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Show Iffy WHY SOME FARMS DON'T PAY. H Written for the Dcscrct Farmer, jr Lost summer whi'c out on my va- I cation, I -made a few observations in I regard to the above subject. The I only part of my vacation that I will I here describe is a three-days' visit I "Ip one farm which is the cause of I this article. J' As I do not desire to mention names, I will describe my host iul hostess as Mr. and Mrs. Farmer. A brief description of the place if first in order. The farm consists of 160 acres, half of which is still used as pasturage, pastur-age, the other half having been brolc-rn brolc-rn up. Mr. Farmer has plenty of wafflfto jirrigfttc his entire farm. The soil will produce grain, luccrn, corn, potatoes, etc., in abundance, lie is within four miles of a good-sized good-sized town and within twenty-two miles of a market that would absorb .all he and all his neighbors v-ould hope to produce. He could make a fortune on that faim if he knew how. My first observation was naturally in regard to the house as I arrived ?bout dusk. I found Mrs. Farmer to be, an cccl'cnt cook and if her husband hus-band had half her business ability he wouldn't have made the statement that "a farmer the year around doesn't does-n't make two-bits a day and has to get a job in the winter time to pay his dclHs'.' The threshold of the door most used was worn completely complete-ly in two, although, it was originally about three or four inches thick. A space of several inches underneath the screen door as a result of the much-worn threshold, admitted flies galore, much to the annoyance of Mrs. Farmer in her constant endeavor endeav-or to keep them out. I vo'untccrcd to put a new threshold in if the lady would let me 'take a saw, but her youngest son (the only boy remaining remain-ing at home) informed me that they didn't have anything but a meat saw and as I am no carpenter I sidestepped sidestep-ped the proposition of working under difficulties at that trade, especially as I anticipated the job of ripping a new threshold out of some of the uncut timber on Mr. Farmer's land. The next morning I went out to look over the farm. It appears from what I learned about Mr. Farmer, that he is a great 1ovt of leisure Mid sidestepped all the work he possibly pos-sibly could. For instance, each year that he plowed his plowed ground becanve smaller because his willow patches were enctoaching upon his farming land, it required some exertion ex-ertion to plow up willows and th!s gentleman didn't care for much exertion. ex-ertion. His pig pen consisted of some logs laid together in a fashion such as boys build forts cut of ties. The roof consisted of a couple of poles laid across one corner and some rubbish rub-bish piled thereon. The shelter was practical'y no shelter at all but could have been made good enough wilh the expenditure of a little more work and a iload or two of manure. There was one lone pig in the pen and she had just .weaned young plies. She was very thin, so much so that if one of my hogs became as thin as her I would fear for its life. However, How-ever, Mrs. Farmer informed me that the pig had been thin but was getting get-ting fat since she weaned her young ones and the dear lady considered her quite fat then. She "Iso informed inform-ed me that when they turned the pigs out in the fall of the year they became "rolling fat." A brief survey of the farm showcJ me one thing. That Mr. and Mrs. Farmer had a gold mine in hog raising a'.onc if they only knew how to handle it. Did 1 own the place I would immediately imme-diately fence in with hog fence several sev-eral patches of the unbroken land and let the hogs assist in clearing it. Instead of making land breaking a drudgery I would make it profitable. Mr. Farmer instead of merely raising rais-ing his winter pork cou'd market from that land alone, at almost no cost to himself, some two hundred hogs a year for several years, before the hogs would finally succeed m clearing the unbroken land of eatable berries, roots, acorns, etc At the end of each season a few weeks on grain would put the hogs in excellent excel-lent condition for market. Howcvc", hog wire appafent'y is too expensive for Mr. Farmci to invest in, and he prefers to do as little work as possible pos-sible and get a job at tin sugar factory fac-tory every winter, in order to pay of-h'S" of-h'S" debts. ' I .also discovered that Mr. Farmer once built two sides of a toilet but before he got it finished along came a windstorm and pushed it over since when (23 years ago) they use the stable or a willow patch. I merely mention this to give a line on why some Jarms don't pay. Ifc is alt in the manogcnicnt. A man who is too shiftless to build an outhouse is not competent to run a farm. The. first night I slept in the house. I woke up about midnight feeling like a cold storage chicken. Upon investigation I discovered both window win-dow sashes missing from the window frames and a carpet hung up to keep out the cold. I promptly turned myself my-self around to get my face out of that awful draught that was putting me in co'd storage. The lady of the house with the assistance as-sistance of two cows and a cream separator succeeded in keeping the Grocery bills paid and Mir. Farmer manages to raise sufficient lucern to feed his horses and his wife's cows and a heifer, but this is about all this 160 acre farm is capable of in the hands of its present owner. I had a lot of farm literature along with me, and also a few magazines, all of which I turned over to Mr. Farmer. He proved to be a great reader "but insomuch as I noticed the literature he was reading I soon discovered that he only read the fie tion. I don't know whether he ever got to reading any Dcscrct Farmers, ' etc., as X left before he finished the magazines. 'H I also learned that for several years ' H his house was not shingled and .they H had a canvass over their bed to keen H the bed clothes dry when it rained H They had finally got the house shing- . H led when I was there. fl As. soon as their boys became of 1 M age they left and went it alone, not H being ab'c to stand the shiftless tac- ' H tics of their father. fl In justice to Mr. Farmer I will H state that once upon a time, a good M many years ago, he was a very dili- , gent worker. He put in the summer cultivating his crops and when fail H came he had made a good thing. He H got in his harvest and drove up wilh M the last 'load about dark. Unharncs- H sing his horses he threw the harncf- ,H scs over the wagon" tongue and dcit H the load standing for the night. At- H tcr going to bed his wife saw fire re- H fleeted in the mirror and they discov- H ercd that some incendiary had sim ,H uHancously lighted all of his stacks H He lost everything he had except th- H house and farm, till of his crop , fl wagons, horses, harnesses, etc., sin:" fl which time he seems to have been M broken in spirit. BUT THE LAW B REMAINS THE SAME whether u M person is shiftless through' choice or H shift' ss through a broken spirit; and H I' have given some of the reasons H why this particular farm didn't pay. H There are a great many more rcu- H sons but it would make this artiek H too long to toll them here. H A SUBSCRIBER. H |