The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-11-29
The Unprofita bleness Of Farming.

Politicians do not always hit the mai
on the head when talking to farmers
As q rule, the politician at the fair i:
the politician still, speaking for politca
effect. Now and then, however, he gets
astray from politics, and perhaps says
something of practical import to hi:
hearers. Such was the case with Gen
Butler, at the State Fair in New Hamp
shire, when he touched upon the unpro
ftableness of farming in these words:
at is complained that farming il
Improbable. Men are leaving the farm
and seeking employment in mannfac
! lures and the trade of the city. New
Hampshire, the agricultural part o
Massachusetts, of Maine, and Vermont
have gone back in population and ii
productive agricultural wealth in the
| last ten wears. Without seeking t.
touch all the reasons for it, may we moi
find it largely in this, that we ask too
much of the farm? Having a capita
of $4,000 or So, 600, or $4,000 invested
in it, we ask that the farm shall support
our families, educate our children, anC
give us a comparative wealth for ole
age beside.
And yet, do we treat it as othel
men do their business by which they
succeed? If we fail in getting all thi:
from it, we say at once that farming is
Improbable! We are unmindfal Of the
fact that in mercantile business onl V one
in u hundred is fairl y successful, anC
only one in thousand eminently So
Does not farming do as well as that
and better? Does onl y one in hun
bred farmers succeed to competency
And vet do we not deal with our farms
in the same way that we have seen that
the nation does with its producers? Dc
we not take everything off and put com
paratively nothing on the land?
"In every other business of life al
the gains man gets he Immediately
puts back into his business. The mer
chant increases his capital year by year
from gains of the preceding year, if he
| is a prudent man, until it becomes as
large as he can profitably manage But
if the farmer makes any surplus on hi:
farm, as a rule, does he return to his
land, either in increased facilities fol
farming, in enriching the soil, adding te
his stock, or draining his land? On
the contrary, is he not much more likely
/ to invest in railroad shares, or bonds, or
some manufacturing enterprise, or loan
it to some neighbor? Having taken
away from the farm what the farm has
brought to him, and ought to be return
ed to it again, to make it productive, he
leaves it impoverished, and then COM
plains that gains do not increase
"Is it not the difficulty that he is
continually taking away the increase Of
his capital and leaving it only what it
was at the beginning? The merchant
as we have seen, increases his capital
year by year; but the farmer too FIRE.
quently takes his and invests it in other
enterprises, and then complains that
the farm does not succeed. No farmer
that ever heard Of ever mortgaged his
farm to buy manure to put On it; yet
men do frequently mortgage their farms
for the purpose of building fine house:
and may take all the earnings of the
farm for ten years for that purpose
The mortgage, or the indictment, once
on farm, as a rule in the past except
in the change of fortune made by the
change of prices arising from the war
remains for years, if not forever"
Rural Home.