Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1882-08-17

MARX TwAfx.s DEscRrrrsox or
HExRY WARD BEEEcHER's FARx. -
Ne. Beeeher,s farm consists Of TWEEN
ty-six acres. and IS carried On On strict
scientific principles. He never pnss
In any plant or crop without eoa-
suiting his book. lie pIouehs Nd
reaps aud dir and fnrrows according
to the best authorities and the author
tiles cost more than the other farming
implements do. AS soon as the Ii
brsry Is complete the farm will begin
TO be . profitable Investment. Bas
book farming has It's dFawback
Upon one occasion, when it seemed
morally certain that the hay ought %
be cut. the hay book c0nld not b.
found, and before il was fcmnd ID was
too late, and the hay was al spoiled.
Mr.. Beeche: raises soms OF the finest
crops Of wheat in the country, bat
the unfavorable difference between
the cost Of producing il and its mar
ket value after it Is produced, has in
terfered considerably with is success
as commercial enterprise.
His special weakness is with hogs,
however. He considers hogs the best
game farm produces. Hs buys the
original pig for $l.50 AMI feeds him
80 worth of corn and sells him for
about %. This is the only crop he
ever makes on. h loses on the corn.
bat he makes $50 on the hog. He
does not mind this, because he never
expects TO make anything on the corn.
And. anyway it turns out he has the
excitement Of raising the hogs wheth-
er he gets the worth Of them or not.
His strawberries would be CON-
Portable success If the robins would
eat tnrnips, but they won't. and hence
the difficulty.
One Of Mr.. Beecher's naost harras-
sing difficulties in his farming opera
tiOns comes Of the close resemblance
of different sorts Of seeds and plants
to each other. Two years ago his far
sightedness warned him that there
was going to be q great scarcity Of wa
termeiOns. and therefore he put in n
crop of 70 acres Of that fruit. Bnt
when they came mp they turned out
10 be pumpkins, and a dead loss was
the consequence.
Sometimes portion Of his crop
goes into the ground the most prom
ising sweet potato, and comes up the
infernalest cs-rOt-thOugh | have new
er heard him express It in just that
way.
When he bought his farm he found
one egg in every hens nest on the
place. He said that here was Just
the reason that 50 many farmers failed;
they scattered their forces too much.
Concentration was the idea. SO he
gathered those eggs together and put
them oil under one experienced old
hen. That hen roasted over them
constantly night and day for IL
weeks, under the anxions personal
supervision Of Mr.. Beecher himself,
but she could not phase those eggs.
Why? Because they were those in
famous porcelain things which are
used by ingenious and fraudulent
farmers a. nest eggs.
But perhaps Mr. Beecher most dis
astrous experience was the time he
tried 10 raise an immense crop of dried
apples. He Hunted $H 1000 worth,
but none Of then sprOuted. lie has
never been able TO understand TO this
day what was the matter with those
apples. AHas74
Mr.. Beecher's FARMS notatriumph.
Il would be easier on him ifhe worked
it on shares with some one, but be
cannot find anybody who is willing TO
stand half the expense, and not many
that are able. Still persistence in any
cause Is bound to succeed. He was a
very inferior farmer when he FIRST be
gan, but a prolonged and unHinching
assault upon his agricultural Difficult
ties has had its effect at last, and h.
is now fast rising from ata Ience u
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