Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-09-23
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD
The Agricultural Industry.

Secretary Y. S. Gold, of the Connec-
ticut State board of Agriculture, was
recently interviewed by correspond
ent of the Philadelphia Press. Mr. Gold
gives his views of agriculture, as COM
pared with other industries, as follows:
If we divide all human industry into
four general divisions, agriculture,
manufactures, commerce, and min
ing agriculture, especially if
we consider the amount of
skill exercised in it's prosecution, the
privileges of homo and social enjoy
ment which it allows, and the favor
able conditions for health and long life
which it offers, yields greater returns
than either of the others. In the first
place it's losses are comparatively
small. A farmer rarely fails, and when
he does, his laborers lose little or moth
ing. They have had their board, and
they usually take up their wages as fast
as they are earned. On the other hand
in other avocations the losses are often
enormous. The failure of a single min
ing or manufacturing enterprise not
infrcqucntly involves the total ruin of
all connected with it.
In some forms of manufacturing,
commercial and mining activity, safety
and success seem reasonably certain
But these are not the great enterprises
which captivate the imagination. They
are rather operations conducted after
the modest, pleading fashion of ordin-
airy agriculture. In manufactures it is
the small mechanic who earns steady
living and lays by small surplus for
his children, who Is the most favored OF
his class. In commerce the safest bus
mess is done by the small trader, es-
pecially in the country, where all his
customers are personally known to him.
AS medium of exchange between
country and city, between the farm and
the factory, he barely earns an honest
living. But take these traders al
| together, and the net results OF
their labor and capital invested
average better than those of the more
ambitious who seek the higher positions.
| In mining, too, the safest investment is
where the baser metals, iron, lead and
copper, and coal to work them, are
concerned. 1t would seem to follow
from simple analogy that agriculture
itself became hazardous, as it expands
into bonanza farming, and the herding
of uncounted cattle on vast ranges.
OF course, there could be no trade OF
manufactures without farming as 8
basis, and the rudest form of agricul
ture, the gathering of the spontaneous
fruits of the earth, is the foundation Of
every industry. But this does not JUS
tify the farmer in taking those risks ir
other forms of industry which he toe
often incurs. When farmers lose
money it is not usually in the pursuit Of
agriculture, but of something else. The
farmers of the country would be richer
if they had confined themselves tt
farming and not taken stock in some
railroad or manufacturing company or
worse still, in some mine which they
never saw. The desire to get enormous
profits, to find fortune instead o:
earning it, is as old as the human race
Too often the farmer who will take {
week in considering the value of COW
he desires to purchase of neighbor
and then disagrees on dollar or two
in the price. will invest his hundreds
and his thousands. if he has them, il
the "Great Bottomless Gold Mine,
situated in the Mountains of the Moon
1t is this spirit of speculation, or the
desire to get something out of nothing
which is fatal. The raising of one
$1,000 colt has demoralized whole com
munities. The sales by some fancy
cattle breeder, where heifer bring!
$1,000, the exceptional profits of sin
gle hop or tobacco crop-anythins
which wins prize, like a successful
lottery ticket-too often brings on thu
delirium of speculation. The farmer
should be the last man in the world tt
incur these gamblers risks. His school
ing units him for the excitement O
such games. The rewards of his labor
are found in the quiet of rural life, do
nestle comfort, the sanctities of home
The feverish spirit of speculation shoult
have no place amid such placid sur
roundings.