The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1873-12-13
En1,lllinn

That there are great many difficulties en-
barrassing the operations of the farmers, that in
financial point of view they are obliged to la
Dor under some hardships, everybody who is at
all posted must admit. But we are not ready to
admit that all the complaints they make are laid
at the right door or that the fancy remedies they
seek will be efficacious in producing the desired
results. That the farming interest requires some
legislation to promote its welfare all who under
stand the question concede. Farmers are dis
posed to think that they are about the hardest
worked and poorest paid people that we have.
They think that nobody works 50 hard as they
and yet they are obliged to take what they can
get for their produce. They are inclined to
think that all other occupations are combined
against them for their own advantage and against
the farming interest. He thinks he is consulted
about nothing and obliged to submit tamely to
the whim, wish or dictate of the balance of the
world. These things we do not concede Many
farmers are wont to take the richest men of other
classes and point to them as representatives OF
that class. They then take the farmer in his
most unfavorable aspect and draw their invidi-
Gus comparisons. They will take some success
full dry goods man and show by him what easy
times and fortunes of money this class can COM
mand. 1t is true Hamilton Easter is worth his
hundreds of thousands. But he is one in hun
dred. Baltimore street can show ninety failures,
where the parties that started with few thous-
ands are pennlless where it can show FIVE sue
cessful men in this business. Some lawyers at
tend closely to their business work day and
night and get rich. Some make respectable
living by hard work. Many struggle through
life always in debt and die insolvent The same
is true of physicians, manufacturers, carpenters
and others. The rich in any occupation are the
exceptions. They acquire it by devoted atten.
ti5H, hard work and economical management as
a rule. There are exceptions that can be attrb-
uted to fortuitous circumstances.
What is true of other occupations is mainly
true of farming. II there is any difference that
difference is in favor of the farming interest. We
consider it entirely safe to assert that no other
occupation can show such large proportion of
those engaged in it who have comfortable homes
and make good livings as farming. A man who
has farm, if he attends to his business, has a
permanent home with the means of a comfort
able living for life. 1t never happens that all
crops fail. That popularity of season which
destroys one crop frequently makes another one
extra good. We have in our mind number OF
cases that will Offset the rich men in other occu-
pations. We know of men who have commenc-
ed with nothing but their honest, industrious
hands who have purchased and paid for several
farms and made all the money at farming-and
some of these people after owning three or four
farms have piles of mortgages besides for money
loaned. If the poor farmer who is sold out for
debt is an argument in favor OF the hardships of
farming, the man who makes all his money at
the business &c purchase three or four farms is
an equally fair argument that the business is a
good one. We know of folks who have rented
farms, paid high rents for them, hired all the anor
necessary to operate them and have made money
enough in few years to purchase farms for
$40, 900 and $4,000. We know people now
who are engaged in farming rented farms and
who are making money at the business. 1t is
the man-not the occupation-that in many in
stances makes the money. The man who rents,
attends to his business, watches bis interest, can
by the appliance of industry and economy, in a
few years, purchase and pay for the farm Of the
man who began with good farm we'll stocked,
if he is indolent, careless and inatentive to bis
business.