The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1871-08-26
GREELEY,s TEXAS SPEECH.
SEINE Good Maxims for Farmers.

ING of the Mechanical and Agricult
ural State Fair, May 22d, 1871, a
Houston with the subjoined maxim
relative to the cultivation of the soil
which are replete with wisdom, ant
to which we direct the attention o
farmers. He says:
"Let me closeswith a few maxim'
applicable to cultivation in every
cline and under all circumstances
whether among populations dense al
that of China Or sparce as that O
British America.
i. Only good farming pays.-Ht
who sows or plants without reason
able assurance of good crops annual
ly, might better earn wages of some
capable neighbor than work for sc
poor a paymaHter as he is certain t.
prove himself.
Ii. The farmer is proved such by
steady appreciation of his crops
Any one may reap an ample harvest
from a fertile virgin soil the good
farmer alone grows good crops al
first, and better and better ever
afterward.
Ill. 1t is far easier to maintain the
productive capacity of a farm than
to restore ito exhaustits fecund.
ity, and then attemptits restoration
by buying costly commercial f%ertiliz.
ers, is wasteful and irrational.
Nv. The good farmer sells mainly
such products as are least exhaus.
tive.-Necessity may constrain him
for the first year or two, to sell
grain, or ever hay; but he will soon
send off his surplus mainly in the
form OF cOtton4or wool, or meat, OF
butter and cheese, or something else
that returns to the soil nearly all
that is taken from it. A bank ac-
count daily drawn upon, while moth
ing is deposited to it's credit, must
soon respond "No funds )" so with
a farm similarly treated.
V. Rotation is at least negative
fertilization.-It may not positively
enrich a firm ; it will at least retard
and postpone it's impoverishment.
He who grows wheat after wheat,
corn after corn, for twenty years,
will need to emigrate before that
term is fulfilled. The same farm can
not support (nor endure) him longer
than that. All our great wheat grow
ing sections of fifty years ago are
wheat growingno longer while Eng
land grows larger crops thereof on
the very fields that fed the armies of
Saxon Harold and William the Con-
queror. Rotation has preserved these,
as the lack of it ruined those.
vi. Wisdom is never dear, prov
ided the article be genuine-I have
known farmers who have toiled con-
stantly from daybreak till dark, vet
died poor, because, through ignor-
ance, they wrought to disadvantage.
If every farmer would devote two
hours of each day to reading and re-
fection, there would be fewer fail
ures in farming than there are.
VII. The best investment a farmer
can make for his children is that
which surroundsthe youth with the
rational delights of a beauteOus, at
tractiye home. The dwellings, may
be small and rude, yet a few flowers
will efnbeliish, as choice fruit. trees
will enrich and gladden. it; while
grass and shade are within the reach
of the humblest. Hardly any labor
done Oh a farm is so profitable as
that which makes the wife and chill
dren fond and proud of their home.
VILLA good, practical education
including a good trade, is a better
outfit for q youth than a grand estate
with the drawback of an empty
mind.-Many parents have shaved
and pinehed to leave their children
rich, when half the sum thus lavish
ed would have profted them far
more had it been devoted to the
cultivation of their minds, the en-
largelnent of their capacity to think,
observe and work. The one structure
that no neighborhood can afford to
do without is the schoolhouse.
KI. "a small library Of well select
ed books in his home has saved a
youth from wandering into the bale
full ways of the Prodiga1 Son. Where
paternal strictness and severity
would have bred nothing but dislike
and q liked resolve to abscond at the
first opportunity, good books and
pleasant surroundings have weaned
many q youth from his first wild i'm.
pulse to go to sea OF cross the con-
tinent, and made him a docile, con-
tended, obedient, happy lingerer by
parental fireside. I'm q family.
however rich Or poor, no other good
s 80 cheap, so precious, as thought
i'll, watchful love.
q. Most men are born poor. but
10 man who has average capacities
md tolerable luck need romain SOL
And the farmers calling, though
,%roffering no sudden leaps, no ready
hort cuts to opulence, is the ~sr1rest
all ways from poverty and want
q eomfort and independence. Other
men must climb; the temperate,
rugal, diligent, provident farmer
nay gree into competence and every
ETERNAL accessory to happiness.
aach year of his devotion to his
homestead may find it more val
more attractive than the last
nd leave it better still.
farmers of Texas | / bring YOU.
old and homely truths. No
suggestion of this addressc can
g new TO all OF you. There are dis !