110 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



Finally, in butter-making, as in ship-building, 

 or surveying, strike the word "luck" from your 

 vocabulary. Learn your trade. Learn the laws 

 that govern your work and obey them. Be not 

 outwitted by heat or cold, by wet or dry, but press 

 them all into your service, and be master, not 

 slave, of the fluid forces of nature. 



Sheldonville, Feb. 12, 1864. A. w. c. 



Fur the Neic England Farmer. 

 MORE ACCURATE FARMING NEEDED. 



At the close of the year it is generally custo- 

 mary with business men to scrutinize their busi- 

 ness affairs, strike the balance between profit and 

 loss, and if the former is in excess exult over the 

 result, and with renewed confidence enter upon 

 the new year's duties. But if the latter, a careful 

 investigation of its causes ensues, irresponsible 

 customers are dropt, new ones sought, all need- 

 less expenses stopt, more devoted attention to 

 their duties required of their employees, and great- 

 er diligence in attending to all the details of their 

 affairs, that the like may not occur again so far as 

 their agency is concerned. 



This course of conduct is ever regarded as high- 

 ly commendable in all men in mercantile pursuits. 

 If this is so in reference to them, how much more 

 so is it necessary for the farmer ! Our New Eng- 

 land farmers generally do a comparatively small 

 business ; the profits of their products are also 

 small, even at the best prices, and often barely pay 

 the expenses of producing. This is so often the 

 case that many farmers in our poorest districts 

 positively affirm that no man can afford to hire 

 labor. If their health fails them, and no sons to 

 succeed them and go the rounds of drudging toil 

 as they and those who have preceded them have 

 done, why the farm must be sold, — and the pater- 

 nal associations forever severed, that had been 

 fostered with the fond hope that they might be 

 perpetuated through a long line of sires and sons. 

 This fact of selling because disqualified from vigo- 

 rous labor is abundantly evidenced by the numer- 

 ous advertisements we see in the newspapers. 

 This is the class of farmers who contend that 

 farming with us is unprofitable. It does not pay, 

 they verily believe. We yield to the allegation 

 so far as they are concerned, but must contend 

 that it is not necessarily so with good, skilful 

 management, for various reasons. How many of 

 these men keep as exact an account of their bus- 

 iness matters as the merchant does? What do 

 they know of the cost of their several crops, the 

 profit of their pigs, poultry, or other farm stock ? 

 1 will venture they know comparatively nothing. 

 It is with them all guess work, with not the least 

 approach to accuracy. If men are employed, they 

 cannot, with any degree of certainty, tell whether 

 they were the gainers or losers by the outlay. 



Contrast this picture of real and too common 

 facts, with an individual case I am familiar with, 

 and see which commends itself to the candid, dis- 

 cerning mind. The case I refer to was that of a 

 young man who commenced farming at twenty- 

 one years of age. When he purchased his farm 

 he had each lot surveyed, numbered and marked ; 

 a regular entry of each lot made in his books ; 

 each lot was debited with every day's work, or 

 fraction of a day, done upon it, as well as all oth- 

 er expense thereon. Nothing was omitted in this 

 resoect. Credits from crops on pasturage were 



faithfully kept, and at the end of the year the bal- 

 ance was struck and the result with a certainty, 

 known. If any lot did not come up to a paying 

 point, or a handsome profit, that lot was taken in 

 hand until that was the result. I may as well 

 here state that each lot was appraised according 

 to its relative value with the other positions of 

 the farm, and interest charged according to ap- 

 praisal. This man employed three and four men 

 on a small place of eighty-five acres, and could 

 tell almost to a certainty, on Sunday morning, 

 what would be the progress of the week's opera- 

 tions. He could tell you at the end of a year 

 what per cent, profit his laborers netted him. No 

 guess work with him. His balance sheet was 

 struck, and the new year was entered upon with 

 the confident assurance that he knew just what he 

 was about. His year's plans were all matured and 

 mapped out at the beginning of the year, and the 

 force requisite to carry them out secured beyond 

 contingency, so far as depends on mortal care. 



Who cannot see in this example, in contrast 

 with the previous described one, an enviable dif- 

 ference, and a most decisive reason why the sys- 

 tematic, carefully-calculating, and account-keep- 

 ing man, should succeed, and the others fail ? I 

 know of a young man, the past season, who moved 

 into a neighborhood of farmers, where, for years, 

 they had plodded on in the same rut their fathers 

 were, without a thought of change or improve- 

 ment upon the past. He leased a small farm that 

 had, what was regarded then, as a full supply of 

 manure for all ordinary purposes ; not so thought 

 our man. He purchased nearly as much more in 

 value as was upon the farm, to the astonishment 

 j of the lookers-on, who predicted a coming out at 

 the little end oi' the horn. 



The result of it is, our young man has made 

 two dollars to their one, they all concede ; not 

 that this is owing to the increased quantity of ma- 

 nure entirely, but the mind that seizes hold of an 

 advantage of this kind is ever ready to act in all 

 other details of farm management to great advan- 

 tage. If from any cause one crop fails, another 

 and later one appears to take its place, and it may 

 be, pay better than the first, had it succeeded!. 



The fact is, we should not find the question so 

 often discussed in our agricultural papers as to 

 the profitableness or unprofitableness of farming, 

 if our farmers would bring the same amount o\ 

 business brains to bear upon their business, that 

 the merchant or manufacturer does upon his. It 

 is the habits of the men that ensure success or fail- 

 ure. In my opinion, here lies the whole secret. 

 How can a man succeed if he has a farm of large 

 extent and does not know how to work men to 

 ! profit? His own labor is insufficient for the task, 

 ' if he attempts it. Things soon get dilapidated 

 and go to decay. He cannot but make shifts that 

 eventually result in debt, despondency and final 

 ruin of his prospects. 



I have prolonged this subject beyond my in- 

 tention. It is an expansive theme, that requires 

 an abler pen than mine to exhaust, or perfectly 

 elucidate. I trust we may all profit by the hints 

 here thrown out, and commence this new year's 

 farm operations upon a more systematic account 

 keeping plan and forethought than any that have 

 preceded it, with the full assurance that our profit 

 will be found therein. K. O. 



Rochester, Jan. 1, 1864. 



