The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-07-10
cLuTcHINe AT STARS.
An Analysis of the Wholesale Advice Given
to Farmers and Dairymen.

An Analysis of the Wholesale Advice Given
to Farmers and Dairymen,
1t is altogether too common for dairy
writers, when inveighing against the
productions of the great mass Of poor
butter that is put on the market. wholly
unfit for market, or to be used by those
who have normal taste, to assume that
it might all be made nearly as good as
the best; and large share of the indig-
nation that is expended is launched at
the farmers and farmers wives, who are
the authors and finishers of the unpal-
atable mixture. They are commended
to learn how to do better, and in some
cases studied homilies are written, CIV
inc all the minutia in regard to butter
making, from the birth of the incipient
COW, to the end of the sale through the
commission man, it may be thousand
miles away.
We have large amount of doubt in
regard to the wisdom of the bulk of
such advice; because, to attempt to fol-
low one-fourth of it, is as much above
and beyond the mental and business
push of the majority of farmers, as it
would be for them to master the details
of any other business that it takes years
of close application and study to sue
cessfully manage. Some can do the
whole business; but even large part OF
those who can, will do better to confne
their work to certain parts; while the
overwhelming mass will do no better
than they do now, while attempting to
get along without the aid of others who
are versed in the intricate details that
it takes time and money to be familiar
with. There are thousands who will do
better, and make larger men of them
selves, TO make it study to produce
more of the most profitable milk for the
production of butter and cheese, from
the same acres, than they will to scatter
and weaken their energies in learning
to do more, and then learn and practice
all the rest from the milk pail on. Part
of those thousands have sufficiently
taxed their capacity when achieving so
much, and would be "bulls in crock
cry store" if they undertook more; and
part are so mentally constituted that
they had better double up on what they
know, and repeat their efforts over and
over, than to learn another trade. 1t
would be a waste of effort on the part
of law schools to teach that all their
pupils may attain all that the soundest
and brightest may achieve; and so it
would be equally a waste of effort to
say to all the uneducated farmers that
they may equal the more favored ones
in intellect and education, and that it
is the duty of each to rival and equal
the varied accomplishments of the
completest farmer he knows, instead of
confning himself to master lesser
number of things that are within the
compass of his mental push and tastes
and capital.
The tendency of the times in all de-
partments of mechanical labor and pro-
feSsional effort, is to run to specalties,
and thus better equip a man to excel in
his line. The same principle applies to
the farmer to great extent; and hence
it will be true, that the more the doc
trne is inculated, and the more the adj
vice is acted upon, that the farmer
must be "miXed' to the extent of being
and knowing and practcing every
thing on each farm, that ought to per-
tain to the many, shall we have the
diversified crowd of imcompetents
and halfway successful ones we now
have
The average farmer who gives hi:
thought and purpose to make each acre
of his farm produce five thousand pounds
of good milk per annum, can learr
to do that quicker, do it with more Ger
,tainty and with less hard work anC
anxiety, than he can learn to make two
thousand five hundred pounds per acre
net him the same income through
skillful manufacture of the milk, an(
the most successful sale of his product
TO teach men, taking the mass as it is
that they can take a front seat, ant
ought to do as well in the early futur
as the men of ripe experience and grea
knowledge are now doing, is no kind
ness to them, for development come
step by step. Men should reach for tina
which is just above them. and within
their enlarged capacity to compass; bu
not waste energy at clutching at stars
-HoardS DGjryman. 49,