18G7. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEI^rER. 



445 



For the New England Farmer. 



SUCCESS IN FARMING. 



Can young men succeed better in other callings than as 

 farmers ? 



I see you print, (Feb. 16, 18G7,) the fol- 

 lowing, which is the concluding sentence of 

 my article on "Renting Farms :" — 



The same amount of study, tact, talent, energy 

 and enterprise that sutBces to make a man moder- 

 ately successful in a professional or a mercantile 

 career, will place him in the front rank of the 

 tillers of the soil. 



You then I'emark that it "is going the rounds 

 of the agricultural press," and that you "won- 

 der at it, as you do not believe it is true." 

 Also that you "think it would be full as cor- 

 rect to transpose the sentence, and say, "that 

 the same amount of talent, tact, industry, en- 

 ergy, economy and enterprise that suffices to 

 make a man a moderately successful farmer 

 would place him in the front rank of the pro- 

 fessional or mercantile classes." 



It is scarcely necessary to say that I was 

 much surprised to see this. I was trying to 

 show that farming was the best and surest bu- 

 siness for farmers' sons to follow. That "the 

 professions are so crowded that it is often 

 many years before an opening is found, and a 

 paying business obtained." And that "these 

 difficulties have kept many talented men in 

 the back-ground for years, or finally driven 

 them into other business." While it was not 

 "much better in the mercantile business," as 

 "every opening for or avenue of trade is 

 crowded and overdone." And that both are 

 so crowded that "competition and combination 

 do their utmost to prevent the success of the 

 beginner." With other facts and arguments 

 offered to prove that farming was the surest 

 and easiest to get started and succeed in ; 

 and winding up with the sentence incjuestion. 



Now, am I mistaken ? Will young men find 

 it easier, and be surer to obtain a comfortable 

 competency, by entering into trade, or the 

 professions ? Remember that it is not the ab- 

 stract question that I have in view, but the 

 practical ; that I try to consider these matters 

 as I find them. No doubt but the success- 

 ful merchant or lawyer gets better paid in 

 money and honor than many successful farm- 

 ers. Political economists say the reason for 

 this, is, that it takes a costly preparation 

 in time and money to secure such success. 

 Many farmers will say that the so-called intel- 

 lectual classes so rule society as to secure 

 better pay for their labor. But this is not the 

 point. If the successful lawyer can get more 

 money for a fair day's work than a farmer 

 gets for from ten to one hundred times as 

 much labor, as is sometimes the case, it does 

 not prove that it is best for young men to be- 

 come lawyers ; for practically such lawyers are 

 the exception ; they are few and far between. 

 There are so many lawyers, and competition 

 is so close, sharp and persistent, that only 

 those who have great talent, tact and ability 



that are especially adapted to the profession, 

 aided by intense and persistent study, ever 

 attain to the "front rank" in their profes- 

 sion. And then such "leaders of the bar" get 

 about all the best business ; while the rest, as 

 a whole, have rather short pickings. 



Take this county for instance. Out of some 

 twenty-five or thirty lawyers, there are only 

 two or three that are really successfial ; as 

 many more moderately successful — worth as 

 much as average farmers ; while the rest are 

 not as well off, nor do they make as much 

 money as ordinary farmers. Doctors are not 

 doing as well as lawyers. Merchants about 

 the same ; that is, a few succeed — many fail. 

 But on the other hand, farmers are generally 

 in good circumstances, and making money. 

 Farms may average one hundred acres each, 

 and, including stock and tools, may be worth 

 nearly or quite $100 an acre, while many 

 have several hundred acres, besides several 

 thousand dollars at interest ; and this, too, in 

 a county that has been principally settled and 

 cleared up during the last forty or fifty years, 

 by men that had but very little means to start 

 with ; so that nearly all the property now 

 owned by the farmers has been made by the 

 present generation ; while the failure of a 

 farmer of ordinary industry and economy is 

 scarcely ever heard of. So that, in fiict, farm- 

 ers ai'e nearly all moderately successful, while 

 this is the case with only a small share of the 

 lawyers, doctors or merchants. 



I know a farmer not yet forty years old who, 

 with a capital of only $500 to $G00 to begin 

 with, has made between $30,000 and $40,000 

 by farming ; while there is not a lawy-er or 

 merchant, of the same age, in the county that 

 has got together as much money. This farmer 

 has a moderate academical education ; but no 

 special study or preparation for his business, 

 more than other sons of common farmers, 

 while many of the other classes have been 

 well educated, and by study and practical 

 training, thoroughly prepared for their busi- 

 ness ; and some of them are men of superior 

 ability and intelligence. So there can be but 

 one reason why they don't succeed as well in 

 proportion as the farmers, and that is they 

 don't have the same chance, — they don't find 

 the same opening for them to make money ac- 

 cording to their tact, talent and ability. The 

 farmer found plenty of business from the be- 

 ginning — the others could not. There were 

 enough older, experienced and well estab- 

 lished lawyers, doctors and merchants, to do 

 all the business, who had it in their own hands ; 

 and being men of much talent, — some of them 

 of decided ability, — and having the confidence 

 of the people, they could not be crowded out 

 nor deprived of patronage. Hence new aspi- 

 rants, however talented and thoroughly pre- 

 pared, often have great difficulty in getting a 

 good start in business. 



Again : we have many hundreds of moder- 

 ately successful farmers in this county, like a 



