Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-05

TO think that he knew more than | did.
"Jim went away, and l supposed he
was goin' to do as / told him-hire out
for a farm hand.
Meantime while he vas gone I
wasn't gettin' along very well with the
farm. / reckoned the land had been
worked out and required to be ferti-
lied. | didn't have the money to do
the job as it ought to be done, and I
thought that IL I didn't spend a lot on
1t I'd lose what l put into it, so I didn't
do anything. | tried to raise such
crops as didn't need much fertilizer.
but didn't get much of a return.
Jim was away four years, and all the
while | WAS runnin' down financially.
He used to write home once in awhile.
but he didn't tell us what he was d9in'.
But Jim was never a good hand at ex-
plainin' things. I've thought since that
If when he was a boy he'd have told
me somep'n about what he was drivin'
at I'd have had more patience with him.
THE only thing Jim did tell us, and
he wrote that to his mother the last
year he was away, was that he'd got a
sweetheart. He said she was the pur-
test gal in the world and the best.
When his mother told me about it |
said | reckoned Jim would have a hard
time takin' care of a wife, especially il
he was goin' to do things his own way
and eve take any advice from any
body.
well, when l had got so low fnan-
cially that I had to put a mortgage on
my farm Jim come home. He said he'd
been to an agricultural college and had
come nome to help me out.
Father he said, you and all the
rest of the old ia shioned farmers have
been laundering along for ages. The
earth and everything in 1t Is a big
laboratory, and there's nothing that
isn't subject to the laws of science. Do
you remember when you told me to
trim the apple tree and cut off he
lower branches? Well, 1t occurred to
me that that tree was a mighty big
climb for the sap; that by the time 1t
got to the top it must be tired out, and
that what apples 1t produced would be
small and few. Besides, 1t would cost
more to gather apples grown as high
as that than they'd be worth when you
got 'em down.
".And do you remember the ground I
put the chemicals INF Well, that was
a failure, but when a boy of fourteen
begins experimenting he's not likely to
succeed without a lot of failures. Some
times a grown educated scientist will
work for years over a problem and fail
In the end.
"'When you tired OF me and grand
mother left me the legacy l determined
to use it to learn what there was
known about scientific agriculture. /
don't claim to have learned any more
than is known by others, but I've learn
ed that and it's a good foundation on
which to learn more. I'm not going to
do much experimenting on my own
hook till | have put you on a better
basis In your efforts to make money
out of the farm.
".And | must tell you further that
there's business In farming as well as
anything else. My vacations I've spent
.clerking in a produce store in a big
city. There I've learned certain of some
middlemen's methods. rye seen some
thing OF how he squeezes the consum-
er on the one hand and the farmer on
the other. l don't want to squeeze
either myself, but the more a man
knows about squeezing the less likely
he is to get squeezed.
"'Now, dad, I'll tell you what we
must do. We must take advantage of
our opportunities such as they are
and turn away from what are not op-
portunities, no matter how attractive
they look. We've got a market handy
for such produce as is used on the ia
bles of any and every body. Well go
into table vegetables on a small scale
at first, and If we find it pays we'll
increase the scale. AS soon as we can
work it We'll open a store for the sale
Of our own produce and make the
whole profit ourselves. But we can't
go too fast; must feel u way and
shift our plans as We run up against
stone walls.'"
The farmer paused in his narrative,
cast a glance over his broad beds of
garden truck and concluded:
There's the result of Jim's work.
He didn't do any experimental till
he'd got the business well goin'. I
call it the business because business
is a part and a very important part of
farmin'.
"I've said that Jim didn't do any ex-
p~erimentin', so he didn't in the regular
line of the work on the farm, but he's
been dom it all the while in a small
way, and he's found out some things
already.
"That mortgage 1 told you Of was
paid off in two years, and now there's
plenty oyer for all.
Jim married his sweetheart and they
live in the cottage down yonder. This
little Jim"-putting his hand on the
boys head-"is a chip off the old block;
he has a will of his own, anyway