Norwich bulletin., 1910-06-04
An Inquiry Answered-What Farming Means to the Farmer-How It is Regarded by Others-Ski and Strict Attention 10 Farming Gives Success.

<Written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 Can a man live in the city and dc business there, and also run a farm
 Probably he can. He can also stand on hie head and walk with his hands using his feet to swing Decoration day flags with. But I don't think many men would find this last topsyturvey- dom either profitable or agreeable. Nor do l think that many men, actively engaged in city business, would find afae entee farming profitable.
 4t depends largely upon what one means by farming" I have a neigh Dor whose farm is noticeable among its surroundings by reason of the un- usually neat appearance of its build tngs, the trfmneSs of its fields, the good repair of it's fences, etc. The owner tells me he has spent on this dressing up several hundred dollars a year more than his farm has brought him in for several seasons. To the casual passer his place carries an air of prosperity. But it isn't prosperous farming when the farm fails to pay all it's own expenses and a fair income over and above running cost
 Another neghbor lives in to and undertakes to direct his farm from his desk there with occasional visits our ing the spring. two mouths reside1, | during the summer, and rcv1r a 5's3Lt of the place from N37cm37r to Aprl '.
 
 payable regularly outvote his "biiis receivable.' He has good help and buys plenty of fertilizer and gets gctd seed. He can't see why I should get a living off my farm while his contin- Ges steady ax0Vnst n him.
 When one wants to make of himself . watchm al<er. he begins at the begin ming and learns his trade from the bottom up. It takes him several years of constant study and laborious work before he attains enough knowledge and skill even to earn days wages at his avocation. When one sets out to be Q surgeon he takes a long course in the schools and devotes weary hours to practice before he thinks of opening an office and putting out a Snincle. Usually it takes years after that be fore he acquires the skill and which enable him to do really great be banker. he has to do very sub ordinate work at first. It isn't til after long years of devotion to l is calling that he wins to the cashaer's desk or the presidents pri yf,Le office.
 But when it comes to farming ,he average banker. bookkeeper. ceetor. lawyer. watchmaker-what you will generally seems to think that all he has to do Is to buy d fa>,n with a house and some barns nn f., tell a nan to raise so many acres or potatoes and corn and oats and keep So many cows
 
 set out a sufficient number Of EIyd -an- eea paniculata grandifiora and Wei Eeifa roSea variegata and Daut..ia Iemoinei-and live happy forever af- ter. The man who wouldn't admit the possibility of a greenhorn learning his own particular complicated business without long apprenticeship assumes that he can farm it' without techni- cal farming knowledge, without daiiy study Of his farm and his crrps, wilft- out hourly and ever-prese1t devotion TAfJ sIT which comes only from long and ia borious practice.
 This seems to me to indicate rather more sef-confidence than good juds ment.
 "How can a man succeed at faTr'- tng?' How can he make farming pay? These and similar questions are constantly flung at old hay seeds by people who seem to wonder why we can't answer them in sen tence How can one make farming pay? Why, how can one make bank invariable answer. And the only Rarthly way to know how is by learn Ing. I couldn't make bank pay couldn't make it earn it's janftor's wages. Put me in charge of the Chem lcaI bank tomorrow and in less than Two weeks I should probably have a receiver in charge of the wreck. Turn he best bookkeeper in that bank on b my gardens in May and I don't be- heve he would raise enough stuff talable. marketable stuff-to buy his log biscuit. Why should he expect to, lny more than I should rate myself sapaible bank mana ger2 never karned his business; he never learned mine.
 l suspect that one reason for the )urious confidence which so many peo- ble feel in their ability to run a farm somes from their habit of considering Ia set really So seIf-conceited as might De thought They see old Uncle Jabez 'pottering round among his cab pages or his hay-cocks. He is cer- tainly mighty simple looking old rhap and he has awkward, ungainly 1 manners and uncouth customs of Speech. The work he does seems to be about the simplest sort of manual labor: something anyone could do. 1 Moreover Uncle Jabez himself, slow of thought and doubtful in speech, is apt 1 to estimate his own attainments of 1 farm lore and farming skill rather low | He considers it so commonplace that | 1t isn't worth talking about. Unlike l the average city business man. who is | prone to rate himself quite as high a $ i the facts will warrant Uncle Ja1bez | mini m izes his own knowledge and | craftsnla nsllip. Yet the fact IS that Uncle Jabezrs | success as 3, farmer has come to him | only after years of struggle, after | heart-breaking appointments and 1