The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-06-27
FRANK E.HoWE, Editor and Pub
BENNINGTON, VT, JUNE q, 1919
FARMING FOR PROFIT


business a good while and especially
our third and fourth generation
farmers Of New England, usually be-
lieve that they know about all there
is about farming and hold in good
natured contempt the man not bred
on farm who goes into the bust
ness of farming.
Because of this self-satisfed air on
the part of so many farmers, 1t is
interesting to read the words Of one
of the most thorough and competent
of investigation Of business condi-
lions in this country, Mr.. Forrest
Crissey, whose view is, after years of
study, that the transplanted bust
ness man makes the most successful
farmer.
Only a few years ago the average
farming neighborhood had the most
absolute contempt for what they call
ed a "book farmer" but that has
largely changed since it became evil
dent that the book farmer, with fair
degree of business sense, is usually
most successful.
In an article in a recent issue of
the Saturday Evening Post, Mr.. Girls
sey says:
Lately an employee of large city
bank put the question in this way;
"You have spent something like
six or eight years travelling all over
this country investigating farming
conditions, talking with farmers who
have made success and done things
a little out of the ordinary. What
about the business man who has
been transplanted to the farm? Does
he make it go? Can he learn his new
job without inviting failure? Or is
il true that a man has to be born to
farming and raised in its traditions
to make a success of it? I'm getting
on in years and my job here is going
to pinch out when my hair turns
money-not much, but enough to buy
one hundred and sixty acres of
Corn Belt farmland and have some
thing left for operation. have a no
ton that good farmland is bound to
increase in value, year by year. Then
too, | want to get into something
where I'll have a paying job from
which nobody can fire me SO long as
/ am able to exercise ordinary bust
ness judgment. Besides, ! have a
kind of hunger to get out into the
country. 1t looks good to me. And
there are thousands upon thousands
of men in just my situation. know
that, for | hear it talked day and
night.
"In your Investigations of farming
you must have found a number of
men who have quit business and
gone to the soil. What has been their
history? What is the mean level of
their experience? Don't tell us that
it all depends upon the man and up
on the land he buys. OF course it
does-we all know that at the start!
Don't hedge and play safe on the per-
sonal equation-just get down to
brass taeks and try to give a fair,
straight forward answer to this
problem that we are up against?
In about eight years of investiga-
ton, covering nearly all sections of
the country, the one observation that
stands out clearest of all is that the
best farming done in America is
done by the transplanted business
man. At the start, when the investi-
gator stumbled upon an individual
example of this kind of success, he
received decided jolt But soon the
novelty wore off; now, when he goes
into a new section looking for in
stances of farming worth telling
about, his first question is; Any farm
ers round here that are transplanted
business men? And generally to
find such a farmer is to locate
farm factory where business meth
DDS are producing business results
and paying dividends"
President Wilson appears to have
made the same mistake in defend
ing Secretary McReynolds that Pres
ident Taft did in defending Secre.
tary Ballinger No one questions the