Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-01-07
Agrirmltmrat Department.
Attention to Details.

things is at the the bottom of more
failures in farming than any other
one cause. 1t is this that spoils
farmers gardens throughout the coun-
try. What they can do with horse
and cultivator at the rate of several
acres per day seems like business.
Bending the back to pull weeds by
hand, or removing them with the
hoe, is more like boys or women's
work than mems. Yet, because of
this desire to dodge the slow,
puttering work, it is in this that
there is greatest opportunity to show
extra skill, and it is this that usually
pays best for the labor performed.
Mixed farming involves far
greater amount and variety of Ia
Dor than the cultivation of any one
speciality. This is both it's advan-
tage and disadvantage. A farmer
chronically indisposed to attend to
little things will fail more surely and
quickly the greater the variety of
crops he cultivates. On the other
hand if he has learned to be prompt
with his work, seeing that everything
is done on time and in the right way,
he is safer than if he relied upon a
single crop for all his profits. In
one case he will have a constant
succession of petty losses from his
inattention. In the other a success
sion of small gains which are ever
the surest basis of prosperity. 1t is
often said to be the mark of good
farmer to have something to sell
through the year, and to keep each
week his income within his expendi-
lures. In some branches of farming
this must be impossible. But there
is in any the necessity of such care
fulness as will insure that whatever
the farmer sells has not been pro-
duced at loss.
Economy is therefore one of the
necessary conditions of success in
farming, and it is mainly economy
in trivial matters. The perception
of this truth has made farmers as a
class seem to many neediessly care
full and penurious. Mere saving is
not economy. Nobody should real
ize this more strongly than farmers
who SOW and manure literally in
hope of more bounteous harvest.
But there needs also to be wise and
discrimination against expenditures
of money as investments that do not
produce paying results. The larger
expenses'of the farm cannot be easily
curtailed. They ought often to be
increased in the interests of future
profits. improvement of farm stock,
undertaking and manures all cost
money, but they bring money back
again. 1t is the trifing expenses
that produce nothing in return that
will ruin any business if too long
continued.
Good farming also demands the
close and constant attention of the
owner, or at least of some one who
will as unselfshly look after the
owners interests. Many little things
are sure to go wrong if the owner
trusts the management of everything
to hired help. Some people attempt
the business of farming when they
have already so many other cares of
greater Importance that their success
is impossible. The man who puts
his hand to the pillow, above all 9TH
ers, must not look back, nor yet
sidewise. To do good work at farm
ing must demand one mans entire
attention, and will be generally more
successful if restricted to what one
man can himself do.
Land has been, and is still, cheap
in most parts of this country. The
temptation is strong to grasp and
hold more than can be thoroughly
cultivated. While we had great
quantities of virgin soil to be brought
under good culture, the improve
ments on it made the holding of adj
joining new land profitable, That
time has gone by. There is now gen
orally no advance in price of land
except by in some way increasing
its productiyeness. This is expen-
sive, slow, and requires the most
careful management. 1t cannot be
done in the wholesale way SO well as
by each farmer taking no more land
than he can well manage. This is
doubtless better for the future of
our farming than would be differ
ont condition re 70 r,,,i,,n affairS