Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-11-04
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 judg-
ment will keep him out of the risky side
enterprises and from getting head over
heels in debt. The curse of any man or
of any business is debt, and outside
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 any
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 a 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 hundred disaster has re-
suited, and both farm and outside bust
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
are comparatively few. There
is no danger of ruin arising from cempe-
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
cumstances, which are of a providential
character always, are not very apt to
exist. The farmer is engaged in the
of articles which the public
must have. 1t makes no difference
what else the people do without, they
must have bread. They can wear their
old clothes, but they must have new
flour, 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
fiourishing, agriculture must be on the
very topmost round if other kinds of bus
mess are depressed, agriculture must
still be on round little above any
other business.
In mercantile or purely speculative
business, there is no certainty of safety
for a week, and scarcely for an hour.
Financial panics may come and swallow
I'D values until the merchant is ruined |
md the Spectator stranded; c-mpeti- |
ion may bankrupt one, ten, or scores |
If merchants. But if news should come |
hat farmer who had for years been |
entirely free from debt, and had been |
'aising good crops all the time, had
zone into bankruptcy, it would astonish.
,very one, except that they would 40
count for it upon the grounds of outside
Farming is pretty sure
and if it can be relieved OF
ome of the unjust burdens that are
pressing it down the farmer can afford
o be content Western Rural.
Well drilled-The oil region.