Omaha daily bee., 1891-12-27

STICN 10 II FARM.


The rush of young men from the farm
ing districts to the cities is to be de-
plored and should be discouraged. Es-
pecially is this true in the fertile prairie
states of the west, where lands are com
~Daratively cheap and the soil practically
i~neXhaustible. Only three out of every
100 men who emb ark in mercantile pur-
suits are successful. Less than 10 per
cent OF the farmers who are reasonably
Industrious, sober and skillful are liable
to lose their livelihood by foreclosure of
their farms. A farmer has more leisure
than any man in mercantile life who is
obliged TO center all his energies TO
meet the constantly increasing competi-
ton. Labor saving machinery has taken
away a large plrt of the drudgery of
farm life. The hardest work comes now
in the season of preparation, cultivation
and harvest. Nearly four months of
successful farmer.
OF course there are three classes of
farmers in every country-land owners
out Of debt, land owners in debt and
tenant farmers. The typical agricul-
turist is the one who has paid for his
Ian and has brought it into a state of
perfect cultivation, who has built con-
Portable houses, barns and granaries,
and who has all the necessary Labor saw
ing implements and stock incident to
successful farming. Thousands of such
farmers may be- found in Indiana. Hi
nois, Minnesota, Iowa and in the older
settled portions of Kansas and Nebraska.
The farmer in debt is striving to over
Jake his moro successful neighbor. He
Is the individual who suffers most when
crops fail, because he owes money, pays
interest and is in danger of sheritf's
sale. The tenant farmer, as II rule, has
only mis- muscle Us his capital and often
little expectation of ever becoming Il
land owner. These grades blond into
each other, but are moro or less distinct
in every community.
The experience OF every farmer in the
older sections of this state and Iowa is
that when he once gets on his feet
that is, clears off his Indebtedness, com
pletes the necessary buildings, own his
implements and has II little stock, he is
almost sure OF II surplus each year.
The farmer in debt who is frugal,
thrifty and skiIlful in management will
in duo time step into the ranks of indie
pendent unmortgaged land owners. The
others will fall by tho wayside and
eventually drop back among the tenants,
leaving eventually but two classes of
agricuIturists the farm owner and the
tenant farmer.
The health of the farmer is II capital
which the overwprked city man must
often forogo, Oton the farmer lad,
with a speciaE3genius for some urban
occupation, succeeds against bitter
opposition by stNt9on of the physical
endurance he Possesses, rs II result of
his outdoor lubo' in the field in his
youth. Tho value Of health cannot be
overe5tim tied. STtd no SUCCESS will
~remunorato thstadividual for It's loss,
Farmers, us ar! rs, possess indepond-
ence, health, lt5Ntantment, hope and
freedom from the harassing cares of
mercantile o. other commercial and
professional puiait4 WHAT more can
tho farmers boy want? Why should
he farmers sons alb lndon the calling
that is honorable aud certain to be
remunerative for the disappointments
and disasters experienced by Il 80 large IL
percentages of thoc who engage in
other occupations? Why not rather
aim at securing eighty or one hundred
and sixty acres of lad with good dwol-
ling, barns, granlries, imp oments,
stock and Il balance m bank2 Any stroag,
cIelr headed, industrious young man in
Nebraska or low unler twenty-five
years of age who viii patiently, per-
sistsntly and clreiuly devote himself to
the effort can couit upon ali these,
with the comfort ami Independence they
include, with moral certainty by tn,
ttmo h1is forty yeats of age. Nebraska