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Elements of Successful Farming.

A THESIS by ( a”)
tere.) AY C. Bird, Highland, ilich.

ty August 10, 1894.
il. A. C.

Class of 13083.
HFSIS
Scientists have generally agreed that every man should
have a specialty. That he should be a master in that special-
ty, and that his whole life work should be so arranged as to
pear directly or indirectly upon its development.

To the educated farmer, with his mind fililed with scien-
tific truths, and skilled in scientific investigation, this
idea is a most fascinating one. No man has a broader ficld
from which to choose nor greater opportunities for original
work than has he. To feel that in the great agricultural
world, with its millions of farmers making a practical fail-
ure of their profession, that the great number of these fail-
ures are due to a lack of concentration to some particular
line of work, and that he may not only achieve his own suc-
cess but py his example that he may set right others who have
not yet learned this lesson of concentration, is to him almost
success in itself.

These and Kindred thoughts fill the mind of the young
farmer as he leaves his college life behind him to work out
for himsolf the problem of success upon the farm. And well
they may. No man can do better than to fix for himself a
practical ideal, and bend every energy to the accomplishment
of that one purpose.

But does this concentration of purpose of necessity mean

94070
specialty of farming? Is the only success worth attaining
the ideal success of the specialist? Can we do more for our-
selves and for our fellow farmers by devoting our energies to
the highest possible development of one branch of agriculture,
or by using those same energies in developing a less perfect
but a more harmonious system of general farming?

These too, are fit questions for the young farmer to ask
himself as he enters upon his active life with the blessings
of his Alma Mater resting upon him.

With the experience of but a single decade to draw upon,
I may not hope to have solved this proplem with the certainty
which science requires of its students. But right or wrong
as my conclusions may be, they at least possess the merit of
being based upon personal experience and observation, accom-
panied by a conscientious and intense desire to make the most
of my own small resources. Nor should the fact escape obser-
vation, that these same conclusions to which I have been led
are ina sreat measure directly opposed to any preconcieved
ideas on the supject which I may have hada.

In order to further make clear at the veginning that any
success which has peen mine upon the farm has not been due to
any urusual surroundings, I may be pardoned for stating di-
rectly that a farmer's life meant to me the same as it means

to the great number of graduates from our Oollioge, namely, to
sink or to swim from my own energies alone. To buy a farm
and to stock it meant to me a heavy indeotedness which must
be paid from the farm itéelf. Ana it is from the experience
gained in the accomplishment of this very thing that I shall
draw upon in the preparation of this thesis.

The first and greatest question demanding immediate so-
lution was whether I should give my best thought and labor to
the development of an ideal specialty or devote my energies
to what is commonly termed general farming. Three things in-
duced me to choose the latter, First, the poor general out-
look for fashionably bred stock. Second, the prospect of a
long continued tariff agitation rendering future calculations
upon the prosperity or adversity of any single line of busi-
ness uncertain. And last and emphatically the most important
to me, the firm belief that nine out of every ten of the
failures among the farmers of every class were attributable
to poor business management, that the prevalont idea that a
college cducation in a measure unfits a man for a successful
business career was an erroneous one, and that tho intensely
practical course of training which I had received from ny
Alma Mater had quickened, rather than deadened my natural in-
clination toward an active business life.

After an experience of ten years upon the farm, embracing

as it does the perion generally accepted as that of the
greatest depression in agriculture experionced by this gener-
ation, I am a firm believer in the general truth of the first
two of these propositions, and an emphatic peliever in the
absolute truth of the third. To make a success of farming
today means no harder work than to establish ones self in any
profession or business known to man. To achieve that success
means only to grasp every opportunity and give attention to
every detail in its development. In spite of the continuous
and sometimes pathetic cry of agricultural depression, not
one year has passed in the last ten but that more than three
fourths of the ventures of the average general farmer have
proved a financial success if properly managed. Some of these
ventures have paid handsomely, others fairly, and the fourth
not included, of necessity have entailed some losses. But if
the general averarce has not proved satisfactory, the fault
has usually vpeen attributable to the farmer himself.

In proof of this statement I respectfully submit a sun-
mary of my farm accounts for the past ten years. These ac-
counts, kept carefully and accurately, showing every detail
of expenditure and income during that period, when summarized
at the close of eaoh business year exhibit the following
facts: That every year my farm has paid all running expenses
of every name and nature including a reasonaole compensation

for my own labor; it has, aside from this, furnished supplies
of everything needed on the table, of which no account has
ever been kept; and it haé paid me over and above all these
expenses a net profit of never less than seven per cent per
annum on every dollar invested. Not that I would maintain
for a moment that money can be made as easily upon the farm
today as it could twenty or thirty years ago. But it is an
open question ir the fact that the only essentials for making
a farm pay are no longer to hold a plow or drive a horse may
not be of lasting benefit to the profession of the argicul-
turist. The successful farmer of today must learn lessons
which were unnecessary a quarter of a century ago. But his
success when achieved means more to the great world of busi-
ness and gives him a higher position among his fellow men
than ever before.

He must loarn first of all to think for himself in plan-
ning his season's work. To follow in the footsteps of others
is almost invariably to be just in time to share their fail-
ures, but a little too late to share their successes. The
farmer who is slow to embark in the new pursuits into which
all his neighbors are plunging and who has the temerity to
lead in a new venture now and then after considering carefully
every prospective feature connected with it is usually the
one who makes a success of his profession. And it is right

here in these new ventures that a man's scientific training
is indispensabvle to him. How many foolish and expensive ex-
periments his Knowledge of agricultural chemistry and kindred
sciences saves him. How many of the uncertainties it elimi-
nates, and how many of the exigencies which might otherwise
prove disastrous it enables him to avoid, or to turn to good
account.

The next great clement of success upon the farm lies in
giving the closest possible attention to details. It isa
commonly accepted maxim among business men that the success
or failure of any one of their number may usually be accu-
rately measured poy his attention to the details of his busi-
ness. Yet, this seems to be one of the most difficult les-
sons for the average farmcr to learn. Small repairs upon
machinery are neglected, resulting in an expensive break of a
dependent part. Small repairs upon tools are ncglected, de-
preciating by half the amount of work accomplished with them
day after day. WUinutes are allowed to ve wasted in an appar-
ently slack portion of the day which might be well utilized
in preparing for the busier portion. Several men are com-
pelled to stand idle, from one man's neglect. The horse not
shod at the proper time becomes lame and his value largely
@€eparts. Vheat is left uncut a few days too long and wastes
all through the harvest. Tools which five minutes time would

Place under shelter are allowed to be ruinod by exposure.
Every loss thus entailed reduces the net profits just that
much; the other expenses peing never less but frequently
greater from this neglect of small details. Not a day passes
upon the farm but that a loss of this kind either great or
small occurs, unless the utmost vigilance is continuously
maintaincd to rrevent it. And yet, important as the mattcr
1s, not one farmer in a hundred properly attends to it.

An almost cqually important factor in successful farming
is the exceedingly difficult one of always Keeping one's work
well in hand. One day's work cultivating at the right time
will destroy more weeds than three day's equally hard work
will destroy a few days later. Cultivating properly done at
the right time serves the double purpose of destroying weeds
and invigorating plant crowth. If loft a few days later,
while it may in a measure accomplish the first, in so doing
it injures the plant growth by breaking ot cutting the sur-
face roots at a time when the plant is unable to withstand so
severe a pruning at its base. To Know the proper time for
doing this work, the farmer must study not only the nature of
the weeds to ve destroyed and the effect of the cultivation
upon the outvard plant grovth, but he must also bo porfectly
, familiar with the root structure and srowth of overy culti-
vated plant upon his farm. In these days of more and more

frequency of =rotracted drouthns, this question of a proverly
prepared secd ved and scicentiric cultivation is becoming su-

preme. And yet, not ten farmers iin one hundred have changed

their methods to correspond with the changed conditions; and

of these ten not more than one plans his work with sufficient
care to be able to follow out the method which he knows to ve
the right one. He who solvcs this problom deserves the suc-

cess whicen he ilvarlable acnieves.

Another clement of success which I believe to be indis-
pensable is to be quick to see opportunities of profitable
buylng and selling, and to always be prepared to grasp such
opportunitics when they occur. A ruinous amount of half fat-
tened live stock is always peing placed upon the market, par-
ticularly when prices are discouragingly iow. The farmer who
ls in a position to buy at such times can always feed at a
profit. This involves a working capital of ready money, in
which most farmers are woefully lacking. Conducting as they
do business runnine into the thousands each ycar, vet with
seldom sufficient ready money at their command to pay the
daily running expenses of the farm, can we wonder that they
ado not succeed. Better by far, 1f necessary, porrow at a
reasonable rate of interest a sufficient sum to enaple them
to do business on a cash basis and to take advantage of the
opportunities which the possession of ready money insures.

The limit of one's expansion in this direction should be
marked oy the derree in which he possesses that peculiar kind
of judgement Known as business sagacity.

One more element, the most important of them all .the
successful farmer cannot do without, and that is an active,
well disciplined and healthy mind. I would not ignore the
fact that magnificent successes have bcen achioved in agri-
culture and in almost every other profession or business Known
to man by men of little education, and comparatively small
general information. But he who has the mind training which
a college scientific course can give, and who reads carefully
and regularly the best reviows and scientific magazines of
the day, other things peing equal, has a wonderful advantage
over his fellow worker who has not received this training.
But he who drops his books when he leaves his Alma Mater
profits put little from his collere course. Looked at from
any standpoint the educated farmer can ill afford to be with-
out the best current literature of the day; and his library
should be to him a never falling source of inspiration to
more successful work.

Nor am I claiming immunity from failures or discourage-
ments for the farmer who thus lives. Each season, and I
might almost say each day, he experiences both. But in this
he is not unlike the successful man in any line of work.

Such are in prief the lines upon which I am working out
a financial success in my chosen profession. I am not in-
sensiple, however, that there is a success in farming not to
be measured oy dollars and cents. That the specialist may
develop a type of perfection, or make a discovery which means
more for progressive agriculture than figures can express.
Yet I firmly belicve.'that the great thing most needed by the
American farmers of today is to learn how to make farming pay
a dividend in plain dollars and cents, and at the same tine
to maintain or increase the fertility of their farms; and
that he who has accomplished that result and can teach others
to do the same has made no unworthy use of his energies.

That the specialist by exercising the same judgement and
care in the management of his affairs may ve equally certain
of success is to me not clear. We are living in an age in
which conditions change so rapidly that the dangerous element
of uncertainty envelopes every line of business. That which
ls great today may tomorrow be forgotten. He who has the
best of everything he possesses avsorbcd in the dovelopment
of one branch of agriculture is illy prepared to cope with
these ever changing conditions. I belicve we have reached a
stage in agricultural development when the best work of the
speclalist, the discovery and devclopment of new and improved
types, cai be done and is belng done oy the Agricultural

Colleges and the Experiment Stations. In other vords, that
the general farmer of today, 1f possessed of sufricicnt abil-
ity and proper training, can do bettor and more successful
work in cvory brancn of his profession than could have been
done in any one branch by the sveclalist of a decade ago.

All honor to such men as Dr. Kedzie and Dr. Beal who
have made this thing possible, and to the younser men who are
following in their footsteps. All honor to our College to

which nistory will ever point as the leader in this great

work.
coy

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