—1871—Farmer's Plans

#86

Haying in the Agrarian Nation

(click the picture to see enlarged view)

A live farmer, always awake to the spirit of improvement, will have his farm, at the end of ten years, in a vastly better condition in respect to attractiveness and real value than it was at the beginning, while another will plod on, work quite as hard, perhaps, and find his farm no better, and probably worse, than it was in the beginning. 

The difference will be found in the planning, the brain work, of the two men. One has an idea in his brain that he means to attain, and by degrees it is developed into actual results; the other merely plods on from day to day, always hesitating about undertaking anything out of the ordinary routine of farm labor, working hard enough with his hands, but little with his brain. If there is a waste place in his lot, an ugly eyesore, he is slow to begin its improvement. if there is a rock in the way of the scythe or the plough, it lies there year after year, though an hour’s work might remove it.

The true way to progress on the farm is to do something, be it more or less, every year. It may not amount to a radical change in any one year, but in the aggregate the improvement will be apparent, and the real money value of the farm enhanced.

If the profits of farming are less apparent than those of mercantile pursuits at certain times, it should be borne in mind that neither are the wear and tear of mind and body, nor the labor and risks so great. The chances of a happy and comfortable life are greater upon the farm than in any other calling, and if the spirit of improvement exists in the mind, the sources of real and permanent happiness are inexhaustible.

We hope to see the time when our young men will incline to the culture of the land, rather than to dissipate their intellect and their energies in our villages and cities. To hasten this time, we must increase their intelligence, their sense of the true dignity of agriculture, adopt new methods of farming, apply  more science and more knowledge to the details of this calling, make farming attractive, agreeable, and productive, and this is to be accomplished by the system, the forethought, and the plans of the human brain.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]
.