Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-08-05
WIZ Farming Pay
BY HORACE GREELEY.

sef 3 rural life, am often met by the objeo-
aion that farming don't pay. That, if true, is
o serious matter. Let us consider.
/ do not understand it to be urged that the
farmer who owns large fertile estate, well
fenced, we'll stocked, with good store of cffcc.
tive Implements, cannot 1.-Two and thrive by
farming. What is meant is, that he who
has little but two brown hands to depend up
ON cannot make money or can make very lit
tie by farming.
I think those who urge this point have
very inadequate conception of the difficulty
encountered by every poor young man in Sc
curing good start in life, no matter in what
pursuit. came to Now York when not
quite of age, with good constitution, fair
common school education, good health, good
habits, and pretty fair tradc-that Of prin-
ser. think my outfit for campaign against
adverse fortune was decidedly better than the
average; yet ten long years elapsed before it
was settled that could remain here and make
any decided headway. Meantime, l drank
no liquors, used no tobacco, attended no balls
or other expensive entertainments, worked
hard and long whenever I could find work to
do, lost less than month altogether by sick
ness, and didvery little in the way of helping
others. I Judge that quite as many did worse
than Us did better; and that of the young
lawyers and doctors who try to establish them
selves in their professions, quite as many earn
less as earn more than their bare board dur
ing the first ten years of their struggle.
John Jacob Aslor, near the close of lone,
diligent, prosperous career, wherein he amas-
sed large fortune, is said to have remarked
that, ifho was to begin life again ard had to
choose between making his first thc,sand
dollars, with nothing to start on, or with that
thousand dollars making all he had actually
accumulated, he would deem tho latter the
easiest task. Depend on il, young men, it is
and must be hard work to earn honestly your
first thousand dollars The Burglar, tho for
ger, the black leg, (Whcthcr he plays with
cards, with dice, or with stocks) may seem to
have 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, docs, very good five
years work, and may deem himself fortunate
if no finishes it so soon.
have known men do better, even at farm
Ing. recollect one who, with no capital but
a good wife and four or Eve hundred dollars,
dollars, bought (ncar Bostou) farm of two
hundred mainly rough acres for $4,000, and
paid for it out Of its products within the next
five years, during which time he had nearly
doubled its value lost sight of him then !;
but have not doubt that, if he lived Ef.
teen years longer and had no very bad luck,
he was worth, as the net result of twenty years.
effort, at least ono hundred thousand dollars.
But this man would rise at o'clock of a
winter morning, harness his span of horses
and hitch them to his large markct.wagon
Qoaded overnight;) drive ten miles into Bos.
ton, unload and>load back again, be homo at
fair breakfast time, 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 fal
ling asleep. Such men arc rare, but they
still exist, proving scarce anything impossible
to an indomitablo will. I would not advise
any to work 30 numerically, seek only to
enfore the truth, that great achievements are
within the reach of whoever will pay thei,
price.
An energetic farmer bought, some twenty
Ave years .go, large grazing farm in North.
srn Vermont, consisting Of some $50 acres
and costing him about $4,000. He had a
small stock Of cattle, which was I'll 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, etc., that it would amply
carry that increase. Fifteen years later, he
sold out farm and stock for $45, 900, and mi
grated to the west I did not understand
that ho was specially hard worker, but onl,
: good manager, who kept his eyes wide open
let nothing 60 TO waste, and steadily devoted
his energies and means to tho improvement,
ofhis stock and. his farm..
& Walking one day over tho farm Of the late
Professors Mapse, he showed mo field of ra
ther less than ten acres, and said "I bough
that field for twenty.fopr hundred dollars
Yearago last September. There was then
Hight Drop Of corn on it, which tho sollor re
served and took away. IunderdraineS IN