Morris tribune., 1885-04-22
NOTES.
From the Real Estate Register.
Farming and Mining.

Farming and Mining.
Western papers report that large
of discouraged farmers have
turned their attention to prospecting
for and working mines. Any kind OF
mine answers their purpose. All Is
fish that comes to their net. In ILL
nois they are hunting for lead, In
Montana for copper, in Missouri for
iron and coal. and in Wisconsin for
varieties of earth that are used In the
MANUFACTURED of cheap paint. Inc
reports do not state that these hordes
of prospectors have found anything OF
value. Prospecting for buried treas
ures goes on just us briskly whether
the labor is rewarded by discovery or
not. 1t is all question of hope and
faith. These disheartened farmers
have turned their backs Oh wheat and
corn for'the present and are determln.
ed WOO another means of support
from the bosom of the common
mother. 1t is pity that such cour'
age and labor should be misdirected.
But it is the simple truth to say that
they could not easily have selected an
occupation less likely than prospect
ing to pay the cost of the leather worn
out in it. 1t would be hardly less
foolish to devote themselves to the
raising of sorghum for sugar, as some
Western journals have often advised
them to do.
The proportion of blanks to prizes
is probably larger in the business OF
mining than in any other calling to
which men can devote their energies.
The past year made dismal record
of failures in nearly every branch OF
it. A few persons were lucky enough
| to strike productive copper veins IN
| Montana, pocket, or surface deposits
| of tin in Dakota and South Carolina,
| with promis, it is said, of a still
richer field in the former territory,
and oil and gas in paying quantities
in PENNSYLVANIA. The fields of gold
and silver have not been extended
during the year. There have been
scores of announcements of new finds
of the precious metals in New York.
Virginia, and other States east of the
Rocky Mountains, but not one of them
has thus far proved worth working.
The men who discovered them have
not been able to raise money for their
DEVELOPMENT or to sell them to an in
credulous public. 10 the finders they
have been onlya cause of expense and
disappointment. The thousands OF
men who followed this Will-o' -the.Wlsp
last year would be far better off to-
| day if they had stuck to any OF the
| ordinary pursuits of life. Even where
labor was in the least demand and it's
/ reward the poorest and most precarl-
Gus, there was more to be made from
| it than from tramping over the coun'
| try in search of mineral outcrops.
The farmer is the last man who
should abondon his acres and the
| business he understands to engage in
the great uncertainties of mining.
| The weevil, blight, low prices, and all
| the misfortunes that assail him as a
farmer are risks more easily survived
| than those attendant upon searching
| for the working mines. The intelli-
| gent and patient cultivator of the soil
! can get living out of it at the worst.
He can eat of what he grows. But
| minerals are not food, and man may
| starve with a gold mine in sight.
| Western farmers are not deficient in
| good sense-though they have their
little alterations and we doubt not
that after a short trial of the notori-
Ious adYersities of the miners life,
| they will gladly lay down the pick
!. | axe and resume the shovel and the
| hoe