HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 73 



dred dollars, drawing a paltry four per cent., to leave as a 

 bone of contention among his children, who have grown up 

 to hate the farm, and who seek at the earliest day the oppor- 

 tunity to squander the hard-earned accumulation of an over- 

 thrifty and niggardly father. 



Successful farming must depend very much on the skill, 

 industry, judgment and good habits of the man himself, and 

 his attention to the subjects here presented. To farm well, 

 one must form intelligently, and his measure of success will 

 be accordingly. The difficulties in the way of farming well 

 are not few nor small : difference in climate, even in New 

 England ; locality, soil and subsoil ; skill enough to select one 

 from the various breeds of cattle for the dairy or the sham- 

 bles ; how to raise them and how best to fatten them ; wheth- 

 er to keep sheep or cattle, horses or hogs ; whether to practise 

 mixed farming, or to take and keep to a specialty ; how to 

 prepare compost, and to use manures and special fertilizers 

 judiciously ; a wise selection of crops most profitable in each 

 locality ; and a proper rotation of crops, skill in fitting the 

 ground, getting in the seeds, and cultivating and harvesting 

 the crops, — these, unwisely judged and carelessly practised, 

 are all more or less hindrances to successful farming, to be 

 overcome by labor, study and experience. So is every act or 

 non-act of mismanagement, every accident, every item of 

 deterioration, loss or waste, a part of the subject before us. 



Success or failure may result either from the exclusion or 

 permission of these constantly recurring wastes on the farm. 



Whatever tends to direct and stimulate the industry, 

 whatever spreads prosperity over our fields, whatever car- 

 ries happiness to the home and content to the people, tends 

 more than anything else to lay the foundations of our 

 Republic deep and strong, and to give the assurance of im- 

 mortality to our liberties. The errors and deficiencies of 

 our practical agriculture may be referred in a general way 

 to a too limited view among our farmers, and the want of 

 system in their management. These errors and deficiencies 

 which are hindrances to successful farming are not such as 

 require any extent of capital to rectify. All that will be 

 requisite is more attention to both scientific and business 

 principles, more care to practise what they know they 



