Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1909 — WHY FARMERS FAIL [ARTICLE]

WHY FARMERS FAIL

Secret of Success Not In the Business, but tn Themselves. Did you ever think about the number of people that fail not only as farmers, but at‘everything? Many fail ei en to make a good living. They plod along in a hand to mouth sort cf way ami never realize the satisfaction of a successful life. These people put all the blame on the business Instead of upon themselves. They say farming doesn’t pay. corn doesn’t pay, and wheat doesn’t pay, and tine stock breeding doesn’t pay. To hear them tell It, nothing pays, and yet we see all over the couti try farmers here and there who have grown well to do In these lines. The secret of success must be sought not in the business, but in ourselves. Any business will pay if it has the right sort of man back of it. No man can succeed without studying success and meeting its conditions. If you are a farmer you must study the business of farming to make much out of it That does not mean that you are obliged to know all the science of agriculture, though that would help. You must learn how to make every lick count and not lose your time and money in doing work that will not pay. One of the things that will not pay is to work poor land. It takes just as much time and labor as the working of rich land, but, oh, the difference in results! There is where you come out at the little end of the horn when you work [>oor land. Improve your land at once or sell out and buy a smaller piece of good land. There is no sense in working land that brings nothing but nubbins when you can do better. If you can’t do better, haul rich dirt from the woods all winter and cover the land with it. It will pay you to do so. When we think about our business as we should it is not hard to see why we fall and also to see how we could succeed. Too many people don’t want to pay the price of success which comes in a close application to business. They don’t know that if they once get absorbed in their work and push it with power they will be much happier than it is possible to be by dragging on in the old indolent way. Suppose we turn over a new leaf for one year arid see how we come out By that time we shall probably succeed so well that we will never want to do otherwise.