Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-09-23
Results of Good Farming.


THERE is no more important or effective
incentive to good farming than the expe-
rlence and success of good farmers. What
has been done once may be done again,
and the following letter from a New
Hampshire farmer to the Mirror and
Farmer of that State does not exceed the
practical results which we have known in
many other instances:
q am what might be termed an ent hui
siastic farmer | believe that farming,
when conducted with the skill, economy
and enterprise that characterizes most
other fields of industry, affords ample re-
Enumeration; that it is conducive TO a bet
ter physical development; that its lessons
and surroundings promote higher moral
and spiritual development than any of the
numerous avocatiOns of mankind; and
therefore it pays. Nine years ago last fall
| purchased the farm upon which | now
reside, paying therefor So, 400-running in
debt $500 on the purchase. For about
three years previous to my purchase the
farm had been rented, and about seven
teen years previous to that the owner
made a yearly practice Of selling about
four tons, or one-half of the English hay,
returning no equivalent therefor. He
usually kept three COWS, horse and
pair Of oxen most of the time. He cut, as
[ am informed about eight tons of En-
gIish hay, and about the same of meadow
and stock hay.
" During the nine years Of my owner
ship, [ have paid for farm help, 81 1914. |
have purchased 1 1877 Oushele of corn, at
cost Of 81 ,O69.70; 1919 tons of shorts, cost
ing 1878; lave paid out $3.50 for hay;
purchased $40 worth of manure, ashes,
ETC., amounting in all to $3,921.79. My I
Improvements during this period con-
sisted Of erecting new barn, 38X80, with
all the modern improvements, digging
well some seventy rods away, and supply
ing both house and barn with running
water, putting in about 100 rods of under
drain, removing hundreds of tons Of rocks
from the fields, and bringing the land to
such state of cultivation as to cut last
year twenty tons Of bay, where eight was
CuG DCICiS, WIutCIIuS IIOlC IlIdu llbuUIG
the stock the place was able to carry when
[ purchased it. Such an outlay would =
cause many doubts and fears in the minds,
of timid farmers as to the financial result.
Now for the receipts: During these nine
years | have sold from the dairy, besides
what was consumed by the family, land
that not small One) 8,51Spounds of butter
for s., 648.56; calves and veal sold, $685.
AZ; have fattened and slaughtered 1882
pounds of pork, worth at the time of
slaughtering $1,215; pigs sold, 1882;
poultry and eggs $713.22; for apples, 1896,
potatoes, $147.50; for beef and mutton,
$3.50, making total of 81, 089.70.
But this showing does not embrace
the expenses required in maintaining a
family, and all other expenses incident to
living [ find, by footing the yearly re-
ceipts and expenditures from all sources,
that the account stands as follows: Total
receipts, S12315.55; expenditures, Sill
27568; balance of receipts over expenses,
81 ,039.S7 But this is not all An in
ventory of the stock on the farm over
what it was nine years ago amounts to
about 1925. But to tell the whole story in .
as few words as possible, the debt of $500
has been wiped out, 1925 worth of land
added to the farm, all improvements above
enumerated, and little left for rainy
day. All this, let me assure you, has been
made from the legitimate operations on
the farm excepting about $3.50 made one i
season packing pork, and about 500 in
cider apples to send down to
Massachusetts. Is not such result suffi- Z
Gent to satisfy any reasonable ambition?
Can one out of ninety nine in all other
callings show better record in the same
length Of time?
"The thousands of deserted homesteads
New Hampshire, the gradual
diminution of our rural population, and
the growth and increase of population IN
our cities and villages point Enthusiastically
to belief that farming is not remunerat
i've. This l unhesitatingly deny. If it
has proven unremunerative TO such. II is
only because Of bad management, indiffer-
ence and want of proper skill and enter
prise. This robbing the soil is what has
robbed YOU This fear of buying bushel
Of grain, of feeding your beasts with )
liberal hand, OF tlling your soil and
training it with a true appreciation of its
wants is what has wrought ruin in our
nidst."-Rural Neao Yorker