News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-06-08
Henry Ward Reecher's Farm.

Mark Twain has written the follow
ing humorous screed in reference to
Beecher's farm:
'~Ir. Beecher's farm consists of
twenty-siX acres, and is carried on. on
strictly scientific principles. He never
puts in any plant of a crop without
consulting his books. He plows and
reaps and digs burrows according to
the best authorities, and the authori-
ties cost more than the other imple-
ments do. As soon as the library is
complete, the farm will begin to be a
profitable investment. But book farm
ing has its drawbacks. Upon one oc-
casiOn, when it seemed morally GER
tain that the hay ought to be in, the
hay book could not be found, and be-
fo1e 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-
vOra6le difference between the cost of
producing it and the market value Of
its production, has interfered consid-
erably with its success as CONNER
cial enterprise. His special weakness
is hogs, however. He considers hogs
the best game farm produces. He
buys the original pig for $l.5O and
feeds him $40 worth of corn, and then
sells him for about 50. This is the
only crop he ever makes any money
IN Ha loooc On tho oOrp h. -. -
$3.50 on the hog. He does not mind
this, because he never expects to
make anything on the corn. And,
any way it turns out, he has the ex-
element of raising the hog, whether
he gets the worth of him or not. His
strawberries would be profitable sue
cess if the robins would eat turnips,
but they won't, and hence the differ
ence. One of Mr.. Beecher's most
harrassing difficulties in his farming
operations comes of the close reSem-
blarc e of different sorts of seeds and
plants TO each other. Two years ago
his far-sightedness warned him that
there was going 10 be great scarcity
of watermelons, and, therefore, he put
in a crop of twenty-seyen acres of
that fruit. But when they came up
they turned out to be pumpkins, and
dead loss was the consequence. Some
times portion of his crop goes into
the ground the most promising sweet
potatoes, and comes up the Internal
est carrots-though | have never
heard him express it in just that way.
When he bought his farm he found one
egg i'll every hens nest on the place.
1 He said that here was just the reason
why so many farmers failed; they
scattered their forces. Concentration
was the idea. SO he gathered those
eggs together and put them under one
experienced old hen. That hen roost-
ed over them constantly night and dav
for eleven weeks, under the anxious
personal supervision of Mr.. Beecher
himself, but he 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 disastrous exper-
fence was the time he tried to raise an
immense crop of dried apples. He
planted 81, 800 worth, but never one
of them sprouted. He has never been
able to understand to this day what
was the matter with those apples.
bIr. Beecher's farm is not triumph.
1t would be easier on him if he work
ed it on shares With some one but he
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 very inferior farmer when he
first began, but prolonged and I'M
finching assault upon his agricultural
difficulties has had its effects at last,
and he is now fast rising from affiuence
to poverty"