The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-05-02
Farm, Garden, and Household.
Maxims for Farmers.

Ihese maXims are the concentration OF
wisdom on ne farm, ano we hope our read
ers will cut them out and preserve them.
They should be posted up in a conspicuous
place and read every day. Success and in
dependence are sure to come to him who
follows them:
l. Only good farming pays. He who
soW> or plants without reasonable assur-
ance OF good crops annually, might better
earn wages OF some capable neighbor than
work for so poor a paymaster as he is GER
tain to prove himself.
2. The good farmer is proved such bv
the steady appreciation of his crops. Anv
one may reap an ample harvest from fer
tile virgin soil, and good farmer alone
grows good crops at first, and better and
better ever atterwaid
3. 1t is TAR easier to maintain the pro-
ductive capacity OF a farm than to restore
1t. To exhaust is fecundity, and then at
Tempt It's restora ion by buying costly com
mercial fertilizers is wastefu and irrational.
T. The good farmer sells mainly such
products as are least exhaustive. Necessity
may conStran MIN 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 batter and cheese, or
something else that returns to the soil near
~ all that is taken from 1t. A bank account
daily drawn upon while nothing is deposit
I'd to its credit must soon respond "no
funds" So with a farm similarly treated,
.. Rotation Is at least negative fertiliZa-
tion. Ii may not positively enrich a farm;
1t will al least retard and postpone it's i'm
poverishment He who grows wheat after
wheat, corn after corn, for 90 years, will
need to emigrate before that term is fulfill
ed The same farm cannot support Cor en-
dure) him longer than that All our great
wheat growing section OF so years ago are
wheat growing no longer; while England
grows larger crops thereof on the very
fields that ted the armies of Saxon Harold
and William the Conqueror. station has
preserved these as the lack of it has ruined
those.
8. 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 70 reading and reflection, there
would be fewer failures In farming than
there are at present
+. The best investment a farmer can
make for his children is that which sur
rounds their youth with the rational de-
lights Of a beauteous, attractive home. The
dwelling may be small and rude, vet few
H0wel- Will enrich and gladden. it, while
grass and shade are within reach of the
humbest. Hardly any labor done on a farm
Is so profitable as that which makes the
wife and children fond aud proud of their
children.
8. a good practcll education, including
a good trade, j. Il better outfit for youth
than a grand estate, with the drawback of
aB empty mind Many parents have shaved
and pnched To leave their children rich,
when half the sum thus lavished would
have prOHtted them far more had it been
devoted to the education Of their minds
the enlargement of their capacity to think,
observe and WORK. The one structure that
no nei4hh0rhood can afford to do without
is the school house.
8 A small library of wel-selected books
in his hone has saved many youth from
into the baneful ways of the
prodigal son. Where parental strictness
and severity would have bred nothing but
dislike and a fixed resolution to abScond
st the first opportunity, good books and
pleasant surroundings have weaned many
youth from his wild imouIse to go to sea or
cross the continent, and made him docle,
contented, obeiient, happy lingerer by the
parental Hr'sldt In a family, however rich
or poor, no other good is so cheap or so
precious IS thoughtful, watchful love.
TO- Most mpn are b ,rn poor, but no
man, who na1 avarage capacities and toer-
able luck need remain so. And the farmers
calling, tn ugh Protferng no Sudden leaps,
no ready short cus 10 opnlence, is The
sureSt of all ways from poverty and want
TO comfott anu independence. O her men
must CLIMB; The temperable, frugal, digent,
provldent farmer may grow into compe-
tency and every accessory to eternal happi
ness Each year of his devotion to his
homestead mty mud it m 're valuable, more
attractive than the last, and leave it better
afiIl