Year: 1871

Can an Educated Man Get Living by


Farming?


| An educated man cannot make living
by mere manual labor. either on a farm.
in the blacksmith-shop. or in the factory.
He may do more work 10 an hour or in a
day and do it better than the uneducated
man by his side. 4 man with brains, other
things being equal, can pitch more hay, or
dig more rods Of ditch in day. than the
mere man of muscle. But what Off it? The
uneducated man can. perhaps, earn 81 50
per day, and the educated man, from his
superior skill. can do one third more work
and earn s. per day. But will this extra
fifty cents day pay him for his years Of
hard study and self-denial? Will two dol
lars day 20 as far in providing the luxu-
ries and necessaries of life, for himself and
his family, as the dollar and half will in
the other case? Will il enable him to
educate his family as well as he himself
has been educated?


An educated man, to get living by
farming. must do work that an ignorant
man cannot perform. On an ordinary
sized farm. and with ordinary farm men,
he will find no lack Of employment-or if
he does, he must change his system of
farming. and 60 into some Of the higher
branches of agriculture or horticulture.
No matter how thoroughly educated he
may be. work be must, and work hard
too-self-denyiDg work. "honest work. ,
as Carlyle says, (which you intend get
ting done," and then 60 at something else.
This is the secret of success in all under
takings. There are a good many educat-
ed men who. having made money in other
pursuits. turn their attention to farming.
We wish there were more such. We
extend to them right hearty Welcome
But, as a general rule. they will not
make farming pay. 1t is not the business
of their lives 1t is not work it is rec
reation-and they should expect to pay
for it. as they would for any other amuse-
ment We know lawyer-one of the
ablest in the State-who has retired on
to farm. He makes a capital good
farmer-has the neatest and cleanest farm
in the neighborhood. He also takes real
delight in spreading manure. feeding his
stock. and digging and laying underdrains.
He works harder than any other man on
the farm. But it is not work to him. any
more than rowing is work to the Harvard
Club. Some time since, wealthy New
York merchant wished to consult him on
IA legal question of great importapcs. He
went to the house, but was told that the
Judge" was out on the farm. Going to
look for him. he found an old man digging
out an uuderdrain that had got stopped
up. He inquired for the judge, and was
told that he would be there in few min
utes. He concluded to wait. The man
kept on throwing out the mud. Dirty
work." remarked the kid-gloved mer-
chant, as he stood on the side Of, the ditch
in his patent leather boots. '.How much
does the judge pay you day ?"''I have
taken it by the JOB" was the reply. land
shall not make my board" 1t was the
judge himself. and he undoubtedly told
the truth Hard as he works. and skilful
ditcher as he certainly is, he neverthe-
less cannot make his board in digging
underdrains. This noble old veteran of
the bar and the bench spent the next day
in writing an opiuion that was worth
more money to the merchant than it would
cost to drain the judges whole farm.
This was work. and would command its
price; digging bitches was play to the old
judge. and was paid accordingly-paid
in restored health and 10 command of vi
gor of mind and body. But it would not
pay his board.


The educated farmer must do precisely
as other successful men do. He must
not spend his time in doing things that
be likes to do. He must exercise self
denial; with him farming is business. not
| pleasure. Because he likes to chop. it
will not do to leave the care Of the stock
to Patrick, while be goes to the woods
and" puts up his two cords. and then
spend aud evening with his neighbors,
boasting how much work be has done that
day. 10 fact. he has not worked at all
Had he staid at home and attended to his
stock, aud done other things which he
did not like to do, but which were neces-
sary to be done, and which Patrick could
not do, then he would have worked, and
would, sooner or later, have got his re-
| ward.


Amateur farmers, notoriously. do not
make living by farming. And yet
many Of them are thoroughly educated
/ men, and not few know far more of the
theory and practice of agriculture than
their successful nei ighbors. Their failure
is usually attributed to their employing
too many men and in not getting the
work out OF them" There is some truth
in this; but we have known an eminent
successful contractor on railroad. who
lowed his success to his energy, and
to bis ability to manage men, utterly fail
in making farming pay. Aud in his case,
at least. the cause was not in his ignor'
ance of general agriculture, or in his EN-.
ploying too many men. or in bis inability
to get the work out of them it was due
principally to bis neglectipg the little de.
tails Of farming. He was inclined to DE-
things on large scale. and be made tht
mistake Of going into the raising of thos.
. crops which require minute attention, apr