CHAPTER XLI. 



INDUCEMENTS OFFERED BY FARMING. 



'HIS chapter is particularly for young men, who may 

 be in doubt as to whether they had better stay on 

 the farm, or make farming their life occupation,. or 

 go into town and try to make a home there. It is 

 \ ' '*jJ J $\ written from experience in both directions, and 

 particularly for the bright, intelligent, wideawake 

 young man. First, my young friends, there is no chance whatever 

 to become a millionaire on the farm. There is no chance to 

 acquire great wealth. If that is your ambition, and that end 

 must be attained, leave the farm. There is little chance of you 

 ever becoming worth even $50,000, unless you make perfect slaves 

 of your family and yourself. But the accumulation of money or 

 property to leave when you die is a very poor end to work for. 

 If you live well and have a reasonably good time, as you go 

 through life, you will do pretty well if you have $10,000 worth of 

 property left for your last days. Now, right here you may ask 

 a very natural question, viz., Why is it that farmers are so much 

 poorer paid, or, perhaps, better, have no chance of acquiring great 

 wealth ? The answer is simply this : Farming is of necessity a 

 small business. It cannot be extended and spread out, as a rule, 

 until hundreds of men and many thousands of capital are em- 

 ployed. Once, when I was at Beloit, Wisconsin, the great wind- 

 mill firm there showed me the little old shop, not as large as my 

 tool house, in which they began making windmills. L,ittle by little, 

 they increased their business until acres of floor space are occu- 

 pied, and a small army of men employed. This is practicable in 

 manufacturing, merchandising, etc. It is not on the farm. I 

 went into a large store the other day, where there were hundreds of 

 clerks employed. Order and system reign. A manager or floor- 

 walker on each floor had his eye on every man. All this is 

 entirely possible and practicable in these lines of business, and 

 hence there are chances for men of push to work up and honestly 

 become very wealthy. The farmer has not the same chance. 

 The man who owns a hundred-acre farm, and runs it with the aid 

 of one man, if he buys another -hundred acres and employs more 

 help with the expectation of making twice as much, will usually 

 fail. He certainly will if he carries the matter much further. 



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