Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1882-04-20
Henry Ward raeecher's Farm

Mark Twain has written of Mr.,
Beecher's old farm on the Hudson river
~ follows:
Mr. Beecher's farm consists of thirty.
six acres, and is carried on on strict
scientific principles, He never puts ia
any part of a crop without consulting
his book. He plows, and reaps, and
digs, and sows according to the best au-
thorities, aa6 the authorities cost In ere
than the other farming implements do.
As soon as the library is complete the
farm will be profitable investment,
But book farming has its drawbacks.
Upon one occasion, when it seemed
morally csrSain 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
unfavorable difference between the cost
Of producing it and its mar iiot value
after it is produced has intertered con.
siderably with its success AZ d com mer.
cial enterprise. His special weakness
is hogs, however. He considers hogs
the best game a farm produces. He
buys All original pig for ST. 80, and feeds
him $lO worth OF corn, and then sells
him for about 81. This is the only
crop he ever makes money on. He
loses on the corn, but he makes 81. 80 on
the hog. He does not mind this, be-
cause he never expects to make any.
thing on corn. And, any way 1t turns
out, he has the excitement of raising
the hog, whether he gets the worth Of
him or not. His straw berries would
be comfortable success if the robins
would eat tnrnips, but they won't, and
hence the difficulty.
One OF Mr.. BeeGher's most harrassing
in his farming operation
comes of the close esemblanoe of differ
ent sorts of seeds and plants to each |
other Two years ago his farsightedness
him that there was going to be !
q great scarcity of watermelons, and |
therefore he put in crop Of q acres of
that fruit. But whe they came up
they turned out to be pumpkins, and a
lead loss was The consequence. Some
lines a portion Of the crop goes into the
ground the most promising sweet pota-
;oes and comes up carrots. When he
bought his farm he found one egg In
,very hens nest on the place. He said
hat here was just the reason 50 many
amers failed; they scattered their
orces too much; concentration was the
dea.
SO be gathered those eggs together.
md put them all under one expert
need old hen. That hen roasted over
hat contract night and day for eleven :
weeks, under the anxious personal !
upervision of Mr.. Beecher himself, but Z
he could not "phase" those eggs. !
Why? Because they were those infa-
1ous porcelain things which are used Z
y ingenious and fraudulent farmers as i
nest eggs" Butperhaps Mr.. Reecher's c
lost disastrous experience was the g
me he tried to raise an immense crop
dried apples. He planted 81 800 4
'orth, but never one of them sprou ted. h
[e has never been able to under stand p
, this day what was the matter with II
lose apples,
Mr.. Baecher's farm is not i triumph.
would be easier on him If he worked
on shares with some one; but he can
IT lind anybody WHO'S willing to bear
alf the expense, and not many that v
g able. Still, persistence is bound to O.
cceed. He was a very inferior far u
er when he first began, but pro. n,
nged and unhinching assault upon Of
'ricultural difficulties has had its F
feet at last, and he Is now fast rising Q.
ON atiluenee to poverty. W