The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-03-01
How Western EARNING Paws.

Whether they go West or not Eastern
farmers are interested in knowing the
value and yield of Western farm prod
ucts. The Western farmer life is quite
different and no less laboriOus than that
of his Eastern brother
In the first place he is nightly slim
ulated to work by the size and needs of
his farm, by the / oss bilities OF incrcas-
ing its production and value, and by
the rapid actions of his neighbOrs.
Work work, work, an immense amount
of it, stares him in the face all the year
round. His heavy farm work opens
early in March, and from that time till
Thanksgiving. or even till Christmas,
his work presses heavily upon him. Its
order is about as follows: Sowing wheat
and oats, blowing for corn, rolling the
wheat and oat lands, planting the Orn,
rolling, narrowing, blowing it, haying,
harv esting the wheat and oats and per-
haps tarley, stacking, threshing, fall
blowing and corn picking. During the
winter he viii have nothing to do but
look a ter his large herds of cattle and
other stock, prov de fuel, and market
his corn and grain. 1t IS during this
period that the children go to school
and the Young fellow takes his girl
sleigh-rd NO. and old and young turn
Oug ~ dbLCuI IilC SIJCIltLlS ONA4OOA' n
period of partial rest, pleasure and eX-
uberance Of spirits, for your Western
farmer is full Of dry humor, and lover
OF good honest Jokes. He usually owns
100 acres "a quarter sect on of land
keeps about four good horses, and hires
a man to help him, unless he has boy
ten years old or a little more who is equal
as most boys OF that age are-to the
management of team.
No Western farmer ever speaks OF
one horse as a team. Nor will you see
one man in a hundred driving a single
horse. His usual conveyance is sub
stantial four-wheeled wagon with two
or four horses attached, while, on Sun
days, he trots more briskly along be-
hind his well-fed team. in a buggy.
Western horses are well-kept and are,
as rule, cons derably larger and flesh
Ter than the farm horses of New En-
gland. Plenty of oats, corn and good
hay tell the story. The Western farmer
has less small JOBS and putterings
around than his Eastern brother; though
the little jobs which he does have to do
vex him sOrely and are oft complained
of But most of his work he does IN
large, generous way. He puts in sixty
acres OF wheat and as much of corn
He buys an additional eighty acres and
turns it into pasture for his colts and
cattle he gets up early, feeds well. for
almost without exception he IL gen
erous provider Much goes to waste IN
doors and out, but he would rather have
it this way than be called niggardly
Beef and pork, turkeys and chickens,
butter and eggs, flour and vegetables,
all these are products of his own farm.
No wonder that he provides well.
His hired man would leave if not
fed on a generous diet of Eeef. good
bread, chicken, eggs, best OF butter,
cheese, vegetables and fruit. He an
epicure, is this Western hired man, who
will be farmer himself in five years
more. And the hired girl has her ideas
of things; and high and eXacting they,
often are, the supply does not equal the
demand, and she is we'll aware OF the
fact But despite these drawbacks the
Western farmer gets ahead. The signs
of this are evident in improved fences,
in better barns, in a new, larger and
more cOmmOdiOus house and i'll the ar
rangements of crops and machinery,
and in the increasing numbers OF his
stock. He raises all the way from ten
to thirty bushels of wheat and thIrty-flYe
to sixty-ive of corn to the acre. accord
ing to the varying conditions OF SOL ana
weather He feeds his family mainly
surplus of corn and grain to sell, often
times some hay and, if he be we'll
MANAGING farmer he has a gOOdly num-
Der of hogs and fat steers TO put upon
the market. at good prices. In these Is
his profit, when he can sell his hogs Tor
six cents and his steers tOr i've cents a
pound as they stand; he is making a
fine percentage upon money invested I'D
them. But his property is steadily rising
in value. He bought for ten dol
lars or five dollars. or if he was an
| original settler one dollar and twenty
five cents per acre. Now, being well
fenced and well improved, and having
1 good buildings, and being reasonably
near to q large village and the railroad
| it is worth forty or fifty, or possibly
sixty dOlla, 5 per acre. And the man
who surveys a half section of good land
! thus improved, free of debt, and who
| has large mbers of horses, cattle and
! hogs. 5 an independent man and on the
/ road to wealth: whose condition Is more
| ENJOYABLE than that? Such man. sit
! ting down in his matarer years TO enjoy
| the fruits of his toll. frugalits and fore
/ sight He has now a pleasant, healthy
! life, younger feet run and younger
I shoulders bear the burdens, but he plans
! and oversees. He Is much abroad he
/ has money to spare and knows how and
/ when and where to turn it to the lest
! aceount He has time to enter the
/ political field. or to intro luce new ma
! chinery, and new and improved bre ds
| of stock. His Judgment carries weight
| lie fills out a large and honorable man
hood If now he is the noblest tyre of
man-and the West has not a few such
he becomes a great blessing to his
! family and the community in which he
I dwells and does what he can in the in
I terests of education and of religion.