Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1880 — Start Right and Stick. [ARTICLE]

Start Right and Stick.

A ore at many men throughout the country are ‘‘going back to fanning” this year, and an unusual number of young men are looking out for a start in the same business. The reports that crane from the West, of a revival of the old-time inpouring of new settlers, and the accounts of the taking up of old farms in New England, are Among the best signs of the times. If the new farmers will only start right, and then stick to it, their success may be insured in advance. Want of foresight in choosing. and stability of purpose and effort, are at the bottom of nail the failures in fanning, for it is even more disastrous for a fanner to make sudden and radical changes in his business plans than to “ put all his eggs in one basket,” by depending on one crop. The farmer who “ rotates” from sheep to cows, and from cows to grain, and from grain to fruit, with every fluctuation of the markets, is pretty sure to get in one crop that he can’t “raise”—a mortgage. Every farm is better adapted to some industries than to others. If the land is low and springy’ and cold, foot rot or other diseases will take the profits ofl of sheep. If there is not plenty of pure cold water and pasturage specially adapted to cows in its chemical characteristics, and that does not shrivel up by the end of July, dairying will not prosper. If the grain-producing elements in the soil are exhausted, or insect enemies or climatic influences interfere, grain orops will fail. If fruit trees must stand “with their feet in water,” owing to a lack of drainage, orchards will prove disappointing. Then again, men are as different as their farms. Some have just the knock to bring together a daily of cows, nearly every one of which snail be a “good milker, and by gentle, clean, provident management seeure large returns for the best of products. Another has the faculty of having his land, his seed, his fertilizers, his times aud seasons, just right to coax fields of waving grain from the soil. Another will hare a flock of sheep, every one of which looks as though bred to enter for the premium at the County Fair. Still another will plant and prune and shape an orchard of half-a-thousand apple trees so that they shall all stand uniform, smooth, symmetrical, yielding just such apples, iq just such quantities, as he planned when he bought the trees from the nursery. The point is, that every man, in farming as in other occupations, should ascertain what his combined inward forces and outward circumstances will enable him to do best, and do that. As a rule, diversified farming is the best, except in localities pre-eminently adapted to one branch, like the dairy regions of New York or the natural grain-fields of the West. A snug little orchard; fields of grain, grass, corn and root crops; a manageable drove of cows or sheep; a pair of choice breeding mares ;~]pen of good hogs; a yard of poultry; some extra crops to experiment on—this old-fash-ioned method is about the safest and most comfortable after all. For specialties require special knowledge and special conditions of success. Tneyare like a one-legged milking stool—can't stand alone; while varied farming has various supports. —Golden Rule.