The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-09-05
A YOUNG MANS CHANCES IN THE
EAST AND IN THE WEST,

The question whether it is possible for
a young man, industrious, intelligent.
with good health, willing arms and a fair
knowledge of farming, to become the
owner OF an eastern cultivated farm, is,
in the opinion of the american Culti,,a-
tor, too often answered in the negative.
The common complaint is that prices of
land are too high, that interest and the
cost OF working the land take all its pro-
ducts, 30 that literally the farmer thus
clrcumstanced works for board and
clothes, in all except the name the SER
want OF severe task master, Only the
farmer having capital enough to pay for
the farm at the beginning can hope for
success, said success consisting in earn.
ing modest living for himself and fam
~. III he wishes to accomplish even
this, the young man beginning farming
without capital must work for Others
until he can accumulate it.
The result Of this teaching is that the
bulk of New England and Eastern young
men inclined to farm life leave home
and seek the west. There wild land can
be had for little or nothing. By work
ing and enduring privations such as he
would not think OF putting up with in
the East, young man may in time make
himself home, build barns, and ulti-
mately become prosperous farmer in
his locality. Even here, however, he
has his drawbacks. While making his
farm improvements he has deteriofated
soil fertility. He has his farm, but il is
in less desirable climate than that of
his early home and, including every-
thing, has probably cost fully as much.
AT the West, too, few hundred dol
lars to begin farming with are even
more necessary than in the East. Inter.
est IS much higher there, and the lack of
any money is generally the lack of credit
as well. AT the East habits of industry.
and promptitude in meeting obligations
as they become due, soon extend a mans
credit as much as it is best for him to
have. Money is comparatively plentiful
in all old localities. In new settlements
lt Is scarce, and except at extremely
harsh and usurious rates, the man with
out available assets can get nothing. In
almost any western towns are many
farmers barely getting living, and only
holding on because they cannot get
money to go anywhere else,
Those who experiment in farming with
too little money either East or West
rarely give themselves a fair chance.
They attempt too much, are overweight
ed, and fail, just as men of small capital
fail IN other business attempts. There
was, perhaps, a time when the purchase
or homesteading Of large tract of land
was good business policy, Land that bv
the increase of settlement becomes more
valuable has been the rule 80 long that it
seems as if it were an inevitable part of
the order OF things. Instead, however,
in most of the country it has become the
exception. Land increases in value
only as improvements are put upon it,
and to do this costs money. In fact,
large farms both East and West can now
be bought for merely the cost of build
lngs and improvements, and often for
less In other words, the land really
costs nothing, and the purchaser has the
alternative OF taking it al the cost of i'm
provements, OF taking wild land and
making improvements himself
No farmer with small capital should
over burden himself with large amount
of land. He can by his own labor bring
few acres to high state of cultivation
with little expenditure of money. This
will pay better than half working more
land and getting a smaller crop per acre,
hiring help to cultivate and harvest it,
besides paying interest on this larger
area that has thus been cultivated at a
loss. 1t is the great mistake of small
farmers to suppose that their land is too
small in area to cultivate with profit,
Those who think thus often purchase
neighboring farms with the notion that
thus they can help themselves out. Nine
times in ten these efforts result in worse
failure than would have followed con-
centration of effort on the original num-
ber of acres, There is an unfounded
prejudice among all Anglo-Saxons
against selling part of their farm, II it
is more than can be worked with profit,
sell until it becomes adapted to the own
er's capital and executive ability. A
small farm, paid for and we'll TILED,
makes safe home. When its capablli-
ties are thoroughly tested, the owner
may be surprised to learn that it requires
whatever executive force he can COM
mand to manage it.