Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-03-19
why Farming Don't Pay.

slgnt OF tnls capUOni Nv mats the use saying
that, when we know farming does pay2"
Well, that is very natural question. 1t
has been demonstrated beyond the possibility
of doubt that farming docs pay. We see
men all about us who have accumulated their
thousands upon the farm, beside having more
Of the real epjOyments of life, for themselves
and their families, as they went along, than
are enjoyed by the city or village merchant
who has made large fortune "wthout hard
work. That is the way it is often put
"without hard work" But thousands of
broken-down and prematurely old business
men, thousands Of families whom they have
left behind when they have gone the long
journey, attest that the work is hard. Yes,
the constant mental strain, the worry and bus.
tie of business life, meeting sharp practice
with sharp practice, keeping constantly on
the alert to win ones way among others
equally as shrewd, equally as watchful, is far
harder work than holding the pillow, loading
hay, or chopping wood, care-free. The &C.
tive business man finds himself far more com.
pletely exhausted after his long days men
tai labor than does the farmer who, quitting
the field at supper time, has MIXED his COWS,
done the "chores," and finds himself entirely
at leisure. Some imagine that because the
farmer generally takes moro sleep he evident.
ly is more wearied by his work. The fact
is the business man, who gets along with
three or four hours sleep per day, needs
eight or nine just as much as the farmer,
but by habit he has accustomed himself to
the smaller amount, aud what results
While he rests ia the churchyard at forty or
fifty, the farmer sees his three score years
and ten.
Allowing, then, that the work Of the mer-
chant is as firing and wearing as that Of the
farmer (much more so we claim) what does
he gain in return. The intelligent, indus
trious farmer is morally sure Of a comforta.
bic property by the time he reaches middle
life. Some business men succeed and amass
fortunes, but what proportion? Not more
than one in hundred We see men on the
farm, in the shop, everywhere, who have at
some time or other embarked in mercantile
pursuits, and failed. We see merchants all
around us who still cling to the business, aud
who pay heavy rates of interest on the capt.
tai they use. Every little while they will
go through bankruptcy or settle with their
creditors at from 10 70 IS cents on the dol.
lar, and then go on again, as though nothing
had happened By.and-by death comes,
and the administrator finds the estate able
to pay 20 or 30 cents on the dollar. This
is the case by far the greater number of
times. When we come to look closely at the
matter, then, we find that mercantile bust
ness isn't always all profit and no loss. Mer-
chants sometimes find that trading don't pay,
but they don't 60 crying the fact in every
body's ears through the mercantile journals,
as we see farmers so often doing by their &C.
cupItiOn through the agricultural press.
Why is it that so many farmers are found
ready to cry out Charming don't pay" while
so few business men will say the same of
their business, in public, when the fact is
that farming pays better both in dollars and
cents and in real enjoyment than any other
occupation, as a rule. Probably the fact
that the business man is trained through all
his life to shrewdness and to keep his busi-
ness to himself is one reason, but another
reason is the fact that certain class of
slovenly, slack, lazy, unthrifty farmers, who
do not make farming pay and who could not
even get living in any other business on
earth, are forever growing. We have small
sympathy for this class, and n fact this is
the only class who find upon making the trial
that farming don't pay"
Tho fact is that the farmer to be success
full, must be industrious and intelligent. In
telligence is necessary in every other branch
Of business, and it is e mistake which is too
common to think that in farming it is not
necessary. The man must know what he is
oughly, but that is not enough. We have
known men who were intelligent enough but
who could never make farming pay. As
they were passing home from forenoons
work if they saw rail of the fence they
did not deem it worth their while to stop
then and put it up, because there were no
cattle near. Their chores were never done.
Before what should have been done in the
morning was done, it was evening When
there was fine day in spring to work on
the land they were at the village trading
horses, or attending an auction, and when the
warm rain which should have been sprouting
their crops came, the seed was safe in the
granary. When the grain was ripe and
there was fine harvest weather they were
away specializing in buying and selling stock,
or at the village talking politics, and the
next week when heavy rain was lodging
and Smelling their gram they were lounging
about the house, growing that there always
came up storm when they wanted to work
The trouble with this kind of farmers, the
reason why alarming don't pay" with them,
can be given in one word "Shiftessness."
To make farming both profitable and
pleasant, one needs only those qualities
which are necessary in other callings to pro-
duce fair Observation-Disclosures and applica-
ton. The farmer who is full of the snap
and spring of life, who never trusts impor-
tant matters to hired help, who is never
afraid of soiling his fingers or getting tired,
but who, while active mentally il ready 10