State Contention—Farm-Banks. 
429 
with their heads gray, and be no better off than when they started. 
I am myself a practical farmer. I understand perfectly well what 
good farming is, and so far as it is in my power I try to do it. I 
find a man that starts out in life without anything has got to make 
something, and this has been my condition. I started in 1861 by 
enlisting in the army. I came out with a couple of hundred dol¬ 
lars, and I have now a good farm with a fair amount of stock. I 
got it by rigid economy, and hard labor, and by posting myself on 
the best methods of farming. I think in these conventions we 
ought to talk up more the propriety of assisting and helping that 
class of men. 
Mr. Dwight: The question has arisen in my mind, does the ave¬ 
rage farmer ever farm any better than he is compelled to? 1 see 
men every day or two who say they wish they could raise wh^at 
as they did twenty-five and thirty years ago, turn the sod over, and 
shake on the seed. I recollect of sowing wheat, and raising thirty 
bushels to the acre, and harrowed it in with two pieces of rail with 
wooden teeth. Don’t we learn more by adversity than by success. 
A gentleman cited me to the fact that all of his adversities had been 
sort of educators to him; that he had learned more from adversity 
m \ 
than he had from prosperity. 
The majority of farmers to-day, if they are in easy circumstances, 
are what might be termed prudent, economical men. I think the 
average of farmers don’t farm business-like. They don’t under¬ 
stand exactly what it costs to raise a steer, or what it costs to raise 
a pig; to produce a pound of butter or a pound of cheese, or any¬ 
thing of that SQrt. They rather dread what is called mixed farm¬ 
ing. It takes more time, more talent, more thought. If a farmer 
has a mixed farm, he has to be at home. He can’t be off to the 
store. Go to Brooklyn or Oregon, in this county, and you see a 
class of farmers sitting in the village store, talking nonsense. In 
these granges it is almost impossible to get them up to discuss an 
agricultural question, or economic question, or any useful question. 
They seem to be like children, they admire the forms and ceremo¬ 
nies, and dispute on points of order. I have tried to get them to 
discuss the question of what it costs to raise a steer, or a pound of 
pork, etc. When you call on them they will say, “ worthy master, I 
don’t think I can add anything to what has been said on this ques¬ 
tion.” I think the great trouble of the average farmer is want of self-re- 
