956 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



to succeed. True economy has been defined as using things to the best advantage, while 

 false economy is the reverse, and is but another name for penuriousness and mismanagement 

 in some of its forms, of which there are many. The farmer who thinks he cannot afford to 

 purchase books and take papers which are especially designed to assist him in his occupa 

 tion, or who continues to use hand power in his work where the machine could be much 

 more profitably employed, is practicing false economy to the detriment of his business and 

 himself individually. In all kinds of business &quot;knowledge is power,&quot; and he who possesses 

 it has one of the great elements of success; yet how shall he possess knowledge without 

 obtaining it in a great measure from the experience and investigations of others. To be 

 sure, one may experiment for himself in a small way, and may derive much benefit by this 

 method, but his own experience must of necessity be limited, requiring time; and how much 

 greater advantage would be derived, if in connection with his own researches he should be 

 able to command the use of the knowledge derived from the investigations of those who have 

 made a specialty of such subjects. What would be thought of the mariner who should 

 attempt to cross the ocean without a compass because he thought he could not afford to pur 

 chase one, or a lawyer or physician who attempted to practice their respective professions 

 without the aid of books giving instruction on the topics pertaining to them ? 



Other methods of practicing false economy might be embraced in the keeping of inferior 

 breeds of stock, or if the herds are such as are desirable, keeping them in -a poor condition; 

 the purchase and use of inferior tools, allowing the farm-buildings to become dilapidated, 

 without making the necessary repairs; letting things run to waste generally for lack of time 

 or funds to attend to them; buying necessary things for use on the farm and in the family 

 in small quantities, thus losing the advantage to be derived from the commission off to be 

 saved when making a purchase of a considerable quantity, besides the convenience of having 

 things constantly on hand ; buying goods on credit instead of for cash; growing unsuitable 

 crops; buying things which might easily be grown at home; borrowing tools; hiring tools 

 mended when they could be mended at home just as well, and at no expense; keeping the 

 children home from school to work and allowing them to grow up in ignorance when they 

 should be acquiring an education to fit them for future usefulness, all of which are too fre 

 quently seen and practiced under the mistaken impression that by so doing the best interests 

 of economy are thus subserved. 



Education. The advantages to be derived from a good education can scarcely be 

 overestimated, and a cultivated mind is just as beneficial to the farmer as to persons engaged 

 in any other pursuit. It is frequently the case that the boys from farmers families who are 

 intending to follow some professional or mercantile business are allowed special educational 

 advantages, but those that follow the profession of farming (for farming is one of the noblest 

 and most honorable of professions) are permitted to have but limited privileges in this 

 respect. Education is a power in any department in life, and it is quite as essential that the 

 farmer should be able to utilize this power in order to attain the highest success in his 

 calling as the lawyer, the physician, or the merchant; and the better his education, together 

 with the ability to appropriate this power to its best uses, the more successful the farmer, as 

 a general principle. Professor H. E. Alvord says in this connection: &quot; The farmer must 

 apply to himself, and to the son or sons to succeed him, a standard similar to that by which 

 he measures the qualifications of his doctor and his minister. It is unfortunate that farmers 

 are so slow in doing this. No one ever heard of a physician fresh from his schools and 

 books being sneered at as a book-doctor. On the contrary, all doctors without a comple 

 ment of book-learning, scientific training, are shunned and denominated quacks. Yet very 

 recently it was common for farmers of the olden style to look with pity, if not suspicion, 

 upon those who studied agriculture as a science and undertook its practice with a progressive 

 spirit, and to call such book- farmers. Happily such errors are passing away; book- 

 farmers, well educated farmers, are making themselves felt; winning respect and finding an 

 appreciation of their enterprise. Let us hope the time is not distant when book-farmers, in 

 the best sense, shall be in the majority. Then, perhaps, quacks will be found in farming. 

 The fact is, at present quack-farmers are too plenty and book-farmers too few. 



Book-farming, in its truest sense, is only making use, in addition to one s own experi 

 ence, of the experience of others, as recorded by them on the printed page. And these others 

 are often men who have been able to give much more time to the study and practice of 

 special branches of agriculture than it will ever be possible for us to do. If the books be 

 only.on subjects where we need light, and their authors known as competent to give it, the 

 mor^we have within reach, and the more we study them, the greater becomes our store of 



