Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1875 — Changing Too Often. [ARTICLE]

Changing Too Often.

Many a man has failed to become a successful farmer through a proneness to make frequent changes in the products of his laud. Dairy husbandry is tried- for a fewyears, then sheep husbandry, but nothing thoroughly and long enough to learn the business, or establish a reputation for producing a first-rate article of any kind. If a man learns from experience or close observation that his farm is better adapted to the culture of some other crop than the one produced, he would certainly be foolish not to make a change in accordance with circumstances. In nine cases out of ten, however, a change is not made front any such consideration, but merely to do something else which promises to be more profitable. One of our subscribers writes from Wisconsin that wheat w-as formerly a profitable crop upon his farm, but of late years the land had become so poor that wheat “is played out.” We would certainly advise farmers of this class to make a change of some kind, but a man who will starve his land would probably do the same thing with his animals; consequently we should not feel justified in recommending a change in thisdirection. Better commence to restore fertility to the soil, adding deep culture and a judicious rotation of crops, until the worn-out or exhausted land again produces wheat as it did in “days of yore." This kind of a change is the one of all others needed over a wide extent of country, and before thousands of our farmers can begin to count their profits. Probably one of the most prolific sources of frequent desires to make a change is found in the accounts of great profits derived from the culture of certain crops or from keeping certain breeds of stock, as published in our agricultural papers. Of course we are not disposed to doubt the truth of these statements, nor depreciate their value to thinking men, but there are hundreds of persons who “jump at conclusions,” and if they read of a man who has made 1500 profit from an acre of fruit or vegetables in the suburbs of New York city they are inclined to think that something may be done in Maine or Minnesota. The various “manias” or “ fevers,” as they are termed, which have run riot over the country during the last half century, causing the loss ot millions of dollars to our agriculturists, all originated in the same manner, those who had the articles for sale finding their customers among those who were ever desirous ot “ making a change” in the products of their farms. The mulberry, or morus multicaulis, mania and pear, grape and sorghum fevers left more men poor than they made rich; still, there w-as an element of good in all, but the masses lacked the discretion which would have prevented them from purchasing an article or entering into a business which they were confessedly ignorant of. Right here we would hinge this entire subject of making changes in products or the general management of a tarm. If a man proposes to make any change in his system of culture he should first ascertain with .some degree of certainty that the new and untried will prove to be better than the old before attempting it. \ The same rule holds good in omitting one kind ot crop and replacing it with another, or changing the breed of animals; in fact the more thorough a man’s knowledge in this respect the more likely is he to succeed. It is usually much cheaper to purchase information in books and periodicals in regard to any branch of agriculture than through experience. Not that we believe the former can wholly take the place of the latter, but it is a much shorter and safer road to reach general principle.—AT. I’. Sun.

Th® following announcement, has been posted at the British Admiralty: “Some mischievous person has attempted to circulate a false report respecting an alleged accident to Her Majesty’s ship Alert, in the Polar regions, by’ inclosing The following written in pencil on a small scrap of paper, put into a small bottle, which was picked up on the beach at-ClOnakitty, Ireland, on the 24th inst.: ‘Onboard the Alert; three days from Disco; broken by iceberg; sinking, 18th July. God help us!’ The Alert was seen on then J 7th of July by the Valorous, all well, and the bottle if thrown overboard on the 18th of July must have been carried by currents 2,300 miles in sixty-eight dats, or at the jste of nearly thirty-four miles a day. As there are no currents running at such a speed in the track between Disco mid the coast of Ireland it is quite impossible that tbe statement can be authentic, and it is, therefore, evident that a silly attempt has been made to perpetrate a disgraceful hoax.” i There is no better tonic than cheerfulness. The man who sings at his work is generally set down as honest, contented and happy. Twig the gentle mosquito, whose song is heard most while your blood is txing diligently and maliciously sucked.— Star of the (Jape.