Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-02-08
Maxims for Farmers.

THE following good maxims should be
carefully read and lived up to by all our
/ farmers. They are well worth preserving
| for constant reference:
/. Only good farming pays He who
sows without reasonable assurance of
good crops, annually, might better earn
wages OF some capable neighbor than
work for so poor paymaster as he is GER
( tain to prove himself
/ 2. The good farmer is proved such by
! the steady appreciation of his crops Any
one may reap an ample harvest from "a
fertile virgin soil; the good farmer alone
grows good crops at first, and better and
better afterward.
3. 1t is far easier to maintain the pro-
ductive capacity of a farm than TO restore
| it. To exhaust its fecundity, and then at
tempt its restoration by buying costly
commercial fertilizers, is wasteful and ir-
rational
4. The good farmer sells mainly such
products as are least exhaustive. Neces
sity may constrain him, for the first year
or two, to sell grain, or even hay; but he
will soon send off his surplus, mainly in
cotton, or wool, or meat, or butter and
cheese, or something else that return to
the soil nearly all that is taken from ii. A
bank account daily drawn upon, while
nothing is deposited to its credit, must
soon respond mo funds" So with a
farm similarly treated.
5. Rotation is at least negative fertiliZa-
ton. Ii may not positively enrich farm,
il will at least retard and postpone its i'm
poverishment He who grows wheat
after wheat, corn after corn, for twenty
years, will need to emigrate before the
term is fulfilled. The same farm cannot
support Tor endure) him longer than
that. All our 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. Rotation has preserved these
as the lack of it has ruined those.
6. Wisdom is never dear, provided the
article be genuine. | have known farm
ers who toiled constantly from daybreak
to dark yet died poor, because, through
ignorance, 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
T. The best investment a farmer can
make for his children is that which sur
rounds their youth with the rational de-
lights of d beauteous, attractive home.
The dwelling may be small and rude, vet
a few flowers will enrich and gladden. it
while grass and shade are within reach of
the humblest. Hardly any labor done on
farm is SO profitable as that which makes
the wife and children fond and proud of
their home.
s. A good, practical education, includ-
ing a good trade, is a better outfit for
youth than a rand estate, with the draw
back Of an empty mind. Many parents
have shaved and pinched to leave their
children rich, when half the sum thus
lavished would have protited. them far
more had it been devoted to the educa-
ton Of their mind, the enlargement of
their capacity tothink, observe and work.
The one structure that no ncighbOrhOod
can afford TO do without is the school
house.
9. \ small library Of well-seiccled books
in his home has saved many q youth from
wandering into the baneful ways OF the
prodigal son. Where the parental strict
ness and severity would have bred moth
ing but dislike and fixed resolution TO
abscond at the first opportunity, good
books and pleasant surroundings have
wcaned many youth from his first wild
impulse to go to sea or cross the CONT
nent, and made him dociIc, contcnted,
obedient, happy lingcrer by the parental
tireside. In family, however rich or
poor, no other food is so cheap or Sc pre-
cious as thoughtful, watchful love.
10. Most men are born poor, but no man,
who has average capacities and tolerable
luck, need remain so. And the farmers
calling, though profiering no sudden leaps,
no ready short cut TO opulence, is the
surest of all ways from poverty and want
to comfort and independence. Other
men must climb the temperate, frugal,
diligent. provident farmer may gov into
competency ald every accessory to eternal
happiness. Each year Of his devotion 10
his homestead may find it more valuable,
more attractive than the last, and leave
it better still