The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-04-30
Start Right and Stick.

A GREAT many men throughout the
country are "going back to farming
this year, and an unusual number of
young men are looking out for a start
in the same business. The reports that
come from the West, of revival of the
old-time importing of new settlers, and
the accounts of the taking up of old
farms in New England, are among the
best signs of the times. If the new
farmers will only start right, and then
stick to it, their success may be insured
in advance. Want of foresight in choos-
ing. and stability of purpose and effort,
are at the bottom of halt the failures in
farming, for it is even more disastrous
for q farmer to make sudden and radi-
cal changes in his business plans than
to "put all his eggs in one basket" by
depending on one crop. The farmer
who "rotates" from sheep to COWS, and
from cows to grain. and from grain to
fruit, with every fluctuation of the mar
kets, is pretty sure to get in one crop
that he can't raise''-a mortgage.
Every farm is better adapted to some
industries than to others. If the land
is low and springy and cold, foot rot or
other diseases will take the profits off
of sheep. If there is not plenty of pure
cold water and pasturage specially
adapted to COWS in its chemical charac-
teristics, and that does not shrivel up
by the end of July, dairying will not
prosper. If the grain-producing ele-
ments in the soil are exhausted, or in
sect enemies or climatic influences in
terfere, grain crops will fail. If fruit
trees must stand "with their feet in
water" owing to lack of drainage,
orchards will prove disappointing.
Then again, men are as different as
their farms. Some have just the knack
to bring together dairy of COWS, near
ly every one of which shall be 'good
mixer" and by gentle, clean, provid-
emit management secure large returns
for the best of products. Another has
the faculty of having his land, his seed,
his fertilizers, his times and seasons,
just right to coax fields of waving grain
from the soil. Another will have a
flock OF sheep, every one of which looks
as though bred to enter for the pre-
MUM at the County Fair. Still anoth-
er will plant and prune and shape an
orchard of half-a-thousand apple trees
SO that they shall all stand uniform,
smooth, symmetrical, yielding just such
apples, in just such quantities, as he
planned when he bought the trees from
the nursery. The point is, that every
man, in farming as in other occupa-
tions, should ascertain what his COM
bined inward forces and outward cir
cumstances will enable him to do best,
and do that. As a rule, diversified
farming is the best, except in localities
pre-eminently adapted to one branch,
like the dairy regions of New York or
the natural grain-fields of the West.
A snug little orchard; fields of grain,
grass, corn and root crops; manage
able drove of COWS or sheep; pair of
choice breeding mares; pen of good
hogs; yard Of poultry; some extra
crops to experiment on-this old-fash-
toned method is about the safest and
most comfortable after all. For spe-
cialties require special knowledge and
special conditions of success. They are
like one-legged milking stool-can't
stand alone; while varied farming has
various supports. Rule.