Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-03-03

upon. that. I had learned, in clearing
this, how to economize labor IN any frtxre
undertaking of the kind and 90 every
one learns BY experience who steadily OBJ
ferves and reflects He must have been
very good farmer at the start, or q very
poor One afterward. who cannot grow q
thousand bushels of grain much cheaper
at thirty years Of age than he could 1t
twenty. Is a 4g
To every young man who has had no
farming experience, or very little, yet who
means to make farming his vocation. Isay.
Hire out, for the coming year, to the very
best farmer who win give you anything
like the value of your labor. Buy very
few choice books (if yen have them not
already, which treat of Geology, Chenis-
try, Botany, and the application of their
truths in Practical Agriculture; give to
these the close and thoughtful atten.
ton of your few leisure hours;
keep y00r eyes wide open, and
get down in . notebook or pocket
diary each night minute of whatever has
been done on the farm that day, making .
note Of each storm, shower, frost, hail, &c,
and also Of the date 1t which each planted
crop requires tillage or is ripe enough to
harvest, and ascertaining, 20 Tar as posi-
bic, what each crop produced on the farm
has cost, and which Of them all are pro-
duced at q profit, and which at q loss. At
the years end, hire again to the same or
another good farmer and pursue the same
course; and 90 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
sell you small farm on credit, taking .
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 a team and COW,
with q few implements needed, and sup
ply you with provisions till you can grow
some. II you can begin thus experienced
and ,,full-handed, you may, by diligence
combined with good fortune, begin to
make payments on your mortgage at the
close Of your second year.
hate debt as profoundly as any one
can, but do not consider this really run
ming into debt. One has more land than
he needs, and does not need his pay for it
forthwith another wants land, but lacks
the means of present payment. They
two enter into an agreement mutually adj
vantageous, whereby the poorer has the
present use and ultimate fee simple of the
farm in question, in consideration of the
payment of certain sums as duly stipulat.
ed. Technically, the buyer becomes
debtor; practically, do not regard him as
such, until payments fall due which he is
unable promptly to meet. Let him rigor-
ously avoid all other debt, he need not
shrink from or be ashamed Of this.
have high regard for scientific at
tainmerlts; wish every young man were
thoroughly instructed in the sciences
which underlie the art of farming. But
all the learning on earth, though it may
powerfully help to make good farmer,
would not of itself make one. When
young man has learned all that seminaries
and lectures, books and cabinets, can teach
him, he still needs practice and experience
to make him good farmer
-" But wouldn't you have young man
study in order that he may become good
farmers" $50
If he has money, Yes. l believe a
youth worth four or five thousand dollars
may wisely spend tenth of his means in
attending lectures, and even courses of
study at any good seminary where natur-
al science is taught and applied to agri-
culture. But life is short at best and he
who has no means, or very little, cannot
really afford to attend even an Agricultur-
al College. He can acquire SO much of
science Is is indispensable in the cheaper
way / have indicated. He cannot wisely
consent to spend the best years of his life
In getting ready to live. ,.r
He who has already mastered the art of
and has adequate means, may of
course buy farm tomorrow, though he
be barely or not quite of age. He has
little to learn from me. Yet think even
such have often concluded, in after years,
that they were too hasty in buying land
that they might profitably have waited,
aud deliberated, and garnered the treasures
Of experience, before they took the grave
,tep Of buying their future homes.-New
ILL q d. IS