Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-03-31

Dailp krnnebtr Journal.
The Business of Farming.


Farming is business. and. like any
other business, to be profitable it must be
conducted in an intelligent and business
like manner. Yet there are many people
who. having never been engaged.in farm
ing, seem TO think that all farmer has
to do is to sit down and watch the growth
of his crops. Not long since we heard a
well-to-do grocer of this city exclaim.
Farmers don't have TO do anything. and
they are getting rich" Occasionally
this idea will get such strong hold of
some inexperienced city dweller that he
will be deluded into buying a farm and
going into the farming business. But
such attempts are almost invariably in
glorious failures. unless upheld by plenty
of money. We once knew man whose
home had always been in the city, who
bought farm and went to farming. In
five years he sunk 5000. To-day he re-
sides agaiU in the city. There are nu-
merous cases like this. A man TO be a
good farmer must necessarily possess as
manv of the attributes which 60 to make
up successful business man as the mer-
chant or the speculator. In fact he should
even possess more judgment. for while the
mercantile man has only to employ his
faculties in buying and selling. the farmer
not only must be shrewd in this direction.
bu. also use his reasoning powers in mum.
berless other ways. He must be thorough
ly acquainted with the soil of his farm,
know what crops it is best adapted to
grow, and what manural elements il
lacks. if any. At the same time he
should be botanist. and versed in the
growth and maturaiion of plants.
There are thousands of farmers in the
country at the present time, who are strug-
Cling along barely able 10 get living
so in the cities there are many in business
with capital invested, who have all they
can do to make both ends meet On the
other hand many are thriving and laying
up money. Some perhaps outside of
farming are on the road to wealth But
why are not all prospering and making a
good livingP Simply because, unless un-
fortunate. they are destitute of some quail
ity which every business man to be sue
cessful must have. For instance, last
summer we knew farmer who dug holes
for the planting of quarter of an acre of
potatoes, instead of furrowing, and when
hoeing time came, did not cultivate be-
tween the rows. When he came to dig
them in the fall. this farmer carried the
potatoes home by hand. distance of
quarter of a mile. All this time he had
an able bodied horse standing in his barn.
This same man. had he been conducting
grocery stand. would no doubt have de-
livered his goods on foot, instead of using
a horse. This farmer, although one of
average intellect, is not prospering. Is it
any wonder? As to farmers "getting
rich.' there is not one farmer i'm thous-
and who has made a fortune by farming.
Not over 80 per cent of our farmers are
laying up anything. and not over 10 per
cent are saving over 800 year. There
is no royal road to fortune in farming, as
it is conducted in Maine, yet if a man is
industrious, economical and shrewd, he
can get good livelihood. live independ-
emily. and lay up a few dollars for a rainy
day.