Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-04-08
MARK TWAIN
sAis description of Henry Ward
Beecher's Farm.

hts Description of Henry ward
Beecher's Farm.
Mark Twain has written of MIR.
Beecher's old farm on the Hudson
river as follows:
Mr.. Beecher's farm consists of
twenty-six acres, and is carried on on
strict scientific principles. He new
er puts in any plant of crop with
out consulting his book. He
ploughs and reaps and digs burrows
according to the best authorities.
and the authorities cost more than
the other farming impliments do.
As soon as the library is complete
the farm Will begin to be profita-
bic investment. But book-farminp
has its drawbacks. Upon one occa.
SION, when II seemed morally GER
tain that the hay ought to be cut,
the hay-book could not be found.
ana before 1t was found 1t was too
late, and the hay was all spoiled.
! Mr.. Beecher raised some of the
finest crops of wheat i'm the country.
but the unfavorable difference be-
tween the cost of producing il and
lts market value after Il Is produced
has interferred considerably with its
success as a commercial enterprIse.
His special weakness is with hogs.
however. He considered hogs the
best game a farm produces. He
DuYs the original pig for $I.50 and
feed him $40 worth of corn. and
then sells him for about 50. This is
the only crop he ever makes anv
money on. He loses on the corn.
but he makes $3.50 on the hog. He
does not mind this, because he
never expects to make anything on
the corn. And, anyway it turns
out, he has the excitement of rais-
ing the hogs, whether he gets the
worth OF him or not. His straw
berries would be a comfortable sue
cess If the robins would eat turnips.
but they won't and hence the diff
Guilty.
One of Mr.. Beecher's most har-
assing difficulties in his farming
operations comes of the close resem-
blance of different sorts of seeds and
plants to each other. Two wears
ago his far-sightedness warned him
that there was going to be a great
scarcity of watermelons, and there
fore lie put in crop of 72 acres Of that
fruit. But when they came up they
turned out to be pumpkins, and n
dead loss was the consequence. some
times a portion OF his crop goes into
the ground the most promising
sweet potatoes, and comes up the
infernalest carrote-though have
never heard him express il lust 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 that so
many farmers failed; they scattered
their forces too much. Concentra-
tiOn was the idea. So he gathered
those eggs together and put them
all under one experienced old hen.
That hen roasted over them con-
stantly night and day for IL weeks,
under the anxious personal supervi-
sion 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 fraudu-
lent farmers as "nest eggs" But
perhaps Mr.. Beecher's most disas-
trous experience was the time he
tiICu w AuloC hil AhiAlCboC NlOp VI
dried apples. he planted 81 500
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 tri-
umph. 1t would be easier on him
if he worked it on shares with some
one; but he cannot find anybody
who is willing to stand half the eX-
pense, and not many that are able.
still, persistence i'm any cause Is
bound to succeed. He was very
inferior farmer when he first began,
but a prolonged and unfiinching
assault upon his agricultural diff
culties has had its effect at last, and
he is now fast rising from affluence
to poverty.