Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-02-15
THE HERALD.
Wnl Farming Pay2


Horace Greely is writing series
OF essays on "What l Know Of
Farming The FIRST topic he dis
eusses is, "Will Farming Pay ~
Judging fscm current rumors of Mr..
Ereeley's ftrming operations, it is
hardly probable that his answer to
the question: il based upon his per-
sonal experience but his essay con-
tains some very good suggestions.-
We make the following extracts
from it:
IL commence my essays with this
question, because, when | urge the
superior advantages Of rural life, |
ana often met by the objection that
Farming .on't pay" That, if true.
is y serious matter Bat let us con-
slider:
| do not understand il to be urged
that the tasmer who owns large,
fertile estate, well fenced, and we'll
stocked, with good store of effective
Implements, cannotlive and thrive by
farming. What is meant is, that he
who has bat little, but two brown
hands 10 depend upon cannot make
money, or can make very little by
farming.
think those who urge this point
have a very inadequate conception
u the difficulty encountered by ev-
CRY poor man in securing a good
START in lie' na matter in what pur-
salt. cat0e to New York when
not quite o. age, with good consti-
th,lon, fasf commoI-school educa-
tion, good nealth, good habits, and a
pretty fair &rade-that of printer
i think my outfit for campaign
against adverse fortune was decidedly
better thar. tho average yet ten long
years elapsed before it was settled
that | could remain here and make
any decided bead way. Meantime |
drank nc eql0rs, used no tobacco,
attended DC balls or other expensive
entertainments, worked hard and
long whenever 1 could find work to
do, lost less than month altogether
by sickness and did very little in the
way of helping others. / Judge that
quite as many did worse than / as
did better .and that of the young
lawyers an.f doctors who try to es-
tabhsh the sdselve in their professions
quite as mseay earn less as earn more
than their: bare board during the
first ten yei,rs of their struggle"
Mr. G.. mentions several instances
illustrating the success that men,
within his knowledge, have achieved
from very s:natl beginnings by patient
intelligent. well-directed effort. DE
pend upon It" he says, young men,
tits and mist be hard work TO earn
honestly your first thousand dollars.
The burglaS,, the forger, the blsckleg
(,7hether hA play with cards, with
dice, or Wits stocks, may seem an
easy way Of making thousand dol
lars but whoever makes that sum
honestly, with nothing but his own
capacities and energies as capital,
does a very good five-yeai.s' work,
ard may deem himself fortunate if
he finishes Il I'D soon."
iProbably. man in this country
applied scjeptfc facts to practical
agriculture more successfully than
Prot. J. MGpes, to whom Mr. Greeley
refers in the first of the following
paragraphs; He illustrated "scien-
tiiic farming" by raising such crops
81 filled all those who saw them with
wonder:
Walking one day over to the farm
Of the late Prot. Mapes, he showed
Inc field ST rather less than ten
acres, and said, i bought that field
fog $4,000, = year ago last September
There was then light crop Of corn
OF il, which, TIE seller reserved and
took away | under-drained the
field that Fall, plowed and SUBSIDIZED
it, :ertilized it literally, and planted
il with cabbage; and, when these
inquired, | sol:i them tor enough to
pay for latd, labor, and fertilizers
The field was now
worth far more than when he bought
it. and he d cleared it within fif-
teen month"; from the date of its
purchase. consider that good
operation :Another year, the crop
might havei been poor, or might have
sold much I.rwar so as hardly TO pay
for the labof but there are risks in
other plrss lLa AZ there is in farm
ing.
A fruit garmer on the Hudson
above Newburg showed me, three
years since,:a field of eight or ten
acres which he had nicely set with
grapes, in rows ten feet apart, with
beds OF straw berries between the
rows, from (which he assured me that
his sales exceeded $1,000 rer annum.
l presume his outlay for labor in
GLIDING picaing, was less than $500
per annum. bat 1T cost something TO
make this field what it then was
Say that hI had spent 81 900 an acre
il under-drsin ing, and enriching and
tilling this feld, to bring it to this
condition, i;,cllding the cost Of his
plants, anG still there must have
been cleas profit here of at least
$500 per acse.
mights multiply illustrations !;
but let the sor@going suffice. Tread
lily admit THAT shiftless farming don't
pay-that boer crops don't pay
that it is h9td work to make money
by farminglwithout some capital
that frost, sr hail, or drought, or
floods, or snsects, may blast the
farmers hopes. after he has done his
best 10 descsve and achieve success !;
but | insist shat, as general propo-
sition, GooIA Far7aing DOES p0y-that
few pursuita afford as good a pros
pect, as full .an assurance of reward
fos intelligent, energetic, persistent
effort as thiS does"
DoN'T W.IrA FRIGHTENED HoRsE.
Never wslip your horse for be-
nC,pair - FRI "A tapoI OF INV nhioot ~