1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 215 



choice; for a man engaged in a business for which he has no love, 

 whatever that business may be, will rarely speak well of it when 

 discussing its pros and its cons. 



But the farmer who occupies the lowest position among the 

 several classes of earth-tillers is the really 



SHIFTLESS FARMER, 



he who would be too lazy to earn his own living in any business 

 SO long as wife, or children, or creditors can be induced to support 

 him. The shiftless farmer takes no pride in his farm, and very 

 little interest in its management. He plants little, because he 

 wants little to take care of. He makes little effort at killing 

 weeds, because he has found out that his land is "natural" to 

 weeds, and if he kills all there are to-day another crop will come 

 right up in their places. He keeps but a small dairy, because he 

 has no good accommodations for taking care of the milk; and 

 besides, he knows that dairy farming doesn't pay. He wouldn't 

 keep hens, only those he has kept have stolen their nests, and 

 being too lazy to hunt for the eggs, the old hens sit, and so the 

 stock is annually kept from running out. He never plants trees, 

 because he knows he will never live to see them bear fruit; it 

 takes so long for a tree to grow. He does not put out the small 

 fruits because he prefers more hearty food, and if his wife or 

 children want berries they can pick them in the pasture or woods. 

 He doesn't keep a good carriage, because he doesn't care to ride 

 much, and besides, he has no time. His best company is some 

 neighbor of congenial tastes and aspirations who, in hoeing or 

 ^haying time, comes and sits on the fence with him and discusses 

 bad weather and worse politics, and when, after an hour or two, 

 the neighbor shows signs of departing, he is asked " What's your 

 hurry ? " 



The shiftless fanner never has money to lend, nor much to 

 spend, but he contrives to live, often to an advanced age; and 

 although he may have little to show of the luxuries of life outside 

 of a period of prolonged leisure, he gets, I really believe, more of 

 the ordinary comforts than the same amount of labor and energy 

 would bring him in any other business; for his crops, though not 

 large, are growing while he is eating and sleeping; but if the 

 mechanic stops work his pay stops too. 



