Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-24
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT PHENOMENAL
 FARMING

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin.)
 had a very pleasant visit, the other evening, from the associate edi- tor of one of the most prominent agricultural papers in the country.
 His work carries him to all parts of the land He sees farmers in all the states: farmers engaged in every imaginable form of farm industry. He is himself an enthusiastic believer in the farm and the country. Also, he Is 9 keen observer. And he has good memory.
 It ~a4 almost like hearing a new instalment of "The Arabian Nights to listen to some of the accounts he gave me of successful farmers he haC visited. He told me of one stock man who was simply coining money, not by selling milk or butter but by rais- ing fancy yearlings and selling them to other farmers who were too shift less or too incapable to raise their own. He told me of one fruit man near Philadelphia who had thousands upon thousands of trees, largely Winesa pS, for whose product he hadn't received less than S5 a barrel, To, these many years. He told me of another, up in New York who had just sold his orchard farm for $13,0O0s-a big profit on his inVestment,-largely be- ] young Greetings which, at ten years old, were bearing several barrels of apples to the tree. At ten years oidi Think of it. He told me of another Pennsylvania man who. three or four years ago, bought for a mere song an old farm which the despairing owner couldn't get a living from. It had one broad sloping field, along the upper side, of which it was possible, with small outlay. to lead brook. He did so. Then he pIowed and dug out wide, shallow ditches leading from that brooks new course, down the slope of the meadow. In these he sowed water cress, and then turned the brook into them Result; he is now taking to the markets of his nearest big city S2o,0o0 year of punched cress.
 And so on and so on.
 tried to find out from him what he thought the reasons for these farmers phenomenal success. Why is it." I asked him, that these men you tell of are making small fortunes, while the most of us farmers think and our taxes2" This led to another discussion. And, in each case we traced back to it's ultimate springs, there seemed to be something ex- ceptional about the man or his envir- onmenL
 For instance; that man who regu- larly got S5 a barrel for his winesaps, when the prevailing wholesale price wasn't more than half that Well. he had his own cold storage plant and his own automobile truck. He put his apples into cold storage and held them till the early flood on the markets had subsided. Then he sorted them care fully, and hauled them to Philadelphia five tons at a time three trips a, day at cost Of about Oue-quarter that assessed against others who had to use horses or railroads. MoreOver.- and here I think, is the true explana- iCn,-the apples were delivered to his own brother. a big commission mer- chant. who took as much interest in seeing that the orchardist got the biggest possible prices as he did in making sure of his own commission ''Lordy. why not said l. when l learned this; why, it's regular Guggenheim family combination"
 For another instance: that chap who made $2e, O00 year off d few water cress ditches, on a farm which would not grow wheat or corn or potatoes or grass He wasn't a farmer, at all; he was natural born salesman. He didn't know anything much about farming. but he knew a whole lot about markets. He found that one thing the big city wanted more of than lt could get was water -cress. He learned from department bulletins that water-cress didn't call for rich soil. nor fertilization, nor cultivation. What it needed was just plain dirt and clear clean water He knew the old farm was made up of dirt and that a sizable brook crossed it. So he put two and two together,-and made S20, ,0oO.
 While we were talking, I thought of other unusually successful farmers ] had heard Of There was David Rankin. whom ] have several times mentioned; the only farmer I ever knew of who made three millions at straight farming, raising corn and pork in Missouri To use his own phrase about himself. he was a natural born ''twister.' by which he meant that he took 10 money getting: that he had a kuack for it. that he found it perfectly easy to get profit out of crops from which some men couldn't have got wages. He went barefoot till he was twenty seven. not from poverty nor yet from mere sttnginess, but because he would rath- CT buy land than boots.