Farm
inq don't pay. That, if true, IL serious
matter. Let US consider:
/ do not understand it to be urged
that the farmer who owns large, fer
tile estate, well-fenced, well-stocked,
with good store of effectiveimplements,
cannot thrive by farming. What is
meant is, that he who has little but two
brown hands to depend upon cannot
make money, or can made very llttie,by
farming.
think those who urge this point
have very inadequate conception OF
the difficulty encountered by every / cor
young man in securing good start IN
life, no matter in what pursuit. l came
to New York when not quito of age,
with q good constitution, a fair common
school education, good health, good
habits, and pretty fair trade-(that OF
prluter). think my outfit for a cam
paign against adverse fortune Was de-
cidedly better than the average; yet ten
long years elapsed before it was settled
thar could remain here and make any
decided Roadway. Meantime, / drank
no balls or other expensive entertain
ments, worked hard aud long whenever
] 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 as did better; aud that OF the
young lawyers and doctors who Try TO
establish themselves in the professions,
than their bare board during the first
ten years of their struggle.
John Jacob Aston, near the close Of .
long, diligent, prosperous career, where
in he amassed large fortune, is said to
have remarked that, if he were 10 begin
life again, and had to choose between
making his first thousand dollars with
making all that he had actually accu-
INFLATED, he would deem the latter the
easier task. Depend on it, young men,
it is and must be hard work 10 earn
honestly yeur first thousand dollars.
The burglar, the forger, the blackleg
whether he play with cards, with dice,
or with st0cks), may seem to have q
quick and easy way of making thou
sand dollars; but whoever makes that
sum honestly, with nothing but his own
capacities and energies as capital, does
very good five years work, and may
deem himself fortunate if he finishes it
so soon.
hare know men to do better, even
at farming. IIecOllect one who, with
no capital but good wife and four or
five hundred dollars, bought (uear BoS-
tom farm of two hundred mainly
rough acres for $500, and paid for it
out of its products within the next five
years, during which time he had nearly
doubled its value. l lost sight of him
then, but have not q 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
100000. But this man would rise at 4
o'clock of q Winter morning, harness
his span of horses and bitch them to his
large market wagon (oaded over
mighty, drive ten mile into Boston, un-
load aud load back again, and, hastily
swallowing his meal, be fresh as daisy
for his days work, in which he would
lead his hired men, keeping them clear
of the least danger of falling asleep.
Such men are rare, but they still exist,
proving scarcely anything impossible
to an indomitable will. i would not
advise any to work so numerically; II
seek only TO enforce the truth that
great &C achievements ara within the reach
Of whoever will pay their price.
An energetic farmer bought, some
twenty-five years ago, large grazing
farm IN Northern Vermont, consisting
of some $50 acres, and costing him
about $1,000. he bad q 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 an
mum, and to so improve his land, BY
cultivation, fertilizing, clover, &c, that |
it would amply carry that increase.
Fifteen years later, he sold out farm and |
stock for S45, 900, and migrated to the
West. did not understand that he was
o specially hard worker, but only good
manager, who kept his eyes wide opes,
let nothing 90 to waste, and steadily
devoted his energies aud means to the |
Improvement Of hisstock and his farm.
Walking enc day over'tbe farm of ,bs
late Prof. Mspes, he showed me q field
of rather less than ten acres, and said. |
81 bought that field for S2400, o year
ago last Septem Der. There was
then light crop of corn on it, which |
the seller reserved and took away. II
uRder-drained the field that Fall, plow-
ed and SUBSIDIZED il, fsrtiIized it liberal.
ly, and planted it with cabbage; and,
when these Inatured, sold them 70:
enough to pay fer land, labor, and fer.
tilizers altogether" The field was now
worth far more than when he bought
it, and he had cleared sitwithin fifteen
months from the date of lis purchase.
| consider that a good operation. An.
other year, the crop might have been