The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-04-10
Business iaa Farming.

A writer in the journal of the Farm
says: 1t has been q matter of surprise
sometimes, TO farmers and others, to
see business men from the cities, with
no practical acquaintance with agricul-
ture, go out into the country, purchase
farms and manage them probably,
while experienced farmers about them
failed lamentably, and yet it is not un-
frequently the case. The reason is at
tributable to the adoption in farm
management of the same business prin-
ciples which achieved success in the
| city. The CITY d a may pretend to
know nothing of farming, but as a first
step, he knows enough to employ a
manager who does-satisfying himself
first of his capacity. In making pur-
'chases of stock and tools, he knows that
the lowest priced are not necessarily
the cheapest; nor having been quick to
adopt any improvement that would
cept all the traditional practices of
farmers as to culture, simply because
they learned them of their fathers or
their grandfathers. He knows, too,
that it must be poor business to farm
bl1ndly, to work, hire laborers, raise
crops and not know what the profit is,
or whether there is q profit at all. He
knows, also, that there must be the
most economical system of farming
which feeds both the soil and his stock
all that they can profitably use, and
that limit he makes it a point to study
out. And in scores of other ways his
business sagacity and foresight are
brought into requisitiOn. .~
The more / see of farming the more
| am convicted that its failures are due
to the neglect of business habits and
lack of skill. Farming is adopted by
tens of thousands as if it were a pursuit
in which any man al sueceed-any
man even not fit for anything else.
It requires q general knowledge of
Natures laws applied to vegetation, to
stock breeding and the care of stock,
sects (friendly and unfriendly) and the
relations of the atmosphere to soil and
vegetation /; the value and quality of
farm machinery must also be estimated;
the capacity to buy and sell wisely must
exist; to plan and execute and to
manage hired men successfully and
yet thousands who have never succeed
ed anywhere, fancy that at farming
they car succeed as we'll as any body!
And farmers themselves, who have
worked hard and denied themselves all
their lives, often profit so little by
observation that an intelligent son is
encouraged to be a clerk, doctor or
lawyer while stupid ones are deemed
sufficiently qualified for farming!
"Those who know nothing fear moth
ing" is al adage, and it applies to a
great many people who attempt the
culture of the soil. And the 0 he
learns about it the more he sees there
is to learn in order to make success
tolerably uniform, and the more
forcibly he realizes his ignorance of a
subject which requires the deepest
knowledge of Natures mysteries. &
1t farming is not respected as much
as farmers would like, it is because of
the narrow and contemplate views
they themselves cherish respecting it.
If it is less profitable than most profess
siOns and business eallings, it is because
of the shocking lack of business habits
and capacity. among farmers. Business
men look to skill, tact, improvements in
modes and machinery and to combina-
tions, for speedy success. They don't
worship routine, nor cling to old habits
because their grandfathers taught them
+" thus and sO.n They compete when it
pays, and whensit pays better to COM
bine they combine. There may be jeal-
ousies and rIvalries among them, but
they drop them all for the Indictment
of The main chance. t
The present depression in farming, |
while hard to bear, will do good. 1t
awakens thought in minds unused to
such thinking; it forces a study of the
situation. It is showing farmers how
stupidity they acted in blindly following
political leaders; in ~neglecting or con-
temptously rejecting all cooperative
efforts, and in suppesing that they
handed, isolated, and with lit
tie capital, could hold tlleirjown against
the Entertainments of the great monopo-
lies which live by handling the pro-
duets. Apparent calamnities often
turn out to be BLESSINGS, and hence the
present cloud hanging over the farming
interest is not without the usual silver
of other clouds.
g