New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-27
WHAT | KNOW OF FARMING.
n HORACE GREELEY.
IL.
SUMMING UP.

vocation ard the principles or rules OF action WHICH
they have suggested to my mind. / have been care
fpl not to urow any false. delusve halo over tins
indispensa1e calling and by means to induce the
helief thathe farmers lot is necessarily and uni
formly happy one. i know that his is not the royal
road 10 raid ac0uiston and that few men are hkey
70 aIass neat wealth by quietly tilling the SOIL
know uncover, that what passes for farming among
ma is not so noble 80 intellectual, attractive
pursuit a it might and should be-that most farmers
might farm better and live to better purpose than
they dc OF all false teaching most condemn
that Which fatters farmers though they were
demirois and their calling the grandest and the
happed ever followed by mortals, when the nearer,
unless rery green must feel that the speaker doesn't
believe one word Of all he utters for, IL he dd, he
would be flaming instead of living by some pro-
fessisn and talking as though his auditors did not
know wheat from chaTf regard the Agriculture of
this country as very far below the standard which it
should ere this have reached hold that the great
mass of our cutivators might and should farm bet
ter than they do, and that better farming would
render their sons better citizens and better men.
single line Of this little work should seem calcu-
lated TO cajOle its readers into self-compacency
rather than instruct them beg them to believe that
their impression wrongs my purpose
/ am fully aware that others have treated my
theme with fuller knowledge and far greater ability
leave them the feldf Simply because, when all
have written who can elucidate my theme, at least
threefOurths Of those who ought to study and pom
der it viii not have read any treatise whatever upon
Agriculture-will hardly have yet regarded II as
theme wherein books should be written and read.
And since there may be some who viii read TINS
treatise for its writer's sake-will read it when they
could not be persuaded TO do like honor to more
elaborate and erudite work. have written in the
&C IN hrea al
with regard to Agriculture an art based on Sci
ence-a spirit which, having been awakened Will
not fall again into toTpOr but which will lead on to
the perusaI and study of proiounder and better
books
In the foregoing ESSAYS have sought to establish
the following propositions:
!. That good farming is and must ever be paying
business, subject like all Others, to mischances and
pul-bacs and to the general law that the struggle
up from nothing to something is ever an arduous
and almost always a slow process In the few in
stances where wealth and distinction have been
swiftly won, they have rarely proved abiding.
There pursuits wherein success Is more envled
aud dazzling than in Agriculture hut there is none
wherein efficiency and fugality more certain to
secure comfort and competence.
2 Though the poor man must often go slowly !
where wealth may attain perfection at bound and
though he may sometimes seem compelled TO TILL
fields not half 30 amply fortified they should be-
it is nevertheless innexibly true that bounteous
crops grown at profit, while half and quarter
crops produced at loss. rich man may afford
10 grow poor crops because he afford 10 lose by
his years farming, while the poor man cannot. He
ought therefore to till no moro than he can
bring into good conditiOn-to SOW no seed plow no
field, where he is not justified iu expecting good
crop. Better five acres amply ferChzed ana thor-
Oughly titled than twenty acres which can ~ best
make but meager return, and which dry ds
vet season must doom to partial if not absolute |
failure,
g. In choosing location, the farmer should re-
solve 70 choose once for all. Roaming from State |
10 State from section to section, is sad and far too
common mistake. Not merely is it true that The |
rolling stone gathers moss" but the farmer who
wanders from place to place never acquires that in
innate knowledge of soil and climate which is essen
tial to excellence in his vocation. He cannot read
the clouds and learn when to expect rain, when he
nav look for DAYS of sunshine ne he cOnld If he bad
lived twenty ears on the same place. Choose your
home in the East the South, the Center, the West If
Won will and each section has it's peculiar advan-
tages,: but choose once for all and, having chosen
regard that choice as final,
T. Our young nieD are apt TO plunge into RESPONSE
lities too hastily They buy farms while they lack
at once experience and means incur losses and debts
by consequent miscalculaiOns and drag through Life
weary load. which sours them against their pur-
snit when the fault is entirely Their own. No youth
should undertake to manage farm until AFTER
several wears Of training for that task under the eye
Of capable master Of the art Of filling the soil If
he has enjoyed the requisite advantages on his
fathers homestead he may possibly be qualified to
manage farm al twenty-One but there are few who
might not proftably wait and learn, III the pay OF
some successful culvstor for several years longer;
while cannot recall an instance of youth rushing
out of school or city counting house to show OLD
farmers how their work ought 10 be done, that did
not result in disaster 1t is very well to know what
Science teaches with regard to farming; but no man
was ever a thoroughly good farmer who had not
spent some Years in actual contact with the soil
3, While every one says of his neghbOr, He farms
too much land" the greed Of acquisition does not
seem al all chasteDed Men staggeI under loads OF
debt to-day who might relieve themselves by selling
of 40 much of their land as they cannot prohtably
use; but every one seems intent on holding all he
can az if in expectation of a great advance in its
market value And yet you can buy farms IN every
old State in the Union cheaply per acre as they
xould have been bought in like condition sxty
wears AGO: and | doubt their selling higher sixty
wears hence than they do now. No doubt there are
lands in the vicnage of growing cities OF villages
that have greatly advanced in value; but these are
exceptions; aud counsel every young farmer, every
Door farmer to buy more land than he can cuiu-
vate thoroughly save such as he needs Tor timber
Never fear that there will not be more land iOr sale
when you shall have the money whereWith 10 Duy III
but shun debt as you would the plague, ana prefer
forty acres all your 10 square mile hea'Hy
y m0rtgaged. never lifted milestone. but nave
undertaken 10 carry debts, and they are fearIully
heavy.
.n.ln bta n