Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-09-07

Aoy 4 ~ uIlASs
we have never done any fancy farm.
s, ana never expect to. Our expe-
renee on the farm has been of the hard
knocks character, made as easy as pos.
sIUre oy the application of as much in
selHgence as we possessed or could gain
by diligent observation and inyestioa-
ton. But we have no objection to fancy
farming, if one has the means and dis
position to engage in it. Indeed we have
S,1at respect Tor men who are able and
Wiling to embark in the enterprise of
farming for the sport of the thing. for
tnef failures at least are often INSTRUCT
i've. But such farming has not been al
together a failure in point of direct
benefit. We are greatly indebted to
the men who have sssauanderedn their
money upon fancy stock and new meth
ods, for what has appeared impractical
pas frequently through this means been
demonstrated to be of the highest and
most practicable usefulness. r. T. Bar
mum IS remembered in his earlier DAYS
1or having used an elephant to the pillow.
IL was difficult to see how elephants
could be made profitable in this way,
and it is difficult still. But there might
nave been some who through all their
lives would have thought that they could,
mad not Mr.. Barnum's blowing been
very Improbable. He had the means
and the disposition to experiment in that
direction, and certainly there was no
objection to it. MFR. Greeley used to
have volumes of fun poked at HIM in
regard to the alleged ignorance of "what
ne knew about farming" But he knew
much more about it than he was given
credit for, and it doubtless cost him con-
siderable to learn the most that he knew.
But he was practical man, and an in
telligent one, and such man does not
scatter his money without gaining q
good deal of information. Mr.. Greeley
was of real use to agriculture, which got
some benefit from his apparently ex-
travagant agricultural enterprises. And
it has been benefited by all such enter
prises, by whomsoever made.
Almost everything that is new and
expensive is denominated fancy farming
When men began to import Merino
sheep and Short horn cattle their enter
prise partook of that character, and
even yet there are by no means few
people who call the purchase of a COW
for more than fifty dollars part of
fancy farming. But very many of the
men-not all, it is true-who embark in
such an enterprise as importing a new
breed see in it the utmost practicability.
The early importers of MerinOs knew
what they were about, or thought they
did, and time has verified the soundness
of their Judgment. That they did not
entirely comprehend the future, because
the development of the country has been
so astoundingly rapid, is, Of coure, the
fact. But they saw something of the
possibilities. They knew the country
was adapted to sheep-raising and wool
growing, and they knew that a good
sheep would be more profitable than
poor one, aud, also, that there was
demand and would be demand for fine
wool. The man who drifts with the
current, who gets into a groove and can
not get out, thought sheep were sheep,
and consequently that his scrubs were
Just as good as Spanish Merino. His
Judgment was defective, that was all.
His neighbor who paid for a single
sheep more than whole scrub flock
was worth was deemed by the owner of
the latter as reckless and fanciful. But
he was intensely practical, as his profits
and the profits of those who followed in
his footsteps have abundantly proved.
Such enterprises do not in any sense
partake of the character of fancy farm
ing, although they are so denominated.
When the New Yorker began to drain
mudholes and quagmires he was both
laughed at and pitied, and about the
most frequent remark that was made
concerning him was that ga fool and his
money is soon parted"
And strange as it may seem, even
L.. nj
of others who have initiated his example,
there are still plenty OF men who doubt
the sanity of q man who attempts to re-
claim apparently worthless wet land by
drainage. They call such enterprises
as the extensive drainage of the Pull
man farm, near Chicago, eXquisitely
fancy farming. But on the contrary it is
entirely divested of that character now.
When it was first tried, perhaps it was
reasonable to thus style it, but the
farmer who at this late day does not
appreciate the utility of drainage has
not learned as much from the fancy
farming of others as it was his privilege
to learn. We know that on such soil as
the most of Illinois, through drainage is
the farmers only safety, and that it will
increase the value of his land fifty per
cent for farming purposes. 1t Is no
longer an experiment-no longer fancy.
The advantages of drainage are
established beyond the possibility of
doubt in any mind that is observing.
In England drainage, pc 'haos, assumed
at first more of the character of fancy
farming than it did here. Indeed, much
of the progress of English agriculture
is directly attributable To what we would
call purely fancy farming. Men who
had capital, while having q sincere
desire to advance the great industry,
were quite as much i'm ,eiIed to expert
ment by the pleasure Is afforded as by
ANYTHING else; and some of them
became bankrupt in the ''sport." But
they gave q great imoetus to farming,
and the whole world IS to-day greatly
indebted to them.-IFestern RHrut.
A correspondent says Mr.. e. y.