FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION. 9 



he has to deal, and the laws that control and regulate them. He must be able to appreciate 

 the agricultural literature of the times, and make himself familiar with it, and not only thus 

 to receive the products of other minds, but he must be competent to think and investigate 

 for himself. 



Successful farming demands the practice of systematic business principles. No man can 

 succeed well in any employment whose practice lacks method and thoroughness. A slack 

 and slovenly manner of doing work of any kind can never be very remunerative, and in no 

 business is this fact more clearly verified than in farming. No farmer can manage his affairs 

 on strictly business principles who does not keep an account of his receipts and expenditures, 

 and take an occasional inventory to see how he stands financially. A merchant might run 

 the risk of being bankrupt if he did not do this, but how few farmers ever have a systematic 

 financial account kept from year to year. 



Farming can be made profitable when the same thought, energy, business tact, and prin 

 ciples are associated with it that are required for other successful enterprises, and under such 

 favoring conditions the profits will compare favorably with those of other employments. It 

 is true that few among the many farmers can be called wealthy, but this is equally true of 

 other vocations ; it is only one among many, in any business the world over, that rises to 

 eminence above his fellows and distinguishes himself by extraordinary achievements of any 

 kind, and those who acquire wealth and power are few compared with the masses in the 

 enjoyment of but a competence. But the farmer can trust in the assurance that if he gives 

 a proper amount of attention to the business, and utilizes the aids within his reach, he can 

 make it pay, and the compensation will be a fair one in comparison with that of other callings. 

 That farming pays best which will produce the largest amount from a given area, with an 

 equal expenditure of time and labor ; in other words, it is the surplus production of each 

 acre over the cost of raising the crop, or the raising of maximum crops at a minimum cost, 

 which constitutes the real profit of farming. 



Aside from the other advantages to be derived from agricultural pursuits, there is much 

 of pleasure connected therewith, in an esthetic point of view, or what might be termed the 

 poetry of farming, and which those with an eye for the beautiful in nature cannot fail to 

 appreciate. There are few persons so constituted as not to enjoy and appreciate, to a certain 

 extent, works of art in the form of beautiful pictures or fine statuary, and those possessing 

 the means will often pay large sums of money for these master-pieces of the best artists, and 

 consider them indispensable in furnishing their homes ; but what painting ever equaled the 

 changing scenes of nature of which the farmer is ever a participant or observer ; the glory 

 of a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the ever-changing clouds in storm or sunshine ; the vast 

 forests and fields of waving grain ; the quiet loveliness of the valley among the hills ; the 

 grandeur of the distant mountains, or the broad expanse of the green prairies that seem like 

 the ocean with its rolling waves suddenly made stationary by the word of some mighty 

 power. To one with a love for domestic animals, there is much enjoyment in the care of these 

 mute creatures that so willingly recognize man as their lord, and so often look the affection 

 and gratitude they cannot speak. 



The farmer needs the painting of no Landseer, Bonheur, or other artist, however distin 

 guished, to cause him to appreciate a fine horse, cow, or other animal, for these are but copies 

 from life, and he has the originals ever about him ; hence, if a man with a love for the 

 beautiful has not the means to gratify his taste in art, he can do so to a great extent by 

 becoming a farmer and possessing the subjects of which art furnishes but the copy. 



But this is only the poetic side of farm-life, though by no means to be overlooked, and 

 the business of the farmer requires the best energies of hands and brain, much thought and 

 hard labor ; and to him life is earnest and real, and he who makes the wisest and best use 

 of these energies will, other conditions being equal, receive the largest remuneration for his 

 labors, in the profits that are the result of intelligent farming. 



