Sullivan County Farming. 



By C. W. Heath. 



Every occupation is necessarily subject to certain disadvant- 

 ages peculiar to its line, varying in proportion to the complete 

 nature of its surroundings; but taking everything into considera- 

 tion, none are more exempt from these than the class engaged 

 in agricultural pursuits. That this is so, is not at all mysterious 

 when we consider the nature of their calling. Both in winter 

 as well as summer nature is doing for them a work which it can 

 do for no other class of men, and which actually costs them noth- 

 ing, nothing physically or financially; such as the growth of 

 cereals and other vegetation; while the grass^ though withered 

 and decayed upon the surface, is recuijerating strength and vigor 

 at the root for the coming spring; and the action of the frost 

 has clarified the soil from impurities and to some extent de- 

 stroyed innumerable insects detrimental to vegetable growth. 



The great difficulty is that farms as a rule are too large, more 

 so than can be profitably handled. If farming on general princi- 

 ples cannot be made successful on 50 acres in a state of good 

 cultivation, it is useless to suppose that any additional number 

 will prove more remunerative. The crops raised would prove 

 to be not only equal in quantity, but far superior in quality, and 

 consequently command a higher market price. As the ruling now 

 is, fully one-third of the land tax is drawn from what is perfectly 

 worthless under its present condition to the owner, hence a 

 burden upon that of a more remunerative nature; thus the 

 occupation, to that extent at least, is rendered unprofitable. 



That those engaged in agricultural pursuits possess an average 

 degree of prosperity is plainly manifest when compared with 

 Ihose engaged in mechanical labor of any description. While the 



