Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-12-06
The Farmers Calling.

That farming is as sure, stable, hon
Orable and remunerative a business as
one can enter upon has been asserted
and proved over and over again. 1t is
true that other kinds of business
trade, commerce, and some kinds of
manufacturing-that speculations of
various kiuds-hankiug and joint.stock
cOmpanies-have, especially of late
years, attracted much attention, and
have been popular with dashing and
ambitious young men; still, in the ex>
perience Of a few past years, the stats
tics of business disasters and failures,
the moral wreck of character, and the
crash and ruin of men who were re-
puted rich, have proven that farming
is an industry less fuctuating, less de-
pressed by hard times, less subject to
failures--a pursuit in which tempta>
ton to dishonesty has had less influence
and in which men have pursued the
even tenor of their way with less anxi.
ETY. 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 spec
ulation, sharp practices, gambling in
stocks, spoilation of labor, and by in
direct and direct robbery, we cannot
deny; but those fortunes, however
large and glittering, do not stand up to
public gaze as monuments of public
honor, of patient industry, of painstak-
ing, honest labor, but they tower RAJ
ther as beakons, warning men to be.
ware of the hidden rocks and treacher>
Gus quicksands on which so many of
life's voyages have been wrecked.
These fortunes have no solid founda-
tons to rest upon, and when the floods
come and the. winds blow they fall like
the house built upon the sand. Farms
ing is business that rests upon a sure
foundation. 1t demands honest work.
1t is not built up by the spoilation of
others. Its gains, though they may be
small, are legitimate and honorably
earned. There is more capital invested
today in agricultural pursuits than in
all other industries combined. 1t pays
more for the support of government
and receives less protection and con-
sideration from Government than any
other interest.
In looking at farming in the broad,
full light of practical utility, of safe in
vestments, of sure dividends and of
the best public service, we cannot help
commencing it, and urging it upon the
young as pursuit upon the whole
more satisfying, less hazardous, more
useful, honorable and remunerative
than any other business. 1t gives
scope to the intellect, play to the
imagination, range to the affections, 4
a field to the inventive powers, a work
for hand and heart which no other in.
dustry supplies.
But for any adequate realization of
the advantages, the remunerations and
the satisfactions of farming, there must
be among our patrons and farmers
high education, better culture and a
larger appreciation of and devotion to
their own peculiar calling. They must
see and feel its importance in its fnan-
cial, social, moral and industrial bear
ings, and prepare themselves with as
much zeal and earnestness by careful
experiment, close observation and per.
severing study as those who propose to
enter the learned professions, or the
paths of science, or the study and the
practice of the arts.