The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1885-01-15
agricultural.
DOES FARMING PAYg

DUES EAhhAtNU TAI
Whether farming pays or no, is a
question that upon the kind of farm
er a man is or the kind of farming he
practices. 1t will probably not be
denied that there are some farmers
who make farming pay" and we
readily, but sadly, admit that much
greater number do not make it pay.
But the sense in Nh,c' the term
pay is used must Be uefinite and
we'll understood. In the sense Of
living in reasonable comfort and add
ing annually to the market value of
the'farmer's possessions-or growing
in wealth by aceyetion of reasona-
Bile percentage olsthe capital employ
ed-we believe thdt only very small
percentage of farmers in the cotton
ton States are making farming
pay" 1t is difficult to agree upon
what percentage of increase on the
value of mans property-what
amount of net income from his
farm-would be sufficient to Justify
him in claiming that he is making
his business pay. One farmer may
have large and unproductive family
to support, and but small capital
invested in his farm. Another farm
er is not blessed with so many chill
dren, or they are more helpful and
profitable, while he has a larger in
herited or acquired capital.
1t is manifest that the first may fail
to make a comfortable support for
his family--though exercising equal
skill and industry in the manage
ment of his farm with the other
while the latter may live in comfort
and realize a surplus each year. The
thoughtless observer would regard
the one as a failure and the other as
d NuNttcSs Nlltll, Ill u ulu lHcIe is no
difference in the credit to which each
may be entitled. In many cases the
question Of making the farm pay is
very largely affected by the relation
which the amount of available CAPT
tai Gland, stock, tools, supplies bears
to the unproductive dependents upon
the farm.
In a still greater number of in
stances the exercise of proper econo-
my in expenditures and consumption
is a potent factor in solving the prob
lem. But, after all, the exercise of
skill in the management-in the
preparation of the soil, the proper re-
lation between the several crops, the
saving and manipulation of manures,
the methods of culture, etc, is the
most important and controlling fac
tor. If a man uses brains, SIX il and
industry in the management Of his
farm and his business does not pay.
then it may be truly said that farm
ing does not pay for if brains, skill
and industry do not result in success,
nothing else will. If such conditions
insure success, then farming does pay
and if the conditions be not complied
with, and failure results, the fault is
not chargeable to farming as a bust
ness, but to the particular method tor
want OF method employed "There
Is more in the man than there is in
the land, is saying full of truth.
1t might be amended without strip
ping it Of its wisdom, so as to read
there is more in the method than
there is in the business.
Some men fail in a business at
which others accumulate fortunes.
The country is full of broken mer-
chants, brieAcss lawyers, and impe-
cumous doctors, yet no one says that
merchandising, or the practice of law
does not pay. And the reason is OBJ
yious, in view Of the number of men
who have succeeded, and are daily
succeeding in the prosecution Of
these several professions.