Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — A Game of Chance. [ARTICLE]

A Game of Chance.

“ Farming is a game of chance, and, in fact, one’s whole life is a game of chance.” Such is the style in which a man of fifty summers and winters writes us from St. Clair County. It is a capital text for every farmer, and every mechanic and every business man to preach himself a sermon from. The sentiment it contains is rude and untrue; the utterance stamps the author, whoever he may be, with, a lack of courage, and a lack of faith in human endeavor. All around him are the materials and forces which a courageous man will seize and employ to win success; the prizes which patient industry and steadiness of purpose may reach are within plain view from every stand-point in life. Is farming a game of chance ? Does a prosperous business in farming depend on chance or luck ? We often hear farmers express themselves in this wise: “ I had bad luck with my wheat this year;” “ I had miserable luck with my lambs this spring—l lost about half the number dropped.” This’ expression is thus applied by different persons |o the several departments of farm business; and it is mine as a sort of excuse for the poor returns or results of the year’s operations. These losses by bad luck, or when the “ game” goes wrong, more than balance the profits, frequently; and there is no hope for those farmers who give up that the chances are against them, and who have not the acumen to discover where the fault lies —how the ill luck arises. If it is carelessness and a want of a systematic course of business they do not seem to know it. If it is caused by inefficiency, lack of thoroughness, order and watchfulnes, they do not appear to perceive it. In these busy years of production what a thought is this that “ farming is a game of chance,” to be found floating on the heaving ocean of agricultural fife. The rich experience of thousands of farmers everywhere relieves us of the duty of making a very labored argument to disprove the idea. If we go to the storehouses of agricultural literature we find numberless cases on record where careful farmers have made money atfarming, and made it steadilv and surely, by adopting certain rules of farm business and following them out strictly. If farming is a Same of chance with any farmer, it is ecause he follows maxims of tliriftlessness instead of the maxims of thrift. There is no business in which men are engaged which is so stable and certain as the business of farming when pursued on business principles. There is no “chance” about it. Why, the men who think it is all chance and good fortune if they get good crops, or chance and ill fortune if they do not, scarcely understand the rudiments of the business in which they have enlisted. And these men are not very scarce—they are, in truth, plenty. The business of the physician, or es the lawyer, is more truly a business of chance. If people do not get sick thfe doctor’s income may be easily counted; if they do his returns are quite ample. If people live moral and peaceable lives, the lawyer starves; if they are vicious and quarrelsome, liis chances are rich and splendid. The bdst es talents may, and often do, fie idle for Want of a chance to use them. Not so tlie farmer -, his business chances ate constant; he never lacks an opportunity to employ his gifts and his knowledge of business rules. Whether the seasons be wet or dry, hot or cool; whether famine prevails in some portions of the world, dr plenty blesses labor everywhere; whether Inteat In e war rages,or peace and industry reign—his business goes right along through all. The nature and wants of the soil re quire continual and hard study. His animals need daily attention and care. His improvements in building, fencing, draining, reclaiming waste lands, and removing obstructions to good culture, are never ended. In addition to these labors he must be ’always providing fertilizing materials to supply the waste that is ever going on. The rich elements of his soil, which he carries off in grain and meat and hay, he must replace, or his farm will run down and his business will become

what our friend whom we quote at the beginning of thia article forms it—a “ game of chance.” No, Heaven baa not left the primitive occupation of man out In the chaotic cold of “ chance..” ’ Laws more certain in their operation, more beautiful in their adaptation to the wants and happiness of man, than those developed in the business of farming, are found nowhere on the earth, —Detroit Tribune.