Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-16

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Success and Independence are sure to come
to him who follows them: &
!. Only good farming pays. he who
sows or plants without reasonable insurance
OF good crops, annually, might better earn
wages OF some capable neighbor than work
1or SO poor paymaster as he is certain to
prove himself. SEE
z. The good farmer is proved such by
the steady appreciation Of his crops. Any
one may reap an ample harvest from fer
tile virgin soil; the good farmer alone
grows good crops at first, and better and
better ever afterward.
8. 1t is far easier to maintain the pro-
duetive capacity of farm than to restore
it. To exhaust its fecundity, and then at
tempt its restoration by buying costly COM
mercial fertilizers, is wasteful and IRA
tional.
Z 4. The good farmer sells mainly such
products as are least exhaustive. Neces-
sty may constrain him, for the first year or
two, to sell grain, or even lay; but he will
soon send Off his surplus, mainly in cotton,
or wool, or meat, or butter and cheese, or.
Something else that returns to the soil near
ly all that is taken from it. A bank account
tied TO its credit, must soon respond sno
funds" So with farm similarly treated.
3. Rotation is at least negative fertiliza-
ton. 1t may not positively enrich farm;
1t will at least retard and postpone its i'm
poverishment. he who grows wheat after
wheat, corn after corn, for twenty years,
viii need to emigrate before that term is
fulfilled. The same farm cannot support
Cor endure) him longer than that. All our
great wheat growing sections of fifty years
ago are wheat growing no longer; while
England grows larger crops thereof on the
very fields that fed the armies of Saxon
Harold and William the Conqueror. Rota-
ton has preserved these as the lack of it has
ruined those.
6. Wisdom is never dear, provided the
article be genuine. | have known farmers
who toiled constantly from daybreak to
dark yet died poor, because, through igno-
rance, 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 at present.
Z. The best investment a farmer can make
for bis children is that which surrounds
their youth with the rational delights of
beauteous, attractive home. The dwelling
may be small and rude, yet a few flowers
viii enrich and gladden. it; while grass and
shade are within reach of the humblest
Hardly any labor done on farm is so prof
liable as that which makes the wife and chill
dren fond and proud of their home.
s. A good, practical education, including
a good trade, is better outfit for a youth
than grand estate, with the drawback of
an empty mind. Many parents have shaved
and pinched to leave their children rich,
when half the sum thus lavished would
have profted them far more had it been de-
voted to the education of their minds, the
enlargement of their capacity TO think, OBJ
serve and work. The one structure that
no neighborhood can afford to do without
is the schoolhouse.
9. A small library of well selected books
in his home has saved many youth from
wandering into the baneful ways of the
prOdigal son. Where parental strictnesS
and severity would have bred nothing but
dislike and fixed resolution to abscOnd at
the first opportunity, good books and pleas
ant surroundings have weaned many a
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 fireside. In family, how
ever rich or poor, no other good is so cheap
or so precious as thoughtful, watchful love.
s. Most men are born poor, but no man,
who has average capacities and tolerable
luck, need remain so. And the farmers
calling, though profering no sudden leaps,
no ready short cuts to Opulence, is the surest
of all ways from poverty and want to COM
fort and independence. Other men must
climb; the temperate; frugal, diligent, prov
ident farmer may grow into competency
and every accessory to eternal happiness.
Each year of his devotion to his homestead
may find it more valuable, more attractive
than the last, and leaves it better still.