The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-29
larry tools, and was provided with good

dairy tools. and was provided with good
salt, good tubs and other necessaries.
But any one can imagine what kind of
milk she has to handle, and all the 9TH
er things according" Half the time
thesugar place is not tapped. and when
it is no good sugar is made. Not much
grain Is grown, and none fed except to
horses. The young stock are raised
mostly on straw and spoiled hay. Buy-
ers go buy without stopping to look at
the butter, and can hardly he coaxed to
make an offer for it at any time This
farm is now under a heavy mortgage,
and must be sold. bHere q great deal
of money is '.lost reedIessly,n and all
1.-THE principles of trade are ignored.
Tam taking these cases of types, and
dairymen more or less approaching this
type are so common that all writers on
dairying deplore the fact, and are
obliged to admit, as one whom l have
just been reading admits, that 1.-THE
number of private dai1ymen who can
turn out fine butter and cheese is very
small when compared with the number
who produce an inferior article"
Another sort of farmer is represented
by young man whose father left him a
good farm not far from the village,
where he likes to spend good deal of
mis- time. Not that he is loafer, but he
likes excitement and what he calls
business" He likes to buy potatoes.
hops, beans, baled hay, or anything
that he.can get hold of to ship to the
city markets. Sometimes he makes and
sometimes he loses money at this, but
| he only seems to care to be "doing
something" He does not mean to neg
lect his farm, which is good one, and
he has laid out a good deal of money in
setting out large orchard. has an acre
or two in hops, nearly as much in on
ions, tries to raise good many pota-
toes and roots, and has a large silo. He
has, indeed, enough going on upon the
farm to occupy all his time, and he
gives about half his time to it. He gets
half crop of small and often lousy
hops; his apple-trees are unpruned, and
! in the winter get badly barked by the
mice for lack OF protection. He is gen
orally digging potatoes and housing
roots late in November, and always has
some frozen in. His onions are usually
planted so late and cared for so poorly
that they do not ripen so as to be mar
ketable. He is running behind so that
it is not hard to foresee how he will
end.
| have taken these examples from
among farmers of more, than average
intelligence and education. When we
get down to those who never learned
much at school, and can't be got to take
a paper; to those who spend much of
their time hunting foxes and trapping
muskrats and skunks: to those who go
to the village to loaf and perhaps to
drink and play cards, when the weeds
at home cover the potatoes out of sight
and overtop the corn; to those who are
fifty years behind the times. and want
to knock the man down who suggests a
new idea to them; to those that are
''constitutionally tired and to various
other kinds representing all forms of
ignorance and inefficiency, it is plain
enough that 'sthere are uncounted ways
in which farmers lose money! and neg
lect to learn or apply the principles OF
trade to their business. OF course,
there is another side to the question. but
the number of really skilful, business
like farmers is yet very small. Cor N.
Y ErH91inpy