Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-05-09
agricultural Department.
MAKING FARMING PAY.

VINO tnaG seIGleS upon farm anu
spends much of his time driving about
the country, pleasure seeking, instead of
busying himself and his horses in clear
ing and enriching his fields, can expect
to make farming pay? The argument
that SIT costs nothing" to so amuse him.
self, because the horses and vehicle are
his own. not hired, is common, but
false and ruinous one. Just what he
and his team might have accomplished
by persistent energy during those hours
of self-indulgence, multiplied by the
number of the many days in each year
so occupied, gauges the loss he has thus
sustained; loss as real as though that
amount had been taken from his purse
and thrown into the sea- Daily (per-
haps morning and evening" driving to
the postofice, avowedly for letters and
papers received, it may be as often as
once a week, and which might just as
we'll be obtained through passing
neighbor whose legitimate business took
him to the village, is as costly and in
furious as is the daily lounging in viii
lage stores to gossip and help make
others idle. ''1ime is money" is sig
niieant notice occasionally displayed in
city stores and offices. 1t should have
a conspicuous place in every country
store where the proprietor wishes to do
profitable business on cash basis,
and expects to save his crackers and
cheese from two frequent sampling.
Loafng costs many more dollars than is
generally supposed, and is an unpro6t-
able investment for the loafer and for
those on whose premises he loafs. No
city man of business, be his occupation
what it may. can succeed if he thus
wastes his time and energies, nor can
any farmer. It is indeed painful to
travel through some farming districts of
our much favored land, and see dllapi-
dated dwelling houses and barns, some
unoccupied and forsaken; and so COM
paratively few new ones near them to
take their places as evidences of contin-
ued life and vigor. The tale they tell
is sad one in too many instances, and
may be easily learned.
Incidence and intemperance are twin
vices. Too often they are like the
Siamese twins, and cannot be separated
Each sustains the other, if it does moi
create the other. This double-headeo
curse leaves sad traces wherever it goes
and if there is one woe deeper thar
another, it drags its enslaved victims
into the deepest. The very grounc
seems to cry out against it, as it waste
under neglect and foreclosed mortgages
No superscription by the hand of mai
reveals the cause of this scene of desc
lation and death, but the wayfaring man
if not "fool, may clearly discern il
it the inscription by the hand of CO.
upon the pages of inspiration: 1.-The
have erred through wine. and throug
strong drink are they out of the way.
They probably began to indulge mod
erately in intoxicating drinks, but be
came enslaved and ruined by them
:, Their children were, perhaps, drive
, from what might otherwise have been t
them a happy and prosperous home
Farming Gf such an inappropriate teri
can BIZ used in this connecticut was mad
offensive to them, and they eagerl
escaped from the degradation to whic
a drunken parent had brought then
Did that lost parent sin alone? No
Who, then, will undertake to fathom til
; depth of that "woe" pronounced by a
offended God against him that givet
his neighbor drink 2" | am thankfl
that there is as little of this terrib
evil in this section of the country as
any l have ever seen. With gratituc
let it he added, I know of no such d
p p serted farms in this neighborhood.
IN Some farms are so outrageously ne
lected that it would be better were the
,s entirely abandoned by their occupant
9y who are playing the dog-in-the-mang
game. They occupy, but will not ii
~ ~ prove, and because they occupy, othe
to who would improve and prosper. a
deferred from SO doing. These cumbe
IL ers of the ground have much to S;
about farming 'not paying" They &c
30 tainly speak from experience. and shou
nd be credited to the extent Of believil
I'M their statement, but | should be sor
- to credit them in any other way,
he believe that their farms could not
ng proftably worked If it will not p
N. to take judicious care of fields, Gait
A. farming implements, etc., it certain
TX will not pay to neglect them.
On
y" A young man, eighteen years Of az
le' who has been his fathers main help