The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-10-03
JACKS AT ALL TRADES.

A gentleman who is thoroughly fami'-
lar with the subject, while standing in
the station at North Conway with a par
ty of friends, remarked Eyes, the sum-
mer boarding business has been a good
one for farmers, but it has been bad for
farming. Forty years ago, when i
bought cattle through this section, the
Mcmillan farm right over there was the
best in the State, and 1t was only one of
a hundred in the Saco Valley upon which
you could go in the fall and buy cattle,
sheep, pork, poultry, butter, cheese, eggs,
potatoes and other things of which the
owners always had surplus. 1t was
the business of these men to make a sur,
plus and they gave it their undivided
attention, worked at it from sunrise un'
Ill dark, and had few ambitions beyond
it. But the summer boarder came along,
gave them his money freely, paid them
for reglecting their farms and attending
to him, taught them that farming was
slow and plodding work, demonstrated
them that it was cheaper to buy beel
and bread than to grow them, and while
the land remains and the buildings have
been improved to satisfy the bOarders
genuine, old fashioned farming has
played out and instead of having an i'm
mense surplus of farm crop to sell this
fall Conway will not harvest half enough
for her own use, and as for stock, there
is next to none."
One of the party to whom this wal
addressed responded that the same wat
true in his section of the State, and
while the suggestion was new to most Of
| 81 thara a crannrol
ment, after thinking it over, that wheI
the farmhouse has been turned into
summer boarding house it has, as a rule
been at the expense of the farming pro
fession, because the change has diverted
the attention of the farmer and his fam
ily from their regular business and pu
into their heads ambitions and thoughts
which are hostile to their calling. AnC
here, we think, is an idea which is much
broader than the fact which suggests it
Very few men have the ability to carry
on more than one kind of business sue
cessfully. The Jack-at-all-trades is gen
orally good at none, and it is the ner
chant, the manufacturer, the lawyer
the doctor who gives all his time, thought
and energies to one business that win'
his way to the top or secures compel
ency and becomes independent.
| 1t is rare genius who is at once 6
good lawyer and doctor, or successful
clergyman and horse jockey, or vino car
run factory and keep store at the
same time. So the men who can farm
and keep a hotel, or Iun a saw mill OF
railroad without neglecting either bust
ness are very scarce. Time was wher
this was recognized in practice if not II
theory. Fifty years ago the New Eng
land farmer depended solely on his farm
and he gave it his best judgment and al
his strength. 1t was his business tt
make it pay. His pride, his hopes, hi
ambition for himself and his children
centered in it and never went beyond it
and that was one, we might almost say
the main, reason why it did pay. Now
in too many cases he proceeds upon thu
theory that he should farm only wher
he can find nothing else to do. He de
ponds upon something else to pay hi
bills. His purposes and plans are out
side. His hopes are in other calling
and his own receives neither his hes
thought nor his best work. Possibl!
this puts money in his purse, but Is /
any wonder that under such condition
farming does not pay and is CONSTANT.
being discredited Not at all. Wha
we want is more one-idea farmers, NOR
agriculturists, stock breeders, dairymen
poultrymen. and crop growers who ar
willing to stick to their business and ge
out of it all that can be got by good judg
ment and untiring effoIt.-MdncheSte
Mirror d: Farmer.