Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-07-06
FANCY FARMING.
Henry Ward Beecher's Farm-A
Humorous Account Of His Agri-
cultural Operations.

Mr.. Beecher's farm consists of thirty.
six acres, and is carried on on strict sci
entilic principles. He never puts in any
part of a crop without consulting his
books. He plows and reaps, and digs
and sows, according to the best authori-
ties, and the authorities cost more than
the other farming implements do. As
soon as the library is complete the farm
will begin to be profitable investment
But boOk-learning has its drawbacks.
Upon one occasion, when it seemed
morally certain 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.. Beech
er raises some of the finest crops of
wheat in the country, but the unfavora-
BILE difference between the cost of pro-
ducing it and its market value after it is
produced has interfered considerably
with its success as commercial enter
prise. His special weakness is hogs,
however. He considers hogs the best
game farm produces. He buys the
original pig for $3.50 ond feeds him $40
worth of corn, and then sells him for
about 80. This is the only crop he
makes any money on. He loses on the
corn bus he makes $3.50 on the hog. He
does not mind this, because he never
expects to make anything on corn. And,
any way it turns out, he has the excite
ment of raising the hog, whether he gets
the worth of him or not. His strawber-
ries would be a comfortable success if
the robins would eat turnips. but they
won't and hence the difficulty.
One of Mr.. Beecher's most harassing
difficulties in his farming operations
comes of the close resemblance of diff
fsrent sorts of seeds and plants to each
other. Two years ago his far-sighted-
ness warned him that there was going
to be great scarcity of watermelons,
and therefore he put in crop of twen-
ty-seven acres of that fruit, but wheL
they came up they turned out to be
pumpkins, and dead loss was the con-
sequence. Sometimes a portion of his
crop goes into the ground the most
promising sweet potatoes, and comes out
the infsrnalest carrots-though 1 have
never heard him express it just 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 so many farmers failed; they
scatter their forces too much; concen-
tration was the idea. So he gathered
those eggs together and put them all
under one experienced old hen. That
hen roasted over the contract night and
day for eleven weeks, under the anx-
ious personal supervision of Mr.. Beech
er himself. but she could not "phase"
those eggs. Why? Because they were
those infamous porcelain things which
are used by the ingenious and fraudulent
farmers as NEST eggs" But perhaps
Mr.. Beecher's most disastrous expert
ence was the time he tried to raise an
immense crop of dried apples. He
planted $500 worth, but never one of
them sprouted. He has never been able
to understand to this day what was the
matter with those apples.
Mr.. Beecher's farm is not triumph. |
1t would be easier on him if he worked |
it on shares with some enc; but he can
not 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 infe- |
rior farmer when be first began but a |
prolonged and unfiinching assault upon |
his agricultural difficulties has had its |
effect at last, and he is now fast rising
from affiuence to poverty.