The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-05-07
evening Stats autlrmal,
TUESDAY EVENING, MAY z, 1872.
Does Farming Pay!


do these questions sound? And yet they
are as reasonable as the one we are come
to consider. Tell me of tho capacity of
the doctor, of the tailor; tell me of his To-
cation, and his aptitu6e for the business,
and can answer. Tell me Of what ma
terial you propose to make a farmer tell
me of his habits, and of the condition of
his soil and markets, and can tell you if
he will find profit, or none, and this,
without regard to Liebig, short-horns, OF
the mineral theory.
Successful farming, it must be UNDER
stood, is not that which secures a large
monied result this year, and the next
year, and the year after but it is that
which ensures to the land a constantly ac-
cumulating fertility, in connection with re-
munerative results. The theory of the ag-
ricultural doctors, that every year as much
of the nutritive elements of land should be
restored, as the annual cropping removes,
may be good ruling for virgin soil, or for
the Lothians or Belgian gardens; but for
neglected or poor soil, larger restoration
is needed--if not by manures, then by TIL
lage OF drainage. Exact equipoise is diff
cult, and implies no advance. 1t is neither
easy nor desirable to be forever balancing
ones self upon tight rope. II progress
sive farming will not pay, it is quite GER
tain that no other farming will.
know there are many quite old gentle-
men among the hills, who have sleepy
way of putting in their corn patch year af-
ter year, and sleepy way of clearing out
their meagre pittance Of drenched manure,
and a sleepy way of never spending, who
drop off some day, leaving money in their
purse but such success does not tempt
the young it gives no promise of a career.
''Pork and cabbage for dinner, and the
land left lcan," might be written on their
gravestones.
The faculty of not-spending is cultivated
by many farmers great deal more faith
fully than their lands but the faculty of
right-spending is at the bottom of all signal
success in agriculture, as in other business
pursuits. This kind of enterprise is what
farmers specially lack, and the lack is due
to the secure tenure by which they hold
their property. The shop-keeper who
turns his capital three or four times in
year, and who knows that an old stock of
goods will involve heavy losses, is stimu-
lated to constant activity and watchfulness.
The farmer, on the other hand, inheriting
his little patch of land, and feeling reasona-
bly, sure Of his corn and bacon, and none Of
that incentive which attends risks, Yields
himself to stolid indifference, that over
lays all his faculties. Yet some of the ag-
ricultural papers tell us, with pride, that
bankruptcies among farmers are rare.
Pray why should they not be rare? The
man who never mounts ladder will most
surely never have fall from one.
Dash, enterprise, spirit, wakefulness,
have their hazards, and always will but il
man sleep, the worst that can befall him
is only bad dream. This lethargy on the
part Of so many who are content with their
pork dinners and small spendings, is very
harmful to the agricultural interests of the
country. Young America abhors sleepi-
ness, and does not grayitate of choice to-
ward pursuit which seems to encourage
it, The conclusion and the conviction have
been with earnest young men, that a pro-
fession which did not stimulate to greater
activity and larger triumphs, and a more
Christian amplitude Of life, could not be
worth the following. Nothing about it or
IN it seemed to have affinity with the great
springs of human progress elsewhere a
lumpish, serf life, it seemed-bound to the
glehe. and cropping its nourishment thence,
like kline.
Again, the extravaganza of those who
have undertaken farming as mere amuse-
ment, has greatly damaged It's character as
pursuit worthy the enlistment of earnest
workers. Our friend, Mr.. Tallweed, who,
with his Wall street honors fresh upon
him, comes to the country to grow toma-
toes at cost of five dollars the dozen, and
who puts sack of superphosphate to a
garden row of sweet corn, may make mon
strosities for the exhibition tables, but he
is not inviting emulation I; he is simply
committing an agricultural debauch; and
an agricultural debauch pays no better
than any other.
But between these extremes, there is
room for sober business faculty and for
an array of good sense. With these two
united, success may be counted on; not
brilliant, perhaps, for in farming there are
no opportunities for sudden or explosive
success. The farmer digs into no gold
lead. He springs no trap like the lawyer
or tradesman. His successes, when most
decided, are orderly, normal, and cumu-
lative. He must needs bring cool tenn
per, and the capacity-to wait. If he
plant thousand guineas, however judic
ously, they will not sprout tomorrow
There have been, | know, Multicaulic
fevers and Peabody seedlings, but these
are exceptional; and the prizes which
come through subordination of the Paten