AGRICULTURAL APHORISMS. 1203 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



AGRICULTURAL, APHORISMS.* 



"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." 



IF the heart \s> not in the farm, the life should not be upon 

 it. Profit depends more upon the farmer than the farm. 

 The best subsoil is a wise plan. An active brain is a greater 

 labor-saving machine than the self-binder. Plan and work ahead : 

 bright brains and brown hands make the farm pay. The basis 

 of success is wise management, the result of correct reasoning 

 from facts gained by the experience, observations, and investi- 

 gations of self and others. 



Do not fret. Keep a diary. Watch the markets. Study 

 crop reports. Assort your products. Quality is as important 

 as quantity. Sell when your produce is ready for market. 

 Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Stick to your business and 

 it will stick to you. No man can farm by proxy. Reduce all 

 contracts to writing. Pay no money without taking a receipt, 

 buy no property without having the title examined, sign no 

 paper for a stranger, and have no destructible property not 

 insured. 



The farmer's wheel-of-fortune : a rotation of crops. In the 

 rotation of crops on hilly lands, make cultivated crops only one 

 spoke in the wheel. The problem of making a farm profitable 

 is solved by the rule of three : fewer acres, more work, larger 

 yields. Do work at the earliest seasonable moment ; the man 

 chased by his work stumbles over many dollars. As order is 

 neglected, wastes become systematic, and losses regular. Cul- 

 tivate the home market. Be courteous enough to escort every 

 thing to its place, that it may be at home when next you call 

 on it. More work with less labor is reflected from bright, sharp 

 tools. Effort concentrated on small areas economizes materials 



*By JOHN M. STAHL, editor of Farmers' Call and South and West. 



