The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-02-17
M|ht 1ara..
The Best-Paying Crops.

Every once in while some poor fell
lows's head is turned at the report of
some other body's success with some
one crop or another The figures are
astounding. He firmly believes that
what one man has done another can do,
and he ventures in the same field, only
to lose in some cases all. And yet it
is true that almost all the best success
in farming or gardening comes from
close attention to some one crop, spe-
cially and above all.
But no one can tell another what is
best for him to grow. Even when the
soil is specially adapted to certain
crop, there are all the little details of
practical culture to be mastered and
even then the question of marketing
enters largely into the success of the
experiment
1t is often matter Of envy with farm
ers of certain class, that mercantile
affairs should seem to make more salts
factory ventures than farming but it is
seldom thought over how these very
successful businesses are established.
There is no reason why just the same
processes may not lead to great sue
cesses on the land as in stores; indeed
it is common experience that 1t is so.
Hundreds of men every year make
money to their entire satisfaction out
of agricultural or horticultural pursuits.
They are not so well-known- do not
make as much show as the stOrekecper
-agriculturists are too much scattered
to make this imposing appearance-but
the profits we speak of are there as
surely in the one case as in the other.
These successful businesses are SIM
ply the result of series of experiments
as to what can best be done. Hardly
business that we know Of that may be
pointed out as illustrative of great sue
cess, achieved that success in the line
marked out for it at the start. \ gen
eral knowledge of some one thing may
have suggested the enterprise, but one
after another, as some parts would e
better understood, the least profitable
would be dropped, and in many instanc-
es, firms that began dealing in dozen
articles would end in only one. We
have frequently pointed out the fact,
and urged on cultivators that this Is
the only way to get into the special crop
business but we. have the matter
brought to our mind just now through
history of very wealthy farmer of
Massachusetts, which is running the
rounds of the papers, and serves very
well to illustrate the doctrine which we
have so long taught.
This man farmed as other men farm
ed, but with an eye to any special ex-
celIence of anything that his knowledge
or his circumstances might suggest.
He, however, kept in with all the regu-
lar routine of farm crops in the mean
time He found that be could grow
small picking cucumbers better than
his neighbors but he did not there
upon plant all his farm with cucumbers
He knew that such business, like the
crop, must have time to grow. His
first crop was on about an acre The
crop was good, but the sales were bad
For these specialties it is always hard
to find market at last. The next wear
he had less difficulty in selling, and
he ventured to increase the acreage.
Thus he has gone on till he has sold
easily and at good prices the product
of seventy-fve acres of cucumbers and
now feels that he is safe with no other
crop but this.
Now there is scarcely district of
country in the whole United States but
is able to grow some one thing little
better than another thing. 1t should be
continual subject of experiment on
every farm as to what will grow and
thrive remarkably well; and having
found this out, what would be the pros
poets of a good market for it. 1t is
rare indeed that anyone who raises just
exactly what his neighbor does, ever
makes a great strike in the way of
wealth. He makes out of wheat or
corn, or pork, a fair average living price;
and if be is little more intelligent than
some as to the niceties of cultivation,
be may make more than his neghbors
but the rich farmer is generally he who
by careful observation and calculation
is able gradually but surely to get out
Of the beaten track