The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-03-22
The Coming Farmer.

Il 4nC N0n-Ane keAAAC
Many good people are distressing
themselves Just now about the future Of
agriculture in this part of the country.
Looking abroad for analogies and taking
counsel of their fears, the forecast they
make is gloomy enough. In England
within few years farm lands have ter
ribly deprecated In value-in many
cases to the amount of fifty per cent
and more-bankruptcy has been staring
q large portion of the tenant farmers OF
the island in the face, and the entire
fabric of English society, which rested
largely on landed proprietorship as Q
basis, is threatened with disorganiza-
tion.. 1t Is alleged that cheap freights,
which have brought our rich Western
lands into direct competition with Brit
ish' farms in their home market, has
caused this ruin, and it is argued that
the same influence II depressing agri-
cultural industry east of the Anegha-
nies In our own country, our less easily
titled land being p Practically removed by
railroads 1000 miles away from market
to the side of fertile prairie stretches,
50 that in the unequal struggle the East
must 60 down. It is urged that our
farmers are generally complaining of
their lot and mourning for the good
old times forever gone. We are told
of mortgage foreclosures and home
steads sold, and finally it is questioned
whether as civilization advances the
farmer must not gradually sink in the
social scale to the level of the peasants
In the Old World
Now the fact is that farmers to-day
get better prices for their crops on the
whole than they did In the good old
days, and they can buy more with their
money. In cases were farms Are sold
by the sherih-cases not so numerous as
our prophets of evil imagine-it will be
found that ventures outside of the farm
er's legitimate industry ventures
prompted by that speculative spirit en-
gendered during the demoralizing rush
and havoc Of war times-have been
largely responsible for these melancholy
failures. Nevertheless It must be ad-
mitted that there was more of what
passed for solid comforts in the free and
easy times of old than there Is to-day
throughout the farming community.
And there ought to be. Farmers dress
better, live In better houses and read
more than their fathers did. That their
wants are Of q higher class and more
varied proves that they are rising above
the social plane where their fathers
were content to remain, instead of sink
ing to the peasant level. They set out
upon the race of life at swifter gait,
and in order TO hold the pace they must
use brain as well ~ muscle, and brain
work Is wearing work. The solid COM
fort of the good old days was really
stolid comfort-the sluggish satisfaction
of an animal with his stomach full The
farmer nowadays who Is content with
this drowsy existence will invariably be
left, for his children win demand and
receive what other children have; and
II the farm Is managed on the slovenly
method employed by our grandfathers
that is, If 1t Is allowed to run itself
it will not supply the necessities of mod
ern hfe.
In every community there can be
found farmers who do more than subsist
on the products of their acres. They
prosper in business because they con-
duct their farms on business principles.
With the necessity Of getting more
productive increase from the soil comes
the necessity of more study and more
knowledge. The time has come when
the close calculating Of the manufacturer
must be applied to agricultural practice.
III bl6 IhCtOEI pEOlb5 1k0 llhQG OI saw
ing the small percentages of waste, by
adopting labor-saving contrivances, by
watching the markets, by making as
much finished product and of as good q
quality as possible with given amount
Of raw material procured at the lowest
possible outlay. The manufacturer who
fails to keep abreast of every improve
ment in method and skill is sure to fail,
and the time has come when the same
fate awaits the farmer. II he manufac-
lures butter, he must run his COWS,
which are his machinery, with the same
watchful and intelligent care which is
exercised by his neighbor who conducts
q sugar refinery or q cotton mill. He
must see that his COWS have perfectly
balanced ration, with the properly
proportional amounts of protein, starch
and fat. He must get his rations at the
cheapest possible rate, and, following
the example Of other manufacturer
who sell q finished product and
buy q waste product, he will sell
his grain and buy cotton-seed meal,
brewers, grains, bran, and other
wastes of manufacture to make his nm
ished butter product. He will not strive
to make more butter than his neighbor
unless he can prove that the extra pound
can be profitsbly made. He will make
special study of the subjects connected
with the particular branch of agriculture
which he practices, and he viii supple
ment his own experience by the teach
ings of recognized authorities, and he
viii make use of every assistance which
can be rendered, by such accurate ex-
periments as are conducted and record
ed at our best Agricultural Experiment
Stations. In other words, he win
not be content to remain a mere
laborer, but he will assume his true po.
sition as the administrative head of 9
complicated but intelligently construct.
ed and well-ordered system.
Farming of this kind will pay, to-day
and In the future. 1t will pay not only
in the narrow pecuniary sense, but II
viii grow o crop of better men. The
Coming Farmer who survives the fierce
struggle of close competition win devel.
op out OF the necessities of his surround
| ings into q broader-minded man thar
bis predecessor. A good deal of pleas
ant fiattery has been written about the
ennobling influence Of agriculture. No
employment Is ennobling which doe:
not require brains, and it Is not = mis-
fortune that from this time forward the
farmer who succeeds must study and
think and have q trained mind and 9
sound body.-N. Y. ISi6une.