Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-06-27
Errors in Farming.

nc pflhclpal dlIuculty IN the way
of successful farming is the almost
universal desire and expectation Of
becoming suddenly rich. Farmers
have caught the inspiration Of the
age and easily become intoxicated
with the idea of rapidly becoming
wealthy. Unwilling to wait for the
somewhat slower and moro tedious
process Of sowing and reaping such
products as the farm should general
~ produce, they far too frequently
rush into some particular branch OF
agriculture entirely TO the neglect Of
many others, especially if there
seems to be money in it and by the
time that a majority Of farmers be-
come conveniently situated for rails
ing the special commodity there is q
ruinous decline of its market value,
and the unfortunate ones have to suf-
for the consequences, sometimes to
total bankruptcy.
Some years ago the hop fever was
raging in all it's fury, aud almost
every farmer, great and small, was
attacked with tho mania for hop
raising, Roots were bought ut ex-
orbtant prices, poles cut by hundreds
of thousands, and millions of dollars
expended in getting good ready
for making fortunes out of hops. A
few fortunate ones did make fortunes,
but the bulk Of hop-raiscrs lost vastly
more than they made, and some OF
them will never recover the loss they
sustained. The market became SO
overstocked with hops that they
could not be sold at any price, so
the roots had to be plowed up, and
the poles used for fencing or fire.
wood, while time, labor and money
were forever gone.
If wheat is in pretty good demand
for year or two, thousands Of ex-
ira acres are sown by excited farm
erss, and the result is glutted mar
ket and ruinous prices for year or
two and again some make and 9TH
ors break.
For the last two or three years
corn has been in good demand every
where, bringing the farmer very
handsome profits on his land and la
Dor, and now almost every farmer is
putting in the bulk of his land TO
corn aud we may confidently ex-
pect q crash in the corn trade bye
and bye. There is probably not
much danger tho present season, as
the supply of old corn is limited but
farmers will do well TO exercise
sound judgment in planting in tho fu-
ture.
When the pork market began to
be buoyant and active and the de-
mand continually increasing, farmers
made everything else give place to
hog raising; and wherever you went
for the last few years, you met with
hogs or hog buyers, or both and the
wonder was where all the pork came
from, and still greater wonder
what became Of it. But the turning
point came at lsst, and the price Of
pork began to gradually decline, un,
til hogs could be bought for ess than
half the market value Of the same :
few months previous, and still the
tendency is downward and when
and whore the market will become
permanent, it is difficult to conjeet-
ure.
The safest and surest policy, in the
long run, is to make a speciality OF
no particular kind of farm products,
but to raise general assortment OF
grain and stock, some of which will
be sure to DO profitable, while no
great risks are run in producing
them, 1t may, in some instances,
require little longer time to accum-
ulste riches, but it is by all odds the
safest investment, for it never &C.
ours that all kinds OF grain are fail
ure the same year, or the market
overstocked with all kinds of produce
| or stock at the same time.
Until recently there were very
few cheese factories in this section
of the country, but now they are be-
coming quite numerous, and cheese