The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-08-26
The Farmers Calling.

|. There is no other business II
which success is so nearly certain as il
this OF one hundred men who EN-
bark in trade, careful observer reports
that ninety-ive fail; and while ! think
this proportion too large | am sure thai
large majority do, and must fail, be
cause competition is so eager and traffic
SO enormously overdone II ten men
endeavor to support their families by
merchandise in township which af
iords business for but three, it. certain
that majority must fail, no matter
how iudicious their management OF
how frugal their living. But you may
double the number of farmers in any
agricultural county ! ever traversed,
without necessarily booming one
to failure, or even abridging his gains.
Ii half the traders and professional
men in this country were to betake
themselves TO farming tomorrow, they
would not render that pursuit one whit
less profitable, while they would largely
increase the comfort and wealth of the
entire community; and while a good
merchant, lawyer, or doctor may be
starved out of any township, simply be-
cause the work he could do well is al
ready confined 10 others, | never yet
heard of a temperate, industrious, in
trlligent, frugal and energetic farmer
who Jailed to make a lirlu., or w' y.
unless Frustrated by disease or disabled
10y casualty, was precluded from Sc
curing a modest independence before
age and decrepitude Invested him of the
ability of labor.
ii. | regard farming as that vocation
which conduces most directly and pal
pahly 10 reverence for Honesty and
Truth.
The Young farmer, acting As farmer,
must realize that his success depends
upon his absolute verify and integrity.
He deals directly with Nature, which
never was and never will he cheated.
He has no temptation TO SOW beach
sand for plaster. dockseed for clover,
or -toop TO any trick or juggle what
ever. Whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he also reap, while, true, in the
long run, 0i all men, is instantly and
probably true as TO him. When he,
having grown his crop, shall attempt
to sell tin other words, when he
ceases TO be a farmer and becomes
trader-he may possibly be tempted
into the many devious ways ofrascahty;
but, so long as he is acting simply as
farmer he can hardly be lured from the
broad, straight highway OF integrity and
Righteousness.
III. The farmers calling seems 10
me that most conducive to thorough
manliness OF character. Nobody ex.
poets him to cringe, or smerk, or curry
favor, in order to sell his produce No
merchant refuses TO buy it because his
politics are detested or his religious
opinions hererodox. He may be a
Mormon, a Rebel, a Millerite, or Com
munist, vet his grain or his pork will
sell for axactlv what il is worth-not
fraction less or more than the price
commanded by the kindred product of
like quality and intrinsic value of his
neighbor, whose opinions on all points
are faultlessly orthodox and popular.
On the other hand, the merchant, the
lawyer, the doctor, especially if young
and still struggling obviously for posi-
ton are continually tempted TO sacri-
fee or suppress the Profoundest convic.
ton in Difference to the vehement and
often irrational prepossessions OF the
community, whose favor is TO them the
breath of life