Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-08-13

The New York Tribune is publishing
series of articles devoted to the practical
and authoritative discussion of profess
sions and callings open to young Ameri-
cans The eighteenth of the series is an
illuminating paper on farming Contri-
buted by l.. II. Bailey. MIR. Bailey speaks
with the highest authority, as the direc-
tor of the agricultural college at Cornell
University and the editor of Country Life
in America. The article follows
Farming pays some men. So does mer-
cEandising and manufacturing. Success
Is a question of temperament and ability
AS a business farming must pay. All
necessary occupations must pay. But 1t
does not follow that they must pay every
one VINO engages in them. Many farms
are Improbable. SO are many stores and
factories The failure of the Improbable
farm may be due wholly to lack of either
executive or agricultural ability on the
part of the farmer. or it may be due in
part to poor location, poor soil too small
investment in the business. or to a COM
bination of these factors.
Primarily, failure or success depends
on the abilities of the man; but there
are some farms that cannot be made
to pay, no matter who farms them. In
the early days farmers were obliged to
settle near home. There were few incen-
tives to extensive migration. The farm
ually. extending up the hills and noun
tans and spreading over the sterile
lands. But when the West was opened
this kind of effort changed. Whole new
regions were developed it was no longer
a question OF extending the old areas. In
fact, ii came to be no longer a question
even of maintanG the old areas; the poor
or areas were abandoned. The abandon
mont of the poorer class Of Eastern farms
was a great blessing to agriculture, al
though this was noa recognized at the
time. 1t set new standards for the far
mer. The productiveness and larGeness
of the Middle West developed larger and
froer ideals of living. A new kind OF
farm life is rapidly developing. 1t is
| largely a reflection from the West. In
time many of the so-called abandoned
lands of the East will be profitably farm
ed again, but they will be farmed in a
new spirit. Farming by earning is being
substituted for farming by saving.
| 1t is not strange that so many per-
sons shudder at the thought of farming
they are thinking Of the old ways the
old results, the old ideals. They are liV-
! ing in the past generation. They may
say that they still see this old kind OF
! farming, but they see the remains of al
| older order. The new order of farming i:
as unlike the old as the new order of shoe
manufacturing is unlike the old cobbling
ing with trade" or with manufacture
Comparison of incompatible things al
ways produces fallacious results.
This brings up the whole question o
what the new ways are. Perhaps we cal
best define them by saying what they
are not, The new way is not fancy
farming" 1t is not the growing of mere
little specialties or oddities, as mushroom
and ginseng and skunks; now and then
skilled expert may do wonderfully wei
with such as these, but these have littl
effect on the rise of farming as a whole
The new farming has arisen from tw
sources, increasing the productiveness ant
the quality of the staple products an,
elevating the ideals of living.
In other words, the compensation il
farming is quite as much the pleasure o
farming and the Joy of being in the coun
try, and the satisfaction or being indie
pendent, as the mere money that is made
In these times we commonly measur
the success of every business in term
, of money. Or, to put the matter in an
other way, the business is merely tn
means of making the income, while tn
home is a wholly separate institution. l
: farming, however, the business and tn
home are really one. They are but diff
ferent parts of one enterprise. Ever
: Improvement on the farm is a direct con
tribution TO the efficiency of tho HON,
Farming is living. In manufacture III
I business and the living are separate
1 It is apparent, therefore. that the HON
/ life part of farming is n direct asset
even as much as the income part Is
In casting a mathematical balance shee
only half of the proceeds Of the farr
are shown.
1t must be admitted that most countr
' persons do not derive very great salts
t faction from nature and the out of door,
but this is no fault OF the farm. Tn
coming generation will see all this chang
ed. The tendency of our educatons
r methods is to open the mind to sympa
: thctic intimacy with nature. This is tn
q particular result of the nature stud
movement now so we'll under way. on
. literature now has strong naturewar
trend. The development OF this natur
sympathy will add a new and IA powerfl
resource to our lives. The countryma
! has the best opportunity to develop tn
r kind of satisfact in living This ne
! resourcefulness will also reflect itself
e the Improvement of all the farm method
e II will surely add to the efficiency of III
g man. It will make him contented wit
his surroundings, and this is one of tn
. FIRST requisites to success.
% But the reader wants to ask whetht
. A person can make money on the farm
:, NV answer Is that very many farmer
, do make money. One must first consid,
what the investment IL in an ordinai
farm A general farm of eighty acre
. With usual improvements. would not II
~, vcntory more than $4,000 to 5000 Wit
n the larger figure the net income at te
!, nor cent should be $500; yet no far