Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-01-12
Agritnltnral department.
THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW
YEAR.

The New Year is made time for
the examination of business matters
by all careful business men. Far
mers should be careful business men
in every sense of the word, there are
many large risks of waste and loss to
guard agsinst and so many opportun-
tiles of saving and economizing IN
small matters, that without close
watching and constant knowledge OF
their affairs, their losses may easily
overwhelm their profits. AS q rule,
while farming is profitable business,
vet farmers do not make nearly so
much profit as they might. The rea-
son for this is their unbusiness-llke
habits and want of watchful econe-
nv in little things. 1t may be OBJ
jected that this charge is too broad
and sweeping and unjust to farmers.
But, as class, it IS unhappily too
true, and while there are good
many provldent, thoughtful and con-
sequently careful farmers, yet the
majority are otherwise and suffer
more or less in consequence.
Little things mar or make rs. In
the aggregate, our happiness or our
misery is the result of many small
things. Want of forethought and
foresight, and a general condition of
unpreparedness for the events of our
daily life, which we all know will &C.
cur, are the common causes of fail
ure. These faults are just now the
more conspicuous as the Winter sea-
sons has set in when the rigors of the
seasons bring upon us so many neces-
sites and occasions for extreme Wig
lance.
Our prevailing losses may be emu
merated as follows: in regard to our
live stock which suffers for want of
comfortable shelter; in respect to the
fodder and feed which is wasted III
several ways, as by reasons of a con-
sumption because of the prevailing
want of a comfortable shelter: a
careless use of it in feeding the ami
mails, as by trampling over it in mud
dy Or filthy yards; or by feeding it
whole so that it not wholly eaten or
is not properly digested. Then we
lose in labor very greatly for our
work, we lose in comfort very much
for the same season absence of me-
thodical management too, causes
numerous wastes and discomfort, and
in the home general fretfnlness and
dissatisfaction pervade the family
affairs, by which the children are
alienated from their farm-home life,
and the housewives enjoyment is
seriously encroached upon. Perhaps
an example may be given which will
bring these points very closely
home to many of our readers.
The writer has been journeying over
wide extent of country the past
few weeks in search of information,
and to see new scenes and strange
people. Everywhere there are few
things which prevail so generally and
are so greatly injurious, while they
are so easily avoided, that they may
be taken as type of the faults we
desire to point out. First, the cattle
are, with very few exceptions, ex
ceptions, exposed so much to the
cold and storms that they canno
possibly make any growth during the
winter, and the consequence is tina
the feed is wholly expended in keep
ing them alive, and nothing at all il
gained by its use. Second, in no
one case in twenty is any sufficien
provision of fuel made and put unde
decent, dry shelter for the season
The common pile of green wood lie'
out of doors covered with snow c
ice or dripping with rain, and in som
extreme cases the fuel for the morn
ing fire has to be cut and brought in be
fore the morning meal can be cooked
These two things are so prevalen
that when tight comfortable barn
well sheltered open sheds and yards
with suitable provision for feeding il
racks, and watering in sheltere
troughs and closed and convenient
ly situated wood shed with Il goo
store of dry fuel and kindling WOO
are seen, the sight is something to b
fixed upon the mind.
''Order is Heavens first law" !
farmer ought to be one of the mo:
orderly and systematic of men. Fl
lives wholly within the domain {
nature and sees every day and hol
the order and system which IL
works of the Creator are carried OF
He cannot fail to see how he wi
and must suffer whenever he, in h
work, fails to conform to the laws {
nature. Every one of his misfortune
is really the result of mistakes, {
wilful neglect of what little though
would show to him are laws whiC
canno. be broken with IMMUNITY. Al
order and system must be the fir
law of the farm as j is of natur
To begin then, the farmer shou
know precisely how he stands, wi
the world at the beginning of Il
year. If he is in debt he should kno
just how much he owes and what
has to pay it with. With mai
farmers who are careless in this r
spect such an investigation would
a painful revelation which won
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