I 



THE DIVERSIFIED FARM 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture 



THE GENTLEMAN-FARMER. 



BY F. C. BARKER, OF NEW MEXICO. 



NEARLY every one knows what is 

 meant by the term gentleman-farm- 

 er, although the meaning is somewhat 

 difficult to define; for the fact is there are 

 many kinds of gentleman-farmers. In the 

 first place we have the gentleman who 

 is farming for pleasure only. So long as 

 he is content with the pleasures to be de- 

 rived from the occupations of a rural life, 

 he is likely not only to be satisfied with 

 himself, but his neighbors will benefit 

 from the many experiments which gentle- 

 man-farmers are prone to indulge in. 

 Such men are the most useful members of 

 an agricultural community. 



There are, however, other classes, of 

 whom we have unfortunately too many 

 specimens in the irrigated districts of the 

 West. We have the gentleman-farmer 

 who wishes to combine pleasure with 

 profit, too often lured on by the roseate hues 

 of the boom literature of this new country. 



Now I am by no means deprecating the 

 idea of deriving pleasure from one's busi- 

 ness, indeed I can hardly imagine the 

 successful man who does not do so. But 

 far too many men are anxious to engage 

 in agriculture or horticulture without hav- 

 ing the previous experience which will en- 

 able them to form any idea of whether 

 such a life is likely to prove pleasurable 

 or otherwise. When such men find that 

 life on a farm is not a continuous round 

 of pleasure, but that there are many diffi- 

 culties to be ovei'come, disappointments 

 to be borne and hard work to be done, 

 they are apt to be soon discouraged. 



The fact is that the successful farmer 

 has longer hours to work and harder work 

 to do than falls to the lot of almost any 

 other man, and this holds good on the 

 irrigated farm perhaps quite as much as 

 where the advantages of irrigation are 

 absent. The farmer, however, has this 

 advantage over most other men. He can 

 perform his work cheerfully knowing that 

 he is not working for any other man, but 

 that the whole produce of his labor will 

 be enjoyed by himself or by those he loves. 



His is an independent life and he is not 

 at the beck and call of any boss or at the 

 mercy of any capricious customer. Every 

 evening he has the pleasing satisfaction of 

 feeling that he has accomplished something 

 of which he himself will see the result and 

 reap the benefit. He knows that good 

 work will bring him not only financial suc- 

 cess, but, that which man esteems above 

 money, the approbation of his neighbors. 

 Thus the good farmer gets to take a pride 

 in his work, and what to others may be 

 merely toil is to him a pleasure. I fear 

 that very few of our gentlemen-farmers 

 look upon the matter in this light, but when 

 they do not, farming is likely to prove a 

 curse to them and they a curse to farming. 



Lastly we have the gentleman-farmer 

 who expects to spend the money while the 

 other fellow does the work. This class is 

 especially numerous on irrigated farms. 

 Call at his farm and ten to one you find 

 him absent. Either he is on a hunting 

 expedition, or he has gone for the mail or 

 is in town on some small shopping errand 

 that might well have been left to his wife. 

 If by chance you find him at home he is 

 either reading the daily papers or smoking 

 a cigar on the piazza. The last thing he 

 ever thinks of is to take off his coat and 

 go to work with his hired men. If he 

 keeps a cow, a hired man does the milking 

 and a hired girl makes the butter. If he 

 has a vegetable garden, the hired man 

 does the hoeing and digging. No wonder 

 he tells you that he can buy butter and 

 vegetables cheaper than he can raise them 

 and that pigs don't pay. 



He who expects to lead a ' ' sweet do 

 nothing " life as a farmer is apt to have 

 his castle of indolence rudely shaken to its 

 very foundations. It is of course possible 

 to make money on a farm where the 

 labor is done by hired help, but the farmer 

 himself will have to work as hard as any 

 of his laborers. The hired man does not 

 as a rule feel any pleasure or take any 

 pride in his work. He will need constant 

 watching, and the farmer who not only 

 watches his laborers, but sets them the 

 example of good work is as a rule the suc- 

 cessful farmer. -, 



