Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-01-09
THE HERALD.
Mixed Farming Best.

We think it must be taken for
granted that hereafter, for many
years, the condition OF the American
farmer will only be so far different
from the condition before the war as
he is better farmer. Times will not
be always go hard as they are now,
because confidence will gradually re-
turn and business so far revive, bnt
prices will continue low, and strict
economy will be necessary-more
necessary than the younger genera
ton ever knew ito make farming
pay.
In the old times the "objsctive
point" of farming was not a specially,
or "money CROP 30 Inncb as it was
to make living of farm, raising
and making by honis Industry every.
thing, as near as possible, that the
farmer and his famils required for
maintenance and CONT IT. In rhoee
days farmers needed Ii e money, for
they mad little to b1 Food aud
clothing came from the arm, aud the
small store bills were psid With SIR
plus products IaS-s T, 70 l,ght and
travelling that c"sr mon ~ small
a fore handed iar,oes a,ight i've 10
comfort in thos. ,l..ss 9ithout Maud
ling as much money in / year as OF
late he has often handed 10 month
This comfort wa. The result Of mix
ed farming to an exten, the present
generation knows little about. Itw
then almost uuheafd of for a farmer
to buy anything he could raise. The
butter.maker did not buy his cheese
the grain grower did not buy bis
wooden yarn; the cattle farmer did
not buy his fruit; the sheep-raiser did
not buy his butter and none of them
patronized the readymade clothing
store.
The decrease of domestic manufao-
lures on our farms, in consequence of
the great cheapness of factory-made
products, is benefit or an injury to
the farmer according as it affects him.
If the labor which formerly produced
the clothing of farmers family is
now lost and produces nothing, then
the cost OF so much clothing produced
elsewhere makes him so much the
poorer. But if the labor released
from growing, rotting and hatchelling
fax, the labor released from spinning
and weaving, is directed into some
other and more profitable way, then is
the farmers family advsntaged by the
change.
But If we do not fiud il to pay to
grow flax, spin and weave, we ought
still to produce wool enough to pay
for our clothing; and the female
members Of the family, if it does not
pay them TO get out the spinning
wheel and set up the loom, ought at
least TO find way to put in their
time TO profit equal to that their
mothers derived from those time
honored implements of housewifery.
Profitable domestic industry for
women, or some equivalent outdoor
labor, such as their physical strength
allows, will have TO be sought in the
coming time. And just here comes 10
an advantage from the new-fangled
labor.saving machinery which has so
much reduced the amount of "bone.
labor" required in conducting the
operations of the farm. The mower
and reaper, the hay.rske, the tedder,
the sulky cultivators and plows, are
eli implements that require skill rath-
or than strength for their operation.
We believe it will soon be common
sight to behold ali these implements
managed, as rule, by the women of
our farms, not only to great pecun'.
airy advantage, but also TO q vast inn
provement eft their physical health.
But in order to bring about such
ch ange there mast 90 return to sim.
pl,cit, Of dress and living. "House,
work ; IN old rFnes Yss simple thing.
anl rapidly dispatched, SO that thu
feusle members Vi the family night
get soon To their sp'nn al geav
ing Housewofk ste Is cor plicg.
ted by the elaborate 8F3. am ana
ornamen,ing ~ II var aom c,les, until
macy farmei vie mas become the
slave, rather than the mistress, Of her
house. Much OF this is the result of
an absurd social ambition, and more
the consequence of childish aud un.
cultured taste fos "gim- orna-
mentation.
Simplicity may be brought back to
the home without returning to the
baroness, the GOODNESS or the incon.
venience Of old-fashioned houses. We
can have the benefit Of all modern
improvements and be the better for
them, inasmuch as they save labor.
But those thousand things that make
work had better be dispensed with.
Let the women study how to do this
aud let them study, too, how to dress
themselves, so that they can walk on
the ground without hurting their feet,
aud can take full breath without
bursting their clothes.
1t 10 said that the machinery of
England equals in producing power
the hand labor of four hundred mil.
lions of people. There is no doubt
that the use of farm machinery in
New England has doubled the pro-
ducing power of every farmers fami.
ly, at the same time wiping out much
of tho hardest work, or transferring it
from men to beasts.
The modern farmer who attempts
mixed farming has many advantages
over his predecessors, not only in
easier and better working implements,
but in better stock and better markets,
and greater variety of marketable
crops and products. Fruit, for exam
pie, even the most perishable, can now
be protitably cultivated upon farms.
Not only can potatoes be grown for
market, but onions and, near villages,
many other vegetables. Poultry is
always profitable. Mutton sheep, in
small fiocks, will generally give profit
if well managed. Small dalries,
where every COW is prime one, will
bring more gain than large ones with
a small average yield of milk or but
ter. Young stock raised mainly for
home use to replace older and Inferior
animals, thus constantly raising the