The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-11-22

BY Marx Twain.
Mr.. Beecher's farm consists of thirty.six
acres, and is carried on on strict scientific
principles. He never puts in part of a
crop without consulting his book. He
plows and reaps, digs and sows, according
tothe best authorities, and the authorities
cost more than the other farming nipple.
ments do. AS soon as the library is com.
plete, the farm will begin to be a proGta.
bio investment. But book.iarmiug has its
drawbacks; upon one occasion, when 1t
seemed morally certain that the hay ought
to be cut, the hay book could not be
found-and before 1t was found It was too
late and the hay spoiled. Mr.. Beecher
raised some Of the finest crops OF wheat in
the country, but the uniavorable differ.
ence between the cost Of producing and
its market value after It is produced, has
interfered considerably with It's success as
commercial enterprise.
His special weakness is hogs, however.
He considers hogs the best game a farm
produces. He buys the original pig for a
dollar and hall, and feeds him forty dol.
lars worth Of corn, and then sells him for
about nine dollars. This is the only crop
he ever makes any money on. He loses
on the corn. but he makes seven dollars
and half on the hog. He does not mind
this, because he never expects to make
anything on the corn anyway. And any.
way 1t turns out, he has the excitement
Of raising the hog anyhow, whether he
gets the worth OF him or not.
His strawberries would be u comforts-
bic success II the robins would eat tur.
nips, but they won't, and hence the ditIi.
Guilty.
One OF Mr.. Beecher's most harrasslng
difficulties in his farming operations,
comes OF the close resemblance OF differ.
ent sorts OF seeds and plants to each other.
Two years ago his iar.sightedness warned
him that there was going to be a scarcity
Of watermelons, and therefore he put in
a crop OF twenty.seven acres Of that sort
Of fruit. But when they came up they
turned out to be pumpkins, and dead
loss was the consequence. Sometimes n
portion Of his crop goes into the ground
the most promising sweet potatoes, and
come up the most iniernalist carrots
though never heard him express Il In
that sort Of way. When he bought his
farm he found one egg in every hens nest
on the place. He said that here was the
reason why 50 many farmers iailed-they
scattered their forces too much-concen.
trauon was the idea. So he gathered
those eggs together and put them all I'm.
der one experienced old hen. That hen
roasted over that contract night and day
Tor eleven weeks, under the anxious per-
sonal supervision Of Mr.. Beecher himself,
and she could not "phase" those eggs.
Why2 Because they were those infa.
nous porcelain things which are used by
ingenious farmers as "nesteggs."
Mr.. Beechers most disastrous expert
ence was the time he tried TO raise an lm.
mense crop of dried apples. He planted
fifteen hundred dollars worth, but never
acne Of them sprouted. He has never been
able 10 understand, to this day, what was
tho matter with those apples.
Mr.. Beecher's farm Is not a triumph, II
would be easier on him II he worked in on
the shares with some one; but he cannot
find anyone who Is willing to stand half
the expense, and not many that are able.
Still persistence, in any case, Is bound to
Succeed.--He was very inferior farmer
when be first began, but prolonged aud
assault upon his agricultural
difficulties has had It's effect atlast, and he
Is now fast rising from allluence to pow
eFtY,