Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-11-20
AGRICULTURAL.
The Average Farmer and Fancy
Farmer,
BY Our Agricl,ltural Editor

ny Ctti -tgIENtttauA EultOf.
The average" farmer looks with a
great deal Of suspicion upon the state
ments Of those who are often termed
fancy" farmers. A gentleman accum-
ulates a fortune-or respectable CON-
petency-in some mercantile specula-
ton or other business, and concludes
to buy farm and show the common
farmer, who has dug and grubbed all
his life, what he should do and how he
should farm. OF course, he makes many
mistakes. His corn sometimes costs
him 50 per pushed, and his pork a dol
lar q pound, yet he keeps on. He has
the money to keep going. Now and
then he gets q big yield and gets into
the papers, and everybody is surprised
to hear how much money farmers are
making, or If they are not it is their
own fault.
The average farmer naturally looks
with little suspicion upon all these
newspaper reports, and many have no
faith in newspaper or book farming.
Again, some lawyer, banker, merchant,
or maybe q preacher, has small
lot Of ground in the country
and at his leisure moments eultivates
some potatoes, corn, etc., in fancy way.
A report of his work, with the results,
get in the papers, while he and the
editor think farmers make more money
than any one else. When he has raised
two or three hundred bushels Of pota-
toes from a small lot, and he hardly
missed the time-in fact, he did il. for
his health. And it is a much greater
wonder why they and the boys desire
to leave the country and come to the
city, with its temptations, and We all
know how bad the city is.
FANCY FARMING HAS ITS USES.
Theodore Havemeyer, the sugar re-
finer; C.. w. Mills, the grain broker,
and Abram Hewitt, the Congressman,
can improve for us our stock of Jersey
cattle, canexperiment on ensilage until
they show us that ii pays. Where is
there an average farmer who can spend
$4,000 in the construction of an ensi-
lage pit; or is able to own a hundred
jersey cows, and construct q buttery
That costs as much as the average Ohio
farm, and q great deal more than the
average New England farm.
The firm with which L. A. Have
never is connected have made millions
off the planters of Louisiana and other
sugar raisers, and IL is but proper that
some of those millions should go back
on q New jersey farm. to show the
FARMERS OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY
how to do it, and how to spend SO and
get 81 in return.
C. w. Mills, of New York, and Jas.
r. Keene, of Chicago, both have
farms few miles from New York city
on which they spend some Of the
money they make from the grain
raisers, who, in turn, will receive or
hope some future benefit from their
costly experiments, which no common
farmer can afford to underrate.
From an article We have before
quoted, and which has been going the
! rounds Of our exchanges, We again quote
some things which the farmers who
have made their money by merchan-
dizing, by speculation, practice of law,
and preaching, can do
FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE AVERAGE
FARMER.
What have fancy farmers done?
They tested theories while others raised
! crops for market; they have given thu
! glory to farming which it would not
| otherwise have possessed. Fancy
/ farmers have changed the wild hog into
the Suffolk and the Berkshires, the wild
cattle of Britain into ShOrthorns, the
mountain sheep with its long body and
| hair fleece, into the Southdown and
Merino. They brought up the milk Of
| cows from pints to gallons. They have
| heightened the sirioin of the bullock,
| enlarged the ham of the hog, given
strength to the shoulder OF the OK, rem,
| dered finer the wool of the sheep, added
| fleetness to the horse, and made beauti-
| full every animal that Is kept IN the ser
vice of man. They have improved and
| fastened the development OF all domeS-
tic animals until they scarcely resemble
the ones from which they sprang'
Fancy farmers introduced Irrigation
and understanding; also grinding and
cooking feed for stock. They nave
brought guano from Peru and nj
trate of soda from Chill. They
have introduced and domesticated
all the plants we have Of foreign
origin. they brought out the theory of
| the rotation of crops as natural means
| of keeping up and increasing the fetility
ofthe soil. They ground gypsum and
bones, and treated the latter with acid
| TO make manures of particular value.
| They first analyzed soil as a means oil
determining what was wanted to in
crease its fertility. They introduced the
most improved methods of raising and
| distributing water. Fancy farmers OF
fancy horticulturalists havegiven US all
our Varieties of fruits, vegetables ana
! flowers. A frncy farmer in Vermont a
| few wears ago originated the early rose
| potato which added millions Of dollars
| of wealth to the country and proved q
! most important accession in every part
/ of the world where introduced. Another
| of these same fancy men originated the
/ Wilson strawberry, and another the
| Concord grape. But it is unnecessary
\ TO enumerate; any one who will take
/ the trouble to investigate little or re-
| fleet, will readily see and cheerfully &C
cord the praise that is justly due to the
men who are called fancy farmers"
And vet no Woodworking farmer cares
To be told how he should farm, after he
/ has spent a lifetime at the business
! Still ne often is the very man who needs
/ advice, or rather he needs to be forced
out or compelled to leave ....
THE OLD RUTs
IN which he has travelled and worked
for wears. He needs TO be told OF the
fact that the world is moving past him.
warmers sow their wheat broad
cast, with a sack hung round their neck
like milestone, and following q fur
row which had been marked out fol
them by horse and pillow. Even now Wa
hear some hard listed fellow, as homes,
in his dealings as one of the twelve
snostles. saw: "weil, the old way i
tie best'n It seems to be Of no use II
atfempt to convince him, but there ar
a class OF young farmers growing vi
Who DO not have the money TO try ex
perimsnts, but who will learn from TIT
experiment Is and
MONEY SPENT BY FANCY FARMERS
and who viii appreciate that thei