The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-01-26
Naxims for Farmers.

ABAluS LOI - AnOAo 1
The following good maxfns should
Ne carefully resd and lived up to by !
III farmers. They are well worth pre-
serving for constant reference:
1. Only good farming pays. he
who sows without reasonable assur.
ance of good crops, annually, might
better earn wages of some capable
neighbor than work for 80 poor q pay |
master as he is certain to prove him |
self.
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 after
ward.
8. 1t il far easier to maintain the
productive capacity of farm than to
restore 1t. To exhaust the fecundlty,
and then attempt its restoration by
buying costly commercial fertilizers,
is wasteful and irrational.
4. The good farmer sells mainly
such products as are least exhaustive.
Necessity may constrain him, for the
first year or two, to sell grain, or even
hay but he will soon send OF his,
surplus, mainly In cotton, or wool, or
meat, or butter and cheese, or some
thing else thst returns to the soil nearly
all that is taken from 1t. A bank &C.
count daily drawn upon, while nothing
il deposited to its CT edit, must soon re-
spond "no funds" So with farm SIM
ilarIy treated.
5. Rotation is at least negative fer
tilization. 1t may not positively en-
rich farm, it will at least retard and
postpone its impOverishment. He
who grows wheat after wheat, corn
after corn, for twenty years, will need
to emigrate befoi the term Is fulfilled.
The same farm cannot support Tor en-
dure) him longer than that. All cur
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 Copqueror. Rotation has pre-
served these as the lack of 1t has
ruined those.
9. Wisdom is never dear. provided the
article be genuine. have know n farm
ers who toiled constantly from day light
to dark yet died poor, because through
ignorance, they wrought to disad-
vantage. If every farmer would de.
vote two hours of each day to read
ing and reflection, there would be
fewer failures in farming than there
are at present.
Z. The best investments a farmer
can make for his children is that
which surround their youth with the
rational delights of beauteous. at.
tractive home. The dwelling may be
small and rude, yet few flowers will
enrich and gladden. it; while grass
and shade are within reach of the
humblest. Hardly any labor done on
farm is 80 profitable as that which
makes the wife and children fond and
proud of their home
S A good, practical education, in
Guiding a good trade, is q better outfit
for a youth than a grand estate, with
the drawback of an empty mind.
Many parents have shaved and pinch
ed to leave their children rich, when
half the sum thus lavished would
have profited them far more had il
been devoted to the education of theii
mind, the enlargement of their Ca
pacity to think, observe and work
The one structure that no neighbor-
hood can afford to do without is the
schoolhouse.
9. A small library of well selected
books in his home has saved many 9
youth from wandering into the bane'
full ways of the prodigal son. Where
parental strictness and severity would
have bred nothing but dislike and 9
fixed resolution to absc0nd at the first
opportunity, good books and pleasant
surroundings have weaned many q
youth from his first wild impulse to
go to sea or cross the continent, and
made him a docile, contenled; Obedi-
ent, happy lingerer by the paternal
fireside. In family, however rich OF
poor, no other food is so cheap or sc
precious as thoughtful, watchful love
10. Most men are born poor, but nc
man, who has average capacities and
tolerable luck, need remain so. And
the farmers calling, though proffer-
ing no sudden leaps, no ready short
cuts to Opulence, il the surest of all
ways from poverty and want to COM
fort and independence. Other men
must climb; the temperate, frugal,
diigent, provident 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
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