The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-07-17

take hold and run farm as it must be
run in order to make it profitable
business operation.
American farming, until within the
last forty years, was never looked upon
or thought of as business. In the
early days of our country, and up to a
time within the memory of many of us,
the products of American farms were
almost entirely consumed upon them,
for the support of the possessors and
their families. To realize cash enough
to pay the taxes, and to provide for the
few other expenses which could be met
only with money, was difficult task
for thousands. The few small cities
and villages then existing absorbed but
little of the products of the soil There
are single counties in New England
which to-day produce more food than
was then required for the supply of
every city and village in the six states.
Farmers then EARNED for living"
and most of them got it, after some
fashion or another.
Much the larger number of American
farmers are still farming for living;
but living means something quite diff
ferent now. Farms now produce little,
other than food, for home support.
Where formerly all the clothing of the
family, with light exceptions, was spun,
woven and put together in the farm
house, and the spinning and
loom were heard in operation by every
by-passer, now nothing remains audible
but the slight whirr of the sewing-ma-
chine at work upon the fabrics of great
factories, and devoting as much time
and labor to this as was formerly re-
quired to produce from the wool and
flax the entire clothing of the much
larger families of the olden time. To
procure the requisite materials, and the
many and multiplying requirements
for the household, never even imagined
in the elder day, the modern farmer
sees himself called upon to turn him
self into manufacturer and a mer-
chant, without even an elementary &C.
quaintance with the essential require
ments of those lines of business. 1t is
hard job, and little wonder i. there
that by vast amber among us it is
not found to "pay." The conditions
of successful farming have changed
much faster than the farmers have been
able to change with them. They are
running after the train, many of them
quite out of breath and almost out of
hope.
Yet this business of farming never
had so great possibilities within its
grasp as now. In the old time there
was no such opening for the farmer to
develop himself or his trade as there
now is. He was walled in by condi-
lions that have disappeared or are
rapidly disappearing. Civilization of a
much higher type is now accessible to
the farmer and his family, if he proves
able to understand and accept the new
situation and to adapt himself to its
requirements. But it demands higher
type of man to accept and avail him.
self of these new conditions. Only the
fittest will survive. This is law from
which escape is not possible.
Yes; there is a" firm basis " upon
which the courageous and resolutt
farmer who is willing to modernize him
self and to acquaint himself with The
principles of business applicable to hi
art can place himself. The utmost en-
couragement is found by the thinking
working farmer in a few undeniabl,
facts which lie at the bottom of hi
business, and can be made to insure
its success, if rightly studied.
The first of these facts is, that in al
lines of business incompetents are nov
rapidly being " frozen out" This Law
works more slowly in agriculture thai
in other lines, because agriculture is
food-producing business. But farme
who can only produce the food for him
self and family finds himself yer
badly off. He must produce something
,, to sell also. In order to sell this
, must be of merchantable quality, ant
it must be produced cheaply enough t.
yield profit over the actual cost o
: production. If not, the producer wi
in time be compelled to abandon hi
farm. We see instances of this on a
+, sides of us in New England, and the
are not by any means rare in the Yves
and South. Economic laws are inexol
e able, and they, unlike human laws, ar
e quite able to execute themselves. 1t
a an unacceptable fact that no business wi
J. or can be long carried on at a loss. TIL
o incompetent farmer is disappearing, an
" the competition of his products wit
l. those of competent farmers is rapid