The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-11-11
A Safe Business.

A man of industry and good, sound
Judgment, under favorable circum.
stances, will make himself comforta-
BILE home and accumulate a competence
on the farm. His industry will cause
the acres to bud. land blossom, and hi.
Judgment will Keep him out of risky
side. enterprises, and from getting head
over heels in debt, and outside specula.
ton usually leads the farmer into it. AS
a rule, it is best to stick to one business.
With few exceptions, the man who gets
two many irons in the fire will get some
of the irons burned, and will be very
lucky if he does not get some of his fin
gers badly scorched. So almost univer-
sal is the opere.ion.of the rule that the
world is accustomed to wait patiently for
the downfall of any man with two or
threeskinds of business on hand, and If
such man happens to get throughrall
right, instead ofgetting credit for being a
legitimate exception, he is turned of
with the simple exclamation, What a
lucky fellow Successful farming re-
quires all the force and ingenuity of one
brain. Slipshod farming will conduct
itself, but not so good farming. Any.
body can plant and SOW, and anybody can
gather what grows. But it is not every
body that can do either as it ought to be
done. Farming is.a complicated science
the grand aggregate of all sciences
and it requires hard study and close ap-
plication.
Entertaining the now pretty generally
exploded idea that anybody can farm, or
that the farm will take care of itself,
many .a!farmer has tried to live on tho
farm and devote the most, or, to be rea-
sonable.in expression, part Of his time
to other callings. In ninety-nine cases
ofa hundred disaster has resulted, and
both farm and outside. business. have
been smashed; and in view of what the
past has shown in this particular, the best
advice that can be given is to stick to the
farm if you have one, or to let the farm
alone if you are determined to enter
upon or continue in some other business.
The risks in farming, as already stated,
are comparatively few. There is no dan
ger of ruin arising from competition; there
is none arising from the treachery of bus
iness associates. The farm, under Or
dinary circumstances, is sure to furnish
enough to make the family comfortable.
and extraordinary circumstances which
are of providential character always,
are not very apt to exist. The farmer is
engage in the production of articles
which the public must have. 1t makes
no difference what else the people do
without, they must have new -four, and
while a depression of the times may limit
the demand, it cannot wholly destroy it.
Thus is the farmer engaged in a business
which is always active. If other kinds
of business are ..aourishing, ,!agriculture
must be on 1.-THE very topmost round /;
if other kinds of business are depressed,
agriculture must still be on q round o
little above any other business.
In mercantile. or. purely speculative
business, there is no certainty Of safety
for a week, aud scarcely for an hour.
Financial panics may come a.. swallow
up values until the merchant is ruined
and the speculator stranded; compete.
tion may bankrupt one,, ,ten,for scores of
merchants. But if news should come
that farmer, who had for years been
entirely free from debt, and had been
raising good crops all'sthe while, had
gone into bankruptcy, it would astonish
every one, except that they would account
for it upon the grounds of outside spec
ulation. Farming is s pretty sure busi.
ness, and if it can be relieved of some of
the unjust burdens that are pressing it
down, the farmer can afford to be content.
-Western Rural.