VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 35 



BUSINESS METHODS ON THE FARM. 



By John E. Gale, Guilford, Vt., at Farmers' Meeting at 

 Wheelock, Feb. 16, '99. 



While it is not my purpose to engage in any general adverse 

 criticism of the business methods of our farmers, yet I have 

 found that there are different ways of doing things, and al- 

 though I do not profess to have found the best methods, yet I 

 have reason to believe that I have improved upon those of some 

 of my acquaintances, and perhaps a little discussion upon the 

 subject may be beneficial to us all, even though no strictly new 

 ideas are advanced, for all of us are more or less forgetful and 

 need to be waked up occasionally. 



The farming industry is the greatest business of this coun- 

 try, and of the world, yet I believe that farmers as a class are 

 more unbusinesslike than any other great class of people known 

 to the business world, and I believe this to be due largely to 

 the fact that while the farmer has made great improvement in 

 his methods of tilling the soil, and caring for his crops and his 

 flocks and herds yet he has not given a proportionate amount of 

 care to the improvement of his business methods. 



If one who had made no preparation for that work should 

 undertake to practice medicine, you would not expect him to 

 be very successful, and if one who had served no apprentice- 

 ship in the mercantile business should undertake to run a store 

 you would expect him to compromise with his creditors after a 

 year or two at the most. Yet how many there are who engage 

 in farming and expect to make a living, who have only a general 

 idea of the business, and no special training, such as would be 

 regarded as indispensable in any other business in order to make 

 a success of it. 



In one respect farming is the best business in the world, for 

 it will stand more abuse and still give a man a better living 

 than any other business under the sun. 



Now, I am going to talk to you a little while about care- 

 lessness. You may say that this does not properly appertain to 

 my subject, but I claim that carelessness is unbusinesslike, and 

 therefore comes within my jurisdiction. Carelessness causes 

 more loss, destroys more property every year than robbers, 

 thieves and war. By carelessness I do not mean ignorance, I 

 mean a heedless disregard of those duties which we know 

 should be attended to, a reckless oversight of those circumstances 

 which we know to exist and demand our attention. There 



