52 Our Farming. 



guarantee on every package and they may seem more honest. 

 Perhaps you think by this time this book doesen't overflow with 

 taffy for farmers. You can see I am not after your votes, at 

 least ! Well, a little sugar is good now and then, but good, sound, 

 plain food is more important. On my farm the cost of exchange 

 is so arranged as to be of little account all around. You must be 

 the judge as to whether you can do as well. I think it needs a 

 little more brains to manage successfully in this way. The farmer 

 must be a little better business man. But this is just what the 

 successful farmer of the future must be. The time has passed 

 when any fool can be a farmer ; when one not smart enough to do 

 anything else can stay on the old farm. He won't stay long, in. 

 the future, any more than in any other business. One who farms 

 in special lines must know first what his soil is best fitted for 

 raising; next, where what he can best produce, is most wanted, 

 and then send his products there, and where he can buy what he 

 wants cheapest and then buy there. And he must have the cash 

 capital to work with, as well as the ability to use it. Thank God, 

 we have a good many such business farmers scattered through the 

 country here and there, and they are worth their weight in gold 

 as object lessons for less progressive brethren. 



Why were the different parts of that window made in so 

 many different places ? - Because manufacturers have found it 

 profitable to give their attention to specialties. One makes sash 

 and blinds, another screws, another glass. Bach one finds it 

 pays to give his whole attention to one industry, and become as 

 skillful as possible at that. And there is more to learn about 

 growing one single crop on the farm, oftentimes, than about 

 making a single manufactured product which large firms give 

 their whole attention to. All of us have noticed how sjdllful a 

 person becomes who has had years of practice in any particular 

 line. Did you ever watch an experienced lather drive nails? He 

 will easily drive two or three to your one. Did you ever watch 

 an old type-setter's fingers fly? Do you think you could write a 

 good sermon as quickly as your minister could ? How long do 

 you suppose it took me to write the first article I ever wrote for a 

 paper? Just one week, solid. If in a hurry, I might do better 

 now in two hours. Practice makes perfect and gives experience. 

 When I built my new house a friend in the city prevailed on me 

 to hire an experienced hand from Cleveland to come and lay all 

 the carpets, which were mostly new and made in the city. He 

 came and put them down, perfectly, in seven rooms, mostly large 

 ones, one bay window, one hall and winding stairway, and oil- 

 cloth in the pantry, and put up the fixtures, and hung lace 

 curtains on four windows, all in just five hours. He had done 

 nothing else for ten years, and could easily do the work better 

 than I, and four times as fast. Now, would it not be singular if 

 the farmer who gives his whole attention to two or three crops 



