Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1879 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

It is about time to begin preparing hot-beds. Some imagine that the perfection of farming consists wholly in aptness to labor and strength of muscle. In the spring the farmer should see the end from the beginning, then he will work from the beginning toward that end. Never try to beat a colt into doing a filing; or, if nervous, he may turn out e vicious horse, and, if stupid, he may become stubborn. Remember that by patience and gentleness he can be got to do anything that will not hurt him. All kinds of stock will be the better for moderate exercise. This advice applies especially to animals which are kept in stables. Cows and horses should be let out for a part of each day, unless the weather is exceedingly severe or stormy. Farmers and poultrymen have learned that there is a difference in the flesh of fowls, as there is a difference in the flesh of cattle, and that it is as desirable to have a hen that will lay as long as possible as it is to have a cow that will give milk the longest possible time. There is no reason why farming may not be made tc pay much oftener than it does. Very few have learned to regard it as a business. It is a sort of chance-work all round. Most men look on it as a sort of real-estate transaction. They hope one day to sell out at a big figure, hence are afraid to improve their farms with a view to agricultural operations, for fear that whoever buys the land will not care for these little things. We have often heard some improving farmer ridiculed by some knowing ones, who were very sure so-and-so would get no more for his place than if he had thrown the money in the dirt.— Des Moines Register. The American Agriculturist, in its notes on swindlers, gives the following timely warning to farmers: There is a set of swindlers whose operations are especially directed toward farmers. It is no reflection upon the intelligence of farmers that this is so. These rascals know that all kinds of fish are not to be caught with one bait; hence they operate upon clergymen, doctors, merchants and farmers, each in a different manner. It is safe to predict that there is a new set of traps ready this spring to catch farmers. Of late years the “agency” dodge has been played successfully, and it has already been started thus early in the season. These swindlers are all after one pattern. A glib-tongued chap, No. 1, wishes to establish an “agency.” for some crinkum. It may be a stumppuller, a machine for grinding the knives of mowing-machines, it may be a churn power, or a spring bed. Whatever it is, chap No. 1, somehow, or in some way, contrives to get the signature of the farmer. Here is where the trouble begins. We have cautioned and reiterated the caution : “Farmers, be careful what you sign,” but this does not seem to be enough; no matter how much care is exercised, the smoothtongued chap, No. 1, is usually too much for the farmer. So we say to farmers, don’t act as agents to anything, but if you will not heed this, and the temptation as to profit is too great to resist, and you will disregard warnings, we beg of you, farmers, don’t sign anything. You may be asked to agree to become an agent, you may be asked to give your address, so that the sample machine, to be sent free, will come all right; you may be asked for merely your postoffice address. Take our advice—which is the same as Punch’s advice to young people about to marry: Don’t! don’t I! Don’t, do not—pray, refrain from signing your name to anything whatever. Observe this, and you are safe. Sign your name on any pretense to anything whatever, and you open the way for the visit of chap No. 2. He is not smoothtongued or persuasive. He has come to collect his bill. You have ordered so and so. The goods are at the depot. Here is the bill, and he wants the money, as he must take the next train. Don’t say that you never ordered the goods, for there is your signature! You can’t deny it, but you signed it as an agreement to act as agent, or signed it as your address—No. 2 knows nothing about it, but wants his money. Here we say again, don't. Don’t be bullied into paying it, but let him do his worst. Show him the door and let him appeal to the couits if he dares. The game has already begun, and hundreds of farmers, to avoid trouble, will throw away thousands of dollars the coming season. -Don’t be bullied into paying a dollar on any such claim. At the most, it can only go to a jury of your neighbors to decide, but not one case in a hundred will ever come to that.