Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-11-05
A Safe Business,

A MAN of industry and good sound
judgment, under favorable circum-
stances, will make himself comfortable
home and accumulate a competence on
the farm. His industry will cause the
acres to bud and blossom, and his iudg-
ment will keep him out of the risky side
enterprises and from getting head over
heels in debt. The curse of any man or
speculation usually leads the farmer into
it. As rule, it is best to stick to one
business. With few exceptions, the
man who gets too 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 fingers badly scorched. So
almost universal is the operation of this
rule that the world is accustomed to
wait patiently for the downfall of anv
man with two or three kinds of business
on hand, and if such man happens to
get through all right, instead of getting
credit for being legitimate exception,
he is turned off with a simple exclama-
ton, What lucky fellow! Successful
farming requires all the force and in
genuity of one brain. Slipshod farming
will conduct itself, but not so good farm
ing. Anybody can plant and sow, and
anybody can gather what grows. But
not everybody can do either as it ought
to be done. Farming is q complicated
science-the grand aggregate of all sci
ences-and it requires hard study and
close attention.
Entertaining the now pretty generally
exploded idea that anybody can farm,
or that the farm will take care of itself.
many farmer has tried to live on the
farm, and devote the most, or, to be
reasonable in expression, a part of his
time to other callings. In ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred disaster has re-
suited, and both farm and outside busi-
ness have been smashed and in view of
what the past has shown in this particu-
lar, 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 danger of ruin arising from compe-
tition; there is none arising from The
of business associates. The
farm, under ordinary circumstances is
sure to furnish enough to make the fam
lily comfortable, and extraordinary cir
which are of providential
character always, are not very ant to
exist. The farmer is engaged in the
production of articles which the public
must have. 1t makes no difference |
what else the people do without, thew |
must have bread. They can wear their
old clothes, but they must have new
-four, and while a depression of the
times may limit the demand, it can NOT |
wholly destroy it. Thus is the farmer
engaged in business which is ALWAYS
active. If other kinds of business are
iourishing, agriculture must be on the
very topmostround; ifother kinds of bus
ness are depressed, agriculture must
still be on round a little above any
,ther business.
In mercantile or purely speculative
there is no certainty of safety
or a week, and scarcely for an hour.
financial panics may come and swallow
Up values until the merchant is ruined
md the speculator stranded; competi-
ion may bankrupt one, ten, or scores
# merchants. But if news should come
hat a farmer who had for years been
ntirely free from debt, and had been
aising good crops all the time, had
,one into bankruptcy, it would astonish
very one, except that they would ac-
cunt for it upon the grounds of outside
peculation. Farming is pretty sure
and if it can be relieved of
ONE of the unjust burdens that are
ressing it down the farmer can afford
D be CONTENT Western Rural.