Norwich bulletin., 1909-12-04

Can he build hay or straw stack so
 1t will shed water?
 Can he run a gasoline engine or a | hay-press, or file a saw?
 Can he milk a kicking cow?
 Can he feed horses so they never get
 the heaves or the collie? And can he
 cure the collie in a neighbours colt?
 Does he know what a balanced ra- \ ton" is for his cows and can he com | pound one that will make them give | milk without its costing more than the | milk will sell for?
 Can he dress beef, pork, mutton and | poultry for market, and cure the beef and pork for home consumption? Can he measure grain or hay in a | bin or now?
 | Does he understand stock breeding. i so that his hens shall steadily improve and not "rnu down.?
 Does he understand the pernickety ] art of gardening so as to raise the | family's vegetables.
 Can he take care of an orchard, so as to get profit from his trees?
 Can he so manage the woodlot that it , shall furnish his needs and yet in crease in value?
 Does he know enough of law to keep out of trouble with his neighbors? If that young man knows these things, said the indignant correspond ent, he's smart" enough to start farming The other things he must know how to do will come by practice. But he can begin when he is thus far grounded in the rudiments.
 Now. mind you that list isn't of my making. If I were going to get one up that would be fairly complete 1t would include a good many tricks not enum- erated above. The farmer must know something of metal working in order to make the quick repairs which are essential to economy when some bolt or clovis or nut gives way. He must he at least a dabster with the paint pot and brush. know what kind of paint to use. and when and how to. use it. He must be something of a car penter. enough at last to put up a shed or patch leaky roof. If his farm is of any size he must understand complete ly a dozen kinds of machines, or the bill for repairs will eat up his profits. Tn fact. there's almost no limit to the list of things he must know and must be able to do. if he is to get all that is eet-ablc in the way of comfort and picfit off his farm.
 No. indeed, is's time that we farmers appreciated our calling more highly and time that we made others do the same. Instead of the farm being the damp on which may be left the ma terial human and otherwise. which isn't good for anything anywhere else, it Is really the theater whose stage de- mands the brightest minds and the soundest bodies. The question should not be whether lad is too smart" to be made a farmer of, but whether he is bright enough to be anable of sue cee ding at that insistent and strenuous cctupation. It is said that David Rankin of Missouri is the richest farm CT in the United States. He owns sev- eral counties of land. raises from 15.000 to 10000 acres of corn every year, feeds cattle and hogs. gives away hundred thousand or so to some needy institu- ton every now and then, and could draw his check for more than one mill lion, any time, it is said. After telling some interviewer, recently, how he managed his huge farm, he declared that system was the secret of his suc cess; that "tho farmer, of all business men. must have fixed methods and cut to ;hs line every way" q contend" said Mir. Rankin. that farming re- quires closer figuring and more atten- tior than any other kind of business"
 T1is man Rankin is the only farmer sver heard of who made himself millionaire by farming, pure and simple, He must be an exceedingly capable person to have done it--so capable that hiS Sdgac1ty atta1ns the he1ght or gen. jus. Which makes his judgment about the relative amount of ability neces- sary for success in farming and other businesses all the more valuable. Still, there are good many successful farm CTS in the country-rememberi if you please, that success" and million siredom are not SYNONYMOUS And the man who farms it without the desire and intention to be successful is in the wrong boat. We don't need to get bumptious or highfalutin' about our business. but it's high time that we took it for what it really is, measured 1t with our own true steel square and not with some other fellows crooked yard stick. The man that is "too smart" for farming hasn't yet been discovered. The single. simple, sorry fact about the most of us is that we aren't smart enough. That's one req son why so many attempts at farm CTS are failures. They might have got along better at the law or running a railroad or some other simpler and less exacting businessi
 THE FARMER.