8 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



The permanence and independence of the farmer s avocation are strong arguments in its 

 favor in the choice of a business, while there are few callings in which a small amount of 

 capital can be as safely invested and at the same time prove as lucrative. It is also a busi 

 ness that is always sure to give plenty of employment to those engaged in it, with a certainty 

 of a fair remuneration. It is very true that there are many farmers that make but a poor 

 success of it, if success it could be called without a misuse of the term but it is equally true 

 that there are failures in every kind of business, and that there is no calling known but what 

 may be represented by incompetent men that are engaged in it, such men as would not 

 make a success in anything they might undertake, the fault not being in the business, as such, 

 but in the persons representing it. In any occupation or department in life, more depends 

 upon the man than the business, as regards the ultimate success. In order to be successful 

 in any position, there are certain requisites that cannot be ignored, and the observance of 

 these is quite as essential in farming as in any other employment or profession. 



Some persons seem to have a kind of general capacity or aptitude for almost any 

 avocation, and will make a success of anything they may undertake, but these are the 

 exceptions. As a general rule, men have a special talent for certain kinds of business, and 

 in following those to which they are by nature fitted, they will be more successful and happy 

 in their pursuit than in any other. However, a taste for certain avocations can be cultivated 

 where it does not naturally exist, but at the same time there must be certain natural aptitudes 

 or capacities inherent in the individual in order to make it a success in such cases. 



The really successful farmer is he who chooses his vocation for the love of it, and who 

 feels that in it he is in his own native element, as it were; he enters it with a just conception 

 of its nature and demands, and in its pursuit he is not disappointed. The man who has no 

 love for the business, but, on the contrary, detests it, and only pursues it from necessity, 

 ought not to expect to succeed, for he lacks the first great essential in the elements of success. 

 The successful farmer will not only need a love and taste for the business, with a proper 

 appreciation of its nature and duties, but a healthy and vigorous body, and a well- 

 balanced, cultivated mind. He should get beyond the narrow-mindedness that characterizes 

 so large a class of farmers, and keep abreast of the times, profiting by the improvements, 

 and progress of the age in which he lives, and be willing to believe there may at present be 

 systems of practice in agriculture superior to that of his forefathers, and that the years of 

 labor and investigation since that period have not been spent in vain. What would be the 

 success of the merchant, if he should refuse to conform to the demands and customs of the 

 present, and persist in selling only the old-fashioned goods of twenty-five or fifty years ago ? 

 He might, it is true, sell a few articles as ancient relics, but his business as a merchant would 

 be very far from proving a success. It is just as essential for the farmer to meet the demands 

 of the times, as for the merchant or any other business man, in order to insure success ; and 

 to accomplish it he must study the wants of the market, and raise those crops that are most 

 in demand, and consequently will bring the highest price ; and not only this, but he should 

 inform himself as to the best methods of improving his lands, and cultivating such crops so 

 as to procure the best results. A man of one idea may possibly succeed in some pursuits, 

 but not in farming. The farmer of the highest success must be a man of broad views, 

 cultivated mind, and well-developed resources. The time is passed for the opinion of the 

 olden time to be popularly entertained, when the merest ignoramus was thought to be compe 

 tent to do well enough on the farm, and that the boys of the family that were intending to 

 be farmers did not require as good an education as those who were intending to follow some 

 other calling or profession. The farmer of the present and future must be well informed to 

 answer the demands of his position ; he must be competent to meet the various questions 

 constantly presenting themselves to him from every side in the duties of his vocation ; he 

 must be capable of understanding, as far as possible, the nature of the elements with which 



