Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1882-04-26
BEECHER'S FARM.
The Great Divine A. a Farmer.

Mark Twain has written of Mr..
Beecher's old farm on the Hudson
river as follows:
Mr.. Beecher's farm consists of
thirty-six acres, and is carried on OH
strict scientific principles. He new
er puts in any part of a crop with
out consulting his book. He plows
and reaps, and digs, and sows accor-
dings to the best authorities, and the
authorities cost more than the other
farming implements do. AS soon
as the library is complete the farm
will begin 10 be profitable invest
ment. But book farming has its
drawbacks. Upon one occasion,
when it seemed morally certain that
the hay ought to be cut, the hay
book could not be found, and before
it was found it was too late and the
hay was all spoiled. Mr.. Beecher
raises some of the finest crops of
wheat in the country, but the unfa-
vorable difference between the cost
of producing it and its market value
after it is produced has interfcred
considerably with its success as
commercial enterprise. His special
weakness is hogs, however He con-
siders hogs the best game a farm
produces. He buys the original pig
for 81 20 and feeds him $40 worth
of corn, and then sells him for about
50. This is the only crop he eyer
makes any money on. He loses on
the corn, but makes $3.50 on the
hog. He does not mind this, be-
cause he never expects to make any
thing on corn. And any way it
turns out, he has the excitement of
raising the hog, whether he gets the
worth of him or not. His strawber-
ries would be comfortable success
if the robbins would eat turnips, but
they won't. and hence the difficulty.
One of Mr.. Beecher's most harras-
sing difficulties in his farming oper-
alton, comes of the close resem-
blance of different sorts of seeds aud
plants to each other. Two years
ago his far-sightedness warned him
that there was going to be scarcity
of water melons, and therefore he
put in a crop of twenty-seven acres
of that fruit. But when they came
up turned out to be pumpkins, and
dead loss was the consequence.
Sometimes portion of his crop goes
into the ground the most promising
sweet potatoes, and comes out the
infernalest carrots-though l have
never heard him express it just in
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 SO many farmers
failed; they scattered their forces too
much; concentration was the idea.
So he gathered those eggs together
and put them all under one expert
enced old hen. That hen roasted
over that contract night and day for
eleven weeks, under the anxious per-
sonal supervision Of Mr.. Beecher
himself, but she could not "phase"
those eggs. Why? Because they
were those infamous porcelain things
which are used by ingenious and
fraudulent farmers as "nest eggs"
But perhaps Mr.. Beecher's most dis
astrous experience was the time he
tried to raise an immense crop Of
dried apples. He planted $500
worth but not one of them sprouted.
He has never been able to under
stand to this day what was the mat.
ter with those apples.
| Mr.. Beecher's farm is not a tri-
umph. 1t would be easier on him
if he worked it on shares with some
one; but he can not find anybody
who is willing to stand half OF the
expense, and not many that are
able. Still persistence in any cause
is bound to succeed. He was very
inferior farmer when he first began
but a prolonged and unflinching as
sault upon his agricultural difficul
ties has had it's effect at last, and h
is now fast rising from affluence Il
poverty.
The TOtterinQ Empress Eupe