Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-09-01
Farm and FareS1,de.
DOES F.sR.nI.NE P.gx',

Does cotton and wooden manufacturing
pay ? Yes, but the man who attempted to
make cloth by the old mcthcd and bung-
ling machinery would grow poor while
others grew rich.
Does wagon and carriage making pay ?
Yes, but the maker who should revise the
old methods, turn out his hubs with foot
lathe and get out his spokes with a draw
shave, wouldn't make it pay.
Does any branch of business pay? Only
as it adopts the now and improved meth
DDS of the day. The same is true of farm
ing. II pays only those farmers who adopt
new and improved methods of cultivating,
harvesting and keep abreast of the times.
The following sensible rem arks we clip
from the Agriculturist:
We often hear il said there IL no longer
any money in farming. In tho course OF
our experience we have heard similar
statements concerning other occupations.
A printer, adhering in these days to the
old-fashioned handpress, might make the
same complaint, and with as much justice
AS the present farmer, who carries on oper-
atoms in the old style, or carpenter who
makes his holdings by hand and planes
boards. The improvements in machinery
Of all kinds have so quickcned the demand
for labor in every branch of industry, that
the farmer as well az the mechanic must
abandon hand labor and use machinery, or
his profits must be eaten up in expenses.
Hay may be made and put in the barn by
machinery now at the rate of one dollar
per acre. BY hand the cost would be four
dollars. The old style of crop is half ton
per acre now three times that is II fair
crop. The difference is just that between
eight dollars per ton and sxty-six cents.
The wide awake farm. er has this difference
for his profit, eight dollars being about the
market price for hay in many places. The
same is true of most other crops, grain and
roots especially. In feeding stock and
making and using manures, equally large
differences result. So of breeding stock !;
the old style rooter, and the modern Berk-
shire, are not more unlike than are their
several values when made into pork. The
same of the ill-fed, roush-coatod native
heller and the sleek, well-fed grade Jer-
sey or Ayrshire. The same is true of many
farming communities in respect to roads,
fences and schools.
All these must he fitted up with modern
Improvements, or farming as a business
must suffer. We know whereof we speak
when we emphatically deny that farming
is an Improbable business. The capital
invested will, if rightly used, return in this
branch of industry as good an interest as
in any other, besides having the invaluable
merit of indestructibility. A workshop or
factory may burn up, but land remains not
only intact, but from uncomfortable cir
cumstances is ever advancing in value. So
The labor of the farmer is sure of some re-
Enumeration if properly directed. Poor
farms and poor farmers are the ones whose
crops fail through drouth or excessive wet.
ON properly conducted farm these may
damage the crop, bnt will never destroy it.
Tie divine promise OF seed-time and
harvest is for the especial benefit of the
farmer; but ii rests with himself in
great measure whether the fulfllment
comes to him individually, or whether his
more enterprising neghbor secures it.