The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1883-04-19
THE FARMERS CALLING.

ObJ TAI iniuS 10 do o"iVj oVoO'Nj
honorable and remunerstive bust
ness as one can enter upon has been
asserted and proved over and over
again. 1t is true that other kinda of
trade, commerce, and
some kinds of manufacturing-that
speculations of various kinds bank
ing and ioint-stock companies-haVe,
especially Of late years, attracted
much attention, and have been popu-
lar with dashiog and ambitious young
men still, in the experience OF q
few years past, the statistics OF BUSH
ness disasters and failures, the moral
wreck of character and the rush and
ruin of men who were reputed rich,
have proven that farming is en- in
dnstry less hactuating, less depressed
by bard times, less subject to failo
ures-a pursuit in which temptation
to dishonesty has had less influence
and in which men have pursued the
even tenor of their way with less
anxiety and with less exposure to
financial ruin and wreck of moral
character than any other kind of
business. That colossal fortunes
have been, here and there, now and
then, built up by speculation, sharp
practices, gambling in stocks, spoiia
ton of labor and by indirect and
direct robbery, we cannot deny; but
those fortunes, however l4~s' and
glittering, do not stand up to the
public gaze as monuments of public
honor, of patient industry, of palms.
taking, honest labor, but they tower
rather as bescons, warning mon to
beware of the hidden rocks and
treacberous quickaands on which so
many of life's voyagers have 6eeu
wrecked. These fortunes have no
solid foundations to rest upon, end
when the floods come and the winds
blow they fall like the house built
upon the sand. Farming is BUSH
ness that rests upon sure founda-
ton. 1t demands honest work. 1t
is not built up by the spoiiation OF
others, Its gains, though they may
be small, are Legitimate and hoaora
bic earned. There is more capital
invested to day in agricultural pur,
suits than 10 all other industries com
bined Il pays more for the support
of Government and receives less pro
lection and consideration from Gov
erpment than any other interest
In looking at farming in the broad,
full light Of practical utility, of safe
Investments, of sure dividends and
of the best public service, we cannot
help c,mmending it, and urging it
upon the young as pursuit upon
the whole more satisfying, less haz-
ardous, more useful, honorable and
remuuerative than any other busi>
ness 1t gives a scope to the intel
lect, play to the imagination, e
range to the affections, field to the
inventive powers, a work for hand
and heart, which no other industry
supplies
Bat for any adequate realization
of the advantages, the remunerations
and the satisfactions of farming, there
must be among our patrons and far
merS high education, better cul~
ture and larger appreciation of and
devotion to their own peculiar cali
ing They must see and feel its i'm
portance 10 its financial, social, mora!
and industrial bearings, and prepare
themselves with as much zeal and
earnestness by careful experiment.
close observation and persevering
study as those who propose to enter
the learned professions, or the paths
of acience, or the study and the prsc-
tice of the arts.