Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-06-30
Greeley's Agricultural Maxims.

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He who sows or plants, without
reasonable assurance Of good crops
annually, might better earn wages
of some capable neighbor than work
for SO poor paymaster as he is
ain to prove himself.
II. The good farmer is proceed By
the steady appreciation Of his crops.
ANY one may reap al abundant
harvest from fertile virgin soil;
the good farmer alone grows good
crops at first, and better and better
afterward.
III. 1t IS far better to maintain
the productive capacity of a farm
than to restore 1t. To exhaust its
fecundity, and then attempt it's res
toration by buying costly CONNER
cial fertilizers, is wasteful and IT.
rational.
". The good farmer sells main
" sxch products as are least c;rhaus-
toe. Necessity may constrain him,
for the first year or two, to sell
grain, or even hay; but he will soon
send off his surplus in the form of
cotton or wool, or meat, or butter
and cheese, or something else that
returns to the soil nearly all that is
taken from it. A bank account
daily drawn upon, while nothing is
deposited to it's credit, must soon
respond, "No funds;" SO with a
farm similarly treated.
V. Rotation is at least negatire
fertilization. 1t may not positively
enrich a farm; it will at least rctard
and postpone it's impoverishment.
He who grows wheat after wheat,
corn after corn, for twenty years,
will need to emigratc 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 large
crops thereof on the very fields that
fed the armies of Saxon Harold and
William the Conqueror. Rotation
has preserved these, as the lack Of
it ruined those.
VI. Wisdom is mecer dear, pro-
ciaed the article is genuine. l have
known farmers who toiled constant
ly, from daybreak to dark, yet died
poor, because, through ignorance,
they wrought to disadvantage. If
every farmer would devote two
hours each day to reading and re-
Election, there would be fewer fail
ures in farming than there are.
VII. The best Investment q farm
er can make for his children Is that
,chich surrounds their youth vih
the rational delights Of q beauteous,
attractive home. The dwelling
may be small and rude, yet few
flowers will embcllish, as choice
fruit trees will enrich and gladden.
it; while grass and shade are with
in the reach of the humblest. Hard
" any labor done on a farm is so
profitable as that which makes the
wife and children fond and proud of
their home.
VIII. 4 good practical educa-
ton, including q good trade, IS q
better outfit for q youth than a good
estate Nth the Maacbach' Of an emp
tymind. Many parents have shaved
and pinched to leave their children
rich, when half the sum thus lavish
ed would have profited them far
s:aorc had it been devoted to the cul-
tivation of their minds, the enlarge
ment of their capacity to think, OBJ
serve and work. The one structure
that no neighborhood can afford to
do without is the school house.
IN. 4 small library of eceU Sc
lected books IN his home has sared
many q youth from acondering into
the baneful aeays Of the Pro0igal
Son. What paternal strictness and
severity would have bred nothing
but dislike and a fixed resolve to
abscond at the first opportunity,
good books and pleasant surround
ings have weancd many a youth
from the first wild impulse to 60 to
sea or cross the continent, and make
him a docile, obedient, contentcd,
happy lingerer by the parental fire
side. In a family, however rich or
poor, no other good is SO precious
as thoughtful, watchful love.
Y. Most men are born poor, but
no man acho has arerage copocities
and toleruble Mck need remain so.-
1al the farmers calling, though
HSudden leaps, no ready
nRce, is the surest
and want