The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-09-25
Bsecher,s Earning.

Mr.. Beecher's farm consists OF thirty.siX
acres, and is carried on strict scientific prin-
cipIes. He never puts in pat of crop with
out consulting his book. He plows and
reaps, digs and sows, according to the best
authorities, and the authorities cost more
than the other farming implements do. AS
soon as the library is complete, the farm
will begin to be profitable investment.
But book-farming has its drawbacks; upon
one occasion, when it seemed morally Ger
tain that the hay ought to be cut, the hay
book could not be found-and before it 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 unfavora-
BILE difference between the cost of produc-
ing and its market value after it is produced
has interfered considerably with its success
as commercial enterprise.
His special weakness is hogs, however.
He considers hogs the best game farm pro.
duces. He buys the original pig for dollar
and a-half, and feeds him on forty dollrrs'
worth OF corn and then sells him for about
nine dollars. This is the only crop he ever
d makes any money on. He loses on the
the corn, but makes seven dollars and a. half
on the hog. lie does not mind this, be-
cause he never expects to make anything on
the corn anyway. And anyway it turns out,
he has the excitement of raising the hog any
how, whether he gets the worth of him or
not.
rfoyx torri Ioo Ia
success if the robins would eat turnips, but
they won't, and hence the difficulty.
One OF Mr.. Beecher, most harrassing DIFF
ficulties in his farming operations, comes of
the close resemblance of different sorts OF
seeds and plants to each other. Two years
ago his far-sightGdness warned him that
there was going to be a scarcity of watermel-
ons, and therefore he put in crop of twen-
ty-seven acres Of that sort OF fruit. But when
they came up they turned out to be pump
kins, and dead loss was the consequence.
Sometimes portion OF his crop goes into the
ground the most promising sweet potatoes,
and come up the most infernalist carrots
though l never heard him express it just 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 SO many farmers failed-they scattered
their forces too INSTRUMENTATION was
the idea. So he gathered those eggs togeth-
er ndput them all under one experienced old
hen. That hen roasted over that contract
night and day for eleven weeks, under the
anxious personal supervision Of Mr.. Beecher
himself, and she could not ''phase'' those
ggs. Why? Because they were those infa-
nous porcelain things which are used by in
genious farmers as 'snest egg"
Mr.. Beecher's most disastrous experiance
was the time he tried to raise an immense
crop Of dried apples. He planted fifteen
hundred dollars worth. but never one Of
them sprouted. He has never been able to
understand. to this day, what was the mat
ter with those APPLES.
Mr.. Beecher's farm is not triumph. 1t
would be easier on him if he worked in on
the shares with some one; but he cannot find
anyone who is willing to stand half the ex-
lense, and not many that are able. Still
persistence, in any case, is bound to succeed.
He was very inferior farmer when he
first began, but a prolonged and unflinch-
ing assault upon his agricultural difficulties
has had its effect at last, and he is now fast
rising from affiuence to poverty.-Mark
Taoain.