The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-11-10
From the Country Gentleman.
Interest for Farmers,

From the Country Gentleman.
Compound Interest for Farmers.
Many cultivators of the soil
enormously suppose that trade will
bring larger profits aud that the shop
keeper gets richer than the farmer dur
ing q life of business They do not
take into the account the fact that but
few merchants succeed al all, and that
the ninety.fve or ninety-seven in every
hundred who fail, are never heard of
more; while the very few who happen
to draw prizes, become conspicuous, and
are thus the means Of drawing hundreds
OF others into the unsuccessful game.
We here allude to those who carry on a
large business and run heavy risks, and
not TO the small shopkeeper and grocer,
who with little hazard, make steady
and moderate living.
But even compared with these last
mentioned, farmers do not count all the
advantages they possess. They have
comfortable homes, and consume many
OF the luxuries without making any &C.
count of them, which mechanics and
shop-keepers have to use sparingly and
pay for in money. We heard a iarm-
er complain that he had worked hard
twenty years, and had "made nothing
his work was as good as thrown
away Had he raised p family %
"Yes-he had brought up six ciniir,n.
Had he schoOled them 2 Yes, they
had had q fair education. Had they
lived comfortably, and had enough to
ca. and wear?' "Certainly-of course
they had And You have worked
hard twenty years, and made nothing!
You have brought up, educated, and
given comfortable hoTe and living to
your children. Now suppose you had
the thousand dollars salary which you
envy in your neighbor Simpkins, could
YOU have done all this-bought all the
comforts which Your family have en-
joycd, paid for the schooling Of your
six children, and given them home?
You would not have had much left to
lay aside as an Investment.
There are some cultivators OF the
soil who are not satisfied to lay up only
five hundred dollars yearly. 1t is a
mere pittance They envy their specu-
lating neighbors who made thousand
dollars in week buying grain. But
the loss OF all they had made a few
weeks afterwards was overlooked. Let
them he contented to lay up five hun
bred yearly, il they can do no better.
What will this small yearly accumu
lation amount to in lifetime? Sup
pose the young farmer begins to make
this yearly investment at thirty years Of
age. and continues il till he is seventy,
adding interest annually. Some would
be startled with the result. 1t would
then amount in the forty years, at
seven per cent, to ninety-nine thousand
eight hundred dollars, only two-hundred
less than hundred thousand With
only hundred dollars saved annually,
the farmer would accumulate from
twenty-five to sixty-fve, about twenty
thousand dollars; while, if his yearly
surplus were thousand, he would be
worth, nv the time he became an old
man, no less than two hundred thou
sand. The great advantage which he
POSSESSES over the brakeman is that his
business is certain and nearly uniform.
He is not troubled with the fear that
one bad year in trade may Use up ten
years earnings. His receipts are the
steady and uniform stream.
We are tempted, before closing these
remarks, to apply the compound inter
est computations TO a few other things.
There are some habits into which coun
try residents fall, that, instead of pour
ing in the constant stream, are a uni
form and perpetual outgo. We do not
allude to the occasional purchase of
valuable books or apparatus, but to the
daily, monthly and yearly use of such
costly and useless qualifications as chew
ing and smoking tobacco-offensive to
every one but the users. We have
questioned hard-working men as to the
yearly cost, and none place it less than
twenty dollars. Lawyers, clerks, &c,
place it at fifty TO one hundred dollars.
A very few go much higher.
The man who lays out twenty dollars
annually, expends nearly two thousand
in thirty years-in life from twenty to
fifty, and it would amount to nearly four
thousand by the time he is sixty. The
clerk who spends fifty dollars annually,
wastes from twenty to sixty years OF
are, no less than nine thousand nine
hundred dollars How much that
would he interesting and useful might
he not purchase instead, in the
shape Of books, chromos, micro
scopes, and telescopes, mineral cab
iaets, shells, ornamental plants,
fruit trees, and many other things valu-
able and useful to himself aud children;
the only equivalent for which would be,
otherwise, tobacco smoke pervading
every room, puddles OF silva in rail
cars and around stoves, and a general
and sickly feeling of aversion 10 the
offensive breath and foetid odors incl
dent TO this waste of thousands.
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