The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-23

DDS and Market Facilities Favor
able to Diversified Farming
Some Views on the Subject by II
Writer tc the Breeders Gazette.
The ran who begins farming n small
way. and on limited capital is beset with
many obstacles and drawbacks. 1t must al
ways be borne in mind by those who look
upon the prairie farm without fences and the
small house unfavored by shade trees that
such are the homes of pioneers. Many an
honest man has to.led on his homestead in
the West year in and year Gu. for many
years, only to find the grave awaiting him
when he had succeeded in getting his farm
mo rocd working crder profitable bass.
1t is largely by just such men as these that
the great prairies of the West have been
broken ard transformed into to.erable dwell
ing places for the generation of man coming
after them.
1t is doubtless true, also, that the meth
DDS of TIE past have not been the most en-
lightened. BY the development of our coun-
try along agricultural lines, these sturdy
pioneers have in many instances pursued
their way in the dark and at great disad-
vantage in the matter of markets. The
growth of the grain elevator system provid-
ed an accessible market for that product.
1t was easily handled-more easily, perhaps
than anything else that could be grown
Thus each year the farmer turned over his
SOL and planted his crops OF grain; with
drew to comparative idleness while he wait
ed for them to grow, and then resumed the
programme of harvesting and marketing and
replowing and reapng Meanwhile, how
ever, the ground being prepared for bet
ter things. The enlargement of railro-d sys-
TENS brought him into closer touch with
newly established and rapidly developing
centers OF population. His successor had the
advantage of being possessed of larger capt.
tai and with the markets close at hand he
diversified lis farming and as consequence
reaped larger returns
1t is time today that men who would gladly
engage in a wider development of their In
dustries, are fretting in their inability to DO
SO. That is TO say, they imagine that they
cannot do what they want to do-certainly not
on the desired scale, and they refuse to make
the effort. But almost every farmer, under
conditions now prevailing and by applying ex-
listing and always available methods can make
the beginning in a small way if he wills to do
so He does not need to buy herd or
flock entire-that is, stock sufficiently large
TO be deEominated herd or flock. He can
begin with few at the same cost that he
would pay fer certain kinds of seed, and at
no more labor. he can gradually build up
many from the few, and thus establish him
self in the diversified farming methods almost
before he LEows it.
A recent writer to the Breeders Gazette
very sensib,y discusses this matter from the
standpoint Of both pleasure and profit in stock
growing He says:
The only pleasant and profitable farming is
stock -ArH.ing. And no one can successfully
raise stock III a civilized and settled country
without having fences barns and other
structures, with feeding, watering and housing
conveniences fer his stock. These all cost
money and cannot soon be constructed by the
beginner of small means. But when weil-im-
proved farms, with all the buildings, fences
orchards stock-water arrangements conven-
fences and equipments already on them are
offered for sale at less than it costs to put
the land and the Improvements together, and
on such long time as ten years and such low
interest as per cent, there is a rare oppor-
tunlty to take possession and proceed immedi-
ateiy to live like a gentleman, having the
happy home and equipments for making the
money easily that cancels the debt without
shaving without privat!on, without the con-
tinual worry that makes rapidly old. - 1t Is
much better financial policy to use at per
cent inter- st the valuable equipment someone
else he's made than to move off to a lonely.
unsettled region and kill ones self trying to
get ahead enough to finally make the needed
equipment just before one is ready to d e.
With margin of the value of the farm paid
in cash and the rest of ones money put into
good live stock one can rapidly grow the
money on the well-improved farm and cancel
the easy debt, and not be stopped, gray haired
and broken in spirit before he can have and
enjoy the handsome and profitable home 1t
will be home in reality as well as nomi-
nally.
This is sensible advice for all who can fo.-
low 1t. But the smaller farmer can in time
attain to the same position of independence
and comfort, even though it be only in a lin
1ted degree, by setting his face resolutely in
that direction and with a purpose to accom-
plish the end he seeks The markets are here
and the advantages of even the pioneer of to-
day are far superior to those which existed a
score of years ago.