Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1875 — Farming as a Profitable Easiness. [ARTICLE]

Farming as a Profitable Easiness.

Whether farming as a business is as profitable as some other branches of industry is a question admitting of some doubt; but that it is fairly remunerative, besides being less subject to those fluctuations which bring disastrous results in other callings, has long been settled beyond dispute. Of course we are not at this time taking into consideration those regions liable to severe droughts or to be overrun by noxious insects, but the better portions of the country where agriculture is a stable and well-established pursuit. -'v

The principal cause of complaint among our farmers is the small amount in money they are able to obtain from the sale of the products of their labor; in other words, the amount of cash they have the pleasure of handling during the year. They frequently point to the mechanics of our cities, or even the clerks in stores and various offices, whose salaries appear to be entirely out of proportion to the work performed or talents required, as proof of unjust discrimination made in remunerating labor. A casual glance at the prices paid for labor in cities and in the country would certainly lead one to believe that the former was really unnecessarily high, or the latter ridiculously low. It is this seeming difference which makes so many young men and women in the country strive to get into the cities; it also makes their parents feel that , they, too, are cheated out of their rights in selling the products of their farms at less than city retail prices. There are, however, two sides to this question, and it is well not to decide hastily in regard to which is the most favorable without knowing something of both.

If wages are higher in cities than in the country, the cost of living is in proportion and there is no way of escaping it. It may sound very well for a carpenter or mason to receive four dollars per day, but if he has to pay two of it for house rent he is no better off'than the country mechanic who receives only three dollars and pays one for an equally good and perhaps a better house. Then, again, where rents are high other necessaries of life are usually in proportion; consequently it is not the amount of money a man receives for his labor, but what he can save, which brings a competency. Now, if we take the mass of trades people, mechanics and other laborers of our cities, and the poorer class of farmers, and inquire minutely into the circumstances of each, the latter will be found far the more independent of the two. A farmer who can actually save one or two hundred dollars per annum after providing for the support of his family is doing better than nine-tenths of the residents of our cities who have an income of from three to five thousand dollars per annum. Then, again, a farmer who works upon his own land is constantly wealth, even if he cannot show a balance m cash at the end of the year, because every tree planted, ditch dug, fence built, or field cleared enhances the value of his real estate. These are so much capital laid aside for the future, which, if rightfully managed, will bring as good interests as though invested in Government bonds.

We have only to take the proportions of men in both city and country who are really in independent circumstances, that is, capable of supporting themselves and families without fear of want staring them in the face should anything happen to prevent them from laboring or attending to business, in order to see how much superior farming is to other ordinary occupations. It is not a pursuitprovocative of riotous living but one that is safe from disastrous fluctuations caused by panics in monetary affairs. It is said that about 5 per cent, of those who attempt business in cities succeed; but it is doubtful if there are five farmers in a hundred who fail to make a good living provided they are intelligent and industrious.—#. Y. Sun.

—A singular illustration of the paralizing eftect of the imagination under some circumstances was recently afforded at Allentown, Pa.: A bright boy of eleven years was engaged in watching some cattle in a field, and killed time by swinging with a rope from the branch of a tree. His brother, also a small boy, was near him. Ali at once the boy with the rope dropped with his entire weight upon the rope, but with his knees almost touching the ground. The brother, very much alarmed, at once ran for assistance, but before aid came the swing: ing boy was dead. The rope was when the loop fell from the victim’s neck, indicating the fact that there had been no knot, and that the looping was but an accident. The boy, imagining himself beyond all self-preservation, had become so frightened as not to stand upon his feet, as he might have done, but had fallen forward, and so strangled. A more striking illustration of the remarkable influence over reason sometimes obtained by the imagination could scarcely be afforded.

—There is a boy in St. Louis who writes to a Sergeant of Police Dear Captain— I am sorry to tell you that I broke a pane of glass in a lamp-post on Twenty-third street, between Carr and Wash streets, on Sunday, April 25. I broke it with a ball, and the policeman ran after me but he couldn’t catch me. So 1 hope this twenty-five cents will pay for the glass, and that you will forgive me, and I promise that I won’t play ball oh the streets any more." , N The Legislature of British Columbia has disfranclsed the Indian and Chinese inhabitants of the colony: