Year: 1876

never were truer words than these the
Germantown Telegraph sends to farmers


Every once in while some poor fellows
head is turned at the report of some other
bOdy's success with some one crop or another
The figures are astounding. He firmly be.
lieves that what one man has done another
can do, and he ventures in the same field
only to loose IN some cases all. And yet it
is true that almost all the best success in
farming or gardening comes from close at
tention to some one crop, specially.


But no one can tell another what is best
for him to grow. Even when the soil is
specially adapted to certain crop, there
are all the little details of practical culture
to be mastered and even then the question
Of marketing enters largely into tho success
OF the experiment.


1t is often a matter of envy with farmers
of a certain class, that mercantile affairs
should seem to make more satisfactory ven.
lures than farming but it is seldom thought
over how these very successful businesses
are established. There is no reason why
just the same process may not lead to sue
cess on the land as in the store indeed, it
is common experience that it is so. Hun
dreds Of men every year make money to
their entire satisfaction out Of agricultural
or horticultural pursuits. They are not 20
well-known--do not make as much show as
the store keeper-agricultura are too
much scattered to make this imposing ap-
pearance-but the profits we speak Of are
there as surely in one case as in the other.


These successful businesses are simply the
results Of series Of experiments as to what
can best be done. Hardly business that
we know of, that may be pointed out as
illustrative Of great success, achieved that
success in the line marked out for it at the
start. A general knowledge of some one
thing may have suggested the enterprise,
but one after another, as some parts would
be better understood, the least profitable
would be dropped, and, in many instances,
firms that began dealing in dozen articles
would end in only one. We have frequently
pointed out the fact, and urged on cultiva.
tors that this is the only way to get into the
special crop business but we have the mat
ter brought to our mind just now through a
history of very wealthy farmer of Mas
sachusetts, which is running the rounds of
the papers, and serves very well to illus
trate the doctrine which we have so long
taught


This man farmed as other men farmed, but
with an eye to any special excellence of any
thing that his land, his knowledge or his cir.
cumstances might suggest. He, however,
kept in with all the regular routine Of farm
crops in the meantime. He found that he
could grow small picking cucumbers better
than his neighbors but he did not thereupon
plant his farm with cucumbers. He knew
that such business, like the crop, must
have time to grow. His first crop was on
about an acre. The crop was good, but the
sales were bad. For these speciaties it is
always hard to find market at last. The
next year ne had less difficulty in selling,
and he ventured to increase the acreage.
Thus he has gone on till he has sold easily
and at good prices the product of seventy
| five acres of cucumbers and now feels that
he is safe with no other crop than this.
Now there is scarcely district Of country
in the whole United States but is able to
grow some one thing little better than an
other thing. 1t should be continual sub
ject of experiment on every farm as to what
| will grow and thrive remarkably we'll and
having found this out, what would be the
prospects Of good lsnarket for it. 1t is rare
indeed that any one who raises just exactly
what his neighbor does, ever make great
strike in the way Of wealth. He makes out
of wheat or corn, or pork, fair average
living price; and if he is little moro intel.
ligent than some as to the ncetes of cutiva-
tion, he may make more than his neighbors /;
but the rich farmer is generally he who by
careful observation and calculation is able
gradually but surely to get out of the beaten
track