The herald., 1897-07-07
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( DOES FARMING PAY? :
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mia, including the building of it's water
works and other improvements. is being
retarded greatly by the idea that farm
ing does not pay. And this idea Is en-
couraged right here, and among certain
classes is growing into an axiom which
includes also the fruit growers.
What business does pay per cent net
regularly and certainly on the capital in
vested? The premium borne by gov
ernment per cent bonds before there
was any suspicion of hard times is al
most an answer. 1t shows what low in
terest people are willing to take to have
it certain. A business that pays per
cent with certainty for any long time
is very rare. There are ten times as
many enterprises that on the brightest
prospects pay nothing until they have
bankrupted two or three sets of men,
and plenty more that never stop running
those who invest in them.
In those that pay per cent with
safety the most ignorant person can
quickly see that they pay by brains, un-
remitting diligence, eternal vigilance
and grinding economy. Millions may be
fired into breach, but never a cent is
spent unless the management at least
| thinks there is value received for it.
The same principles apply to mer-
camille business. More fail than win
Hardly anyone wins by trusting the
business to the best of employees. No
matter how good the clerks or book
keepers, the owner must stand over the
whole with a club or before he knows it
the profit is turned into loss. Even with
all his care, he must be natural mer-
nj n ma Ia
hotel keeper. If he is not he may make
living, may make fair country mer-
chant, but can never handle the large
trade that one must to get rich.
What is there about the soil that ex-
empts any man from the operation of
these principles? One might as we'll try
to run circus by proxy as to buy a
piece of land and expect the Lord to do
the rest. Especially is this the case III
California. Where the soil does the
most it demands the most attention
There is no you-press-the he-button- and
the -cimatew will-do- the-rest about it.
Fortunately we have plenty of the
kind of farmers who know these princi-
Piles and apply them. They can be found
even on those lands where there is no
water for irrigation. While they are not
getting rich, they are coming nearer to
making per cent net on the capital
reasonably invested than an equal num-
Der of the business men of the country,
east, west or anywhere. l say reason
ably invested because a man who has
paid several hundred dollars an acre for
land thinking it would some day be in
demand for town lote, or a man who
jumped at the first thing offered him
when he could have done better else
where for half the money, should not
charge that against farming any more
than he should $4,000 house when a
$1,000 one would have done we'll enough
for few years. Nor should a man who
has paid wet price. for dry land, be-
cause some one told him it did not need
irrigation, debit farming with the differ
ence.
These farmers, among whom are the
alfalfa men and those who diversity
their crops and raise most of their own
living, are actually making some money
above their living AS a rule they are not
complaining, although they could stand
better times as well as the rest of us.
But if we count in the living they are
getting from the ground, they are bet
ter off today than any of the commu-
nifty. But this is exactly what the
"squealer' does not count. The man
who is eternally bowling about farming
not paying does not include his living III
the profits at all. If a city man earns
$1,000 a year and has to spend $500 for
his living, while the squealing farmer
makes his living and only $100 over, he
thinks the city man just 5000 ahead of
him in the game of life. Nor does he
count the further fact that he can call
on that city man to do business in fan
mel shirt and overalls while the city man
has to spend perhaps $100 year on clean
linen to command the respect Of that
same farmer when he wants his patron
age. He counts none of these things,
but merely figures so much money spent
since he came to the country and thinks
he should have so much income for it.
If he does not, farming is fraud and
California a bigger one.
What applies to general farming ap-
plies as well to fruit growing. People
have made mistakes in planting, hand
ling and marketing fruit A man who
has a fine orchard of seeding oranges
should not blame the orange business
for the low price. People should not be
afraid of orange seeds. Nevertheless,
since the discovery of appendicitis they
are afraid and no matter how good the
Seeding may be there is not the old de-
mand for it. So too a man is not to
blame for not finding out that st. Mich
aels, Mediterranean sweets and other
oranges that look like the Seeding share
some of the same disfavor. But neither
is the orange business or California to
blame for it. never met the big VIII Eat
grower, who strains every point 20 get
in the largest acreage with the least
work and who buys even his bread, that
did not admit it was gambling and not
farming. Why should not some fruit
growers be equally honest and admit
that taking the profits out of one busi-
ness to put into some other bu1ineSs is
not business, especially when the sec
ond business is buying some ones else's
property on margin to hold for rise:
Why should he debit California or fruit
growing with his failure? A mar can
not easily raise unmarketable wheat or
corn and can hardly spoil It with bad
handling. But to raise fruit that no one
wants is one of the easiest things in any
country, and to spoil with bad packing
fruit that people do want is sti. more
easy. And easier yet is the operation of
inviting a commission merchant to help