Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1878 — Where is the Money in Farming? [ARTICLE]

Where is the Money in Farming?

In a little cohversation with farmer the other day we caught a glimpse into the life of a farmer who is making money. He is the envy of the farmers in his neighborhood, and is considered a man of wonderful knack in getting money out of his land. He has not lost a week’s time in the past live years. His uniform practice is to rise early and work late. He hires when it is absolutely necessary, and buys what he considers the necessaries of life, and little beside. His wife, like himself, works early and late; is a constant attendant upon her own affairs, and is never seen abroad. In these years of prosperity there has been nothing added to the premises in the way of embellishment, but on the other hand every acre of soil is made remunerative, while it does not in the least deteriorate in value. With the same practice for twenty years there will be ho improvement of the soil. It pays better to sell wood than to leave timber standing, so his farm is entirely denuded of its timber. Not a tree is left in the field because there is no money in it. To the question, “ Would it not be pleasanter for your cattle during the warm days to have a bit of shade to rest beneath?” he replies: “My experience is that you can get just as much milk and beef without the trees as with them, and when you come to cultivate the fields the trees are not only a nuisance but so drain the soil that nothing can be raised in the vicinity.” The remark was made: “ I should think you would have some evergreens and ornamental trees growing about your premises—you have such a fine site for your house, if there were some trees about, it would be positively beautiful.” “ Stranger,” was the reply, “my farm is my workshop; it is in mv hands to make money out of, and I db not propose to w aste an inch of it—you do not see a manufacturer hanging pictures on his walls, or decorating his shops with busts of Pallas. Neither do 1 wish to spend my time nor my tend, in anything that will not contribute to my purpose of making money out of my farm. It is said that farming is not -*■ business at which a man can make money. It is all false. A man can make money if he only manages right!” “ How mU(?h land have you?” “ Eighty acres, and every foot can be plowed.” ; “ HoW much-is it worth?” “It is worth lor my purpose $6,000. “Do youmakelO per cent, interest on $6,000?’? “I clear from S3OO to SI,OOO a yeair and my family living and expenses. That is, counting my family as so much help, to whom I pay a sum necessapto feed, clothe and furnish them in speeding ipoßiyri n«t profit

at the end of each year of what I told yon—an average or about 1600 a year.” After the above conversation, wo passed along, musing as to whether in this instance, taking into consideration the hardship, the lack of culture, the want of society, this kind of farming was so profitable after all, when our attention was called to another level, nicely tilled, apparently rich farm. “ Who lives here?” we asked. ’ “ The father of that young man with whom you have just been conversing.” Upon inquiry we found this man was worth SBO,OOO, all made in legitimate farming, and although old and gray he was still working, working—and he took no comfort or satisfaction in anything else but hard work and accumulating property. With all his money there was nothing about the premises that indicated real comfort, but for the making of money he had a magnificent farm. In these two men we saw what is lacking in a majority of farmers, who do not make their farms pay, and that is the ability to so manipulate the work on the farm and methodize the cropping of the land as to get money out of the soil and still leave it in as good thriving condition as before, and we do not hesitate to say that this is the most important problem in connection with successful agriculture. The question arises: In the accomplishment of this very desirable object is it necessary that the farmer and his family so convert themselves into slaves to their occupation as to lose all desire for anything but work and money? We leave the picture and the question with our readers. It is important because in the answer we say whether or not there is truth in the oft-repeated reason given why so many young people leave the farm for business that not only gives profit but cultivation of the mind and heart. — Detroit Free Preu.