St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-30
A Warning to Farmers.

| II
The English farmers. who have been
considered the best in the world, and
whose profits have in past years been
very great, are just now under the har-
row. Meat and grain can be brought
from the fertile prairie lands of the
central portion of the United States
cheaper than those ncceSsaries of life
can be produced on the British farms
for which IA high rent is paid. The
consequence is that the farmers are
discussing how they can best increase
| their products and diminish their eX-
penses. eff good farming will not pay
certainly bad will not, said one of the
British agricultural magnates. The
phrase was sufficiently expressive, but
not logically accurate, because "pay-
ing" Is the criterion of goodness in
farming on both sides of the Atlantic.
Any farming which pays fair rate of
profit on a comparison with other
trades is positively good. If it pays a
higher rate, it is comparatively better !;
if it does both, it is good in the super
lative degree.
Book farmers and political orators
attend cattle-show dinners and assure
the farmer that it is his high destiny
to provide sustenance for the race
whose ancestor God formed in his own
image, and that when he makes two
ears of corn grow where one grew be-
fore he may glory i'll being a benefactOr
of mankind. But the self-im pOrtance
thus cOnjured up would fade away be-
fore the foreclosure of Il mortgage or Il
tax sale, and the sight of two haystacks
where only one stood before would fail
to cheer the heart of the cultiVatOr
when they had once been placed in the
schedule of the deputy sheriff. When
we come down to hard pan, the object
of farming is gain The farmer man
ufactures and brings to market grain,
vegetables, meat and fruit the mill
owner, cotton cloth, cashmere, calico,
hats and shoes incidentally, the one
class of products feeds mankind and
the other clothes them. That is the
commercial principle, and the closer
either party sticks to it the more prob
able will be his success. Draining,
silOs, food steamers and other modern
inventions are all very good in their
way, but the great question is, do they
invariably pay
Practical farmers, who cultivate their
ancestral acres without resOrting to
many new-fangled notions, almost uni
versally manage to lay up more or less
money every year, and If they are
spared to a good old age, they die well
to do in the world. On the other hand,
those who seize upon every new agri-
cultural notion, as a fashionable woman
finds it necessary to have a new bon
net every three months, are very apt
to run behindhand in the world, and
often have to give up the farms about
which they have told such interesting
stories. Not that | am opposed to
draining, or artificial manures, OF 9th
er modern notions, but maintain that
they should be used with great care,
and only when it is practically demon
strated that they pay.
Produce can only be increased either
by enabling crops to avail themselves
more fully of resources already exist
ing in the soil, by deep blowing and
constant working, or by the use of adj
ditiOnal manure. 1t is very apt to be
the case, however, that forced increase
of production tends to exhaustion. a
man has IL horse going four miles IN
hour. He tlOgs him and he will go
eight, but the next time he Hogs HIM
he will only go six, and so every time
in diminishing ratio, until ut last he
will not go at all. The British farm
ers have cultivated wheat with drills,
have used horse hoes which run be-
tween those drills, have buried for
tunes under ground i'll the shape of
drain pipe, and have awaited them
selves of the latest chemical discover
les in producing stimulating manures.
They have very cheap labor, tOler-
ably good climate, and the best market
for breadstutfs and meats in the world.
Still, they are now in IA very distress
ing condition. This is doubtless owing
to the importation from America in ii
large degree, but at the same time they
are beginning to ascertain that what
is called ''high farming" does not pay
in the end. Good soil, intelligent and
enterprising cultivation, and the en-
ployment of large capital, do not
meet with an inadequate reward. The
English farmers are finding that they
have done wrong in abandoning prac-
tice, which is itself the accumulated
and varied science of ages, for che mical
theories. Let us, on this side of the
Atlantic, profit by the example, Ben.
Perley POore in American CultivatOr.