Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-27
Daily Afnarbef Sourml,
MAINS FOR GENERAL APPLICATION.

|. only good Farming pays. He who
sows or plants without reasonable assur-
ance of good crops annually, might better
earn wages of some capable neighbor
than work for so poor paymaster as he
is certain to prove himself.
III. The good farmer is prored Such by
The steady appreciation Of has crops. Any
one may reap an ample harvest from a
fertile virgin soil the good farmer alone
grows good crops at first, and better and
better ever afterward.
III. His far easter TO maintain The pro-
ductire capacity ola farm than to restore 1t.
To exhaust its fecundity, and then attempt
its restoration by buying costly commercial
fertilizers, is wasteful and irrational.
w. The good farmer sells mainly such
products as are least e1haustice. Necessity
may constrain him, for the first year OF
two, to sell Grain, or even Hay; but he
will soon send off his surplus mainly in
the form Of Cotton, or Wool, or Meat, or
Butter and Cheese, or something else that
returns to the soil nearly all thai is taken
from it. A bank account daily drawn
upon, while nothing is deposited to its
credit, must soon respond mo funds" so
with farm similarly treated.
V. Rotaliou IS at least Negative Fertilisa-
ton. 1t may not positively enrich farm !;
it will at least retard and postpone its inn
poverishment.sE He who grows Wheat
after Wheat, Corn after Corn, for twenty
years, will need to emigrate before that
term is fulfilled. The same farm cannot
support (nor endure) him longer than that.
All our great Wheat-growing sections of
fifty years ago are Wheat growing no
longer while England grows lager crops
thereof on the very fields that fed the ar
mics Of Saxon Harold and William the
Conqnerer. Rotation has preserved. these,
as the lack of it ruined those
vi. Wisdom is ,aever dear, pr0rided Mt
article be genuine. have known farmers
who toiled constantly from day break to
dark, yet died poor, because, through ig-
norance, they wrought to disadvantage
If every farmer would devote two hours
of each day TO reading and reflection,
there would be fewer failures in farming
than there are.
VII. The best Investment q farmer can
make for his children Is that which sur
rounds their youth scith the ratio,sal de-
lights of a 6eaMteons, attractive home. The
dwelling may be smalla and rude, yet a few
flowers will embellish, as choice fruit trees
viii enrich and gladden. it; while grass
and shade are within the reach of the
humblest. Hardly any labor done on a
farm is so profitable as that which makes
the wife and children fond and proud Of
their home
VIII. a good. practical Education, In
cluding a good trade, is better outfit for q
youth than grand estate wih the draw'
back Of an empty mind Many parents
have shaved and pinched to leave thcil
children rich when half the sum thus law.
ished would have profited them tar more
had it been devoted to the cultivation OF
their minds, the enlargement Of their ca
pac ty to think, observe and work. The
0neistructure that no neighborhOod can
afford to do without, is the school-house.
TX. a small library Of Aelt-selected
books in his home has sared many a youth
from scdndering into the bateful rays Of
the Prodigal Son. Where paternal strict
ness and severity would have bred moth
ing but dislike and fixed resolve to alb
scond at the first opportunity, good books
and pleasant surroundings have weaned
many youth from his first wild impulse
to 90 to sea or cross the continent. and
made him a docile, contented, obedient,
happy lingerer by the parental iire-side
In family, however rich or poor, nc
other good is so cheap or so precious as
thoughtful, watchful love.
X. Most men are born poor, but no ma,
scho has Average capacity ana. t0lera6le lucl
need remain so. And the farmers calling
though proffering no sudden leaps, nj
ready shortcuts to opulence. is the sures
Of all ways from poverty and want to com
fort and independence. Other men mus
climb the temperate, frugal, diligent
provident farmer may grow into compe
tence and every external accessory t
happiness. Each year of his devotion te
his homestead may find it more valuable
more attractive than the last, and leave il
better still.
Farmers of Texas / bring you mainly
old and homely truths. No single sugges-
ton of this Address can be new to all oil
you; most of them, presume, will be
familiar to all of you. There are discov-
cries in Natural Science and improve
ments in Mechanics which conduce to the
efficiency of Agriculture but the princi-
pies which underlie this first of arts are
old as Agriculture itself. Greek and Ro-
man sages made observations SO acute and
practical that the farmers OF to-day may
ponder them with profit, while modern
literature is padded with essays on farm
ing not worth the paper they have spoiled
And yet the generation whereof l am par
has witnessed great strides in your voca
ton, while the generation preparing tt
take our places will doubtless witness still
greater. bid you hold fast to the good
with minds receptive of and eager for the
better, and rejoice in your knowledge tina
there is no nobler pursuit and no more in
viting soil than those which you proudly
call your own.-Horace Greeley.