The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-04-24
Farming vs.. other CaIlings.

To young man just starting in life
for himself the choice of a calling to be
pursued is the one important question
for him to settle, and it sometimes
proves an exceedingly difficult one to
settle, and not infrequently he has tried
and had some experience in several diff
ferent callings before finding that to
which he is best adapted. Things are
not stereOtyped in this country, do not
run in ruts as they do in the countries
of the old world 1t is so easy a matter
to change from one calling or business
to another that some men are all their
lives changing, but they generally illus
trate the prOYerb that "a rolling stone
gathers no moss 1t is certainly a
great point gained bv any young man
if he can early in life find out what he
wants to do and then set himself per-
sistently to doing it. But our purpose
in this article is briefly to consider the
relative chances for success in life in
farming as compared with other call
ings. As between farming and work
ing for d salary in merchandising, man
ufaCtures, railrOading, telegraphing. or
any of the great interests which employ
armies of men there can be no question.
The employee is likely-almost certain,
to remain an employee all his life, and
that at a salary which barely affords a
living, without the possibility Of accu
mulating a competence for old age. The
professiOns-law, medicine and the
ministry-are all Overcrowded, a large
percentage of the graduates after a lit.
tie time drop into other C allings. A
few reach eminence and success, but
the great mass are only mediocre in
either attainments or success.
Trade, like a lottery, has prizes for q
few, but blanks for the many. Over
ninety out of every hundred merchants
fail sooner or later. Modern methods
of conducting business make it more
and more difficult for the man of mod
crate means to achieve success in trade.
The small fish are sooner or later swal-
lowed by the large ones. Farming does
not offer such brilliant prizes as those
which are gained by the few fortunate
ones in trade; but it does offer a rea-
sonable certainty of q fair measure of
| success when pursued intelligently and
persistently. Few farmers are obliged
to apply to the bankrupt court in COM
| parison with those engaged in other
callings.
Not all farmers get rich, though the
number of those who become wealthy is
! by no means small. But the great mass
| of them gain property, become indie
| pendent, in a moderate way surround
| themselves and families with all the
needed comforts of life, give their chill
| dren d fair education, live free from the
| perplexities and worries which con-
stantly beset the man of business and
| constitute, as class, the very bedrock
| of our prosperity as a country.
! Farming is, at the present day, about
the only calling in which man of
small or moderate means can start and
grow into an Independent business OF
! his own. The false idea which has at
some times prevailed, that farming as a
calling is lower down in the scale than
other occupations is largely done away,
and now the man who owns land, raises
| crops or live stock is regarded, as he
always should have been, as the peer of
any other man. Land ownership is be
coming, in this country, as it always
has been in Europe, a boon to be sought
after, and the owner of a good farm
need envy no other man living .-F'Grnl-
| erS ReCiClU.