MR. BEECHERS FARMING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1321, 7 March 1883, Page 3

MR. BEECHERS FARMING.

has. written of i -Mr '"■Beecner.s farm t on tie.' Hudson 1 river SB.follo\reMr. Beecliev's iarn ,consistsof36 acres, and is carried put on scientific principals. • He- never puis in a plant;'.'or crop without consuiting his 'book, He ploughs and reaps, -and digs, and sows, according to. th^.odst ! aVvihbvitjics, tho,ftvithoriUes 'cost more than tlie' oilier,. farming implements do, r, as the library •is complete s the farm will be a, profitable' investment ; •• But' booktfarming has its • drawbacks, Upon one occasion, when it seemed morally certain. tliHf the' bay, ought to be cut, the hay . taok' could not be foun'd, ah'd before' it' was found it' was top late,. and' the- hay, was all spoiled.! /Mr Beecher-raises : some of the best crops of wheat'in the country, but. tßd @fayprab!,e,'dlffereSqeiij'eivfien the cost of and its market • t valuo after itMs'prottitcedj'-liM 'inter- ' fered .considerably with its'6nccbS3 as' a ; commercial enterprise^His special '• weakness is |igs!... Ho considers .hogs; the best game a farm., i produces. He buys: :the'r original pig 7 fdr Idol'so- - feeds' him with 40dols SvbrEh" : of' corn, and tlicn "Sells'him for about lOdok Tliis is tljc .only .crop; lie makes monegrionv-: Hetlosdslortth'e-coi'h', 1 but ho-makes 7dbls 50 Cents on ' thb'' hog. : . He' 1 ddd.' nqt mind because he to. malce any.thing ; on.the corn,-, ; And,-,any way.it'turns out, he had the excitement,of raising the hog,' whether helots the worth of him or. not;' His strawberries would be .a coinfoi'tjible success if tlio robins-would 1 but they won't, and hence One of Mr Beecher's difficulties in his farm-' ing'lpbra'tions comes of the close resemblance of the different sorts of seeds.and plants to each other.'Two' years ago his farsightedness warned him that there' was going to .be a scarcity of water-melons, and therefore he put in a crop of 27 acre 3 of that fruit; But when they came up they tinfn'ed out to be pumpkins, and a dead loss was the consequence, Sometimes a portion .of his crop goes into the ground the most promising sweet potatoes,.and comes: up the. meanest carrots—though I-. never heard him express, it just, in , that, way, When heboughthis farm he found one egg in every hert's nest in the place, He said that was just the reason so many farmers failed. They scattered their forces too much, Concentration was the idea, So he gathered those eggs together and put them under one. ex-, perienced ten, The hen roosted over that contract, night and day for eleiven weeksfundev' the personal supervision ofMrßeecher himself, but she could not "phnso" those eggs. Why] Because they were those infamous porcelain, , things whieli are used by ingenious and fraudulent farmers as " nest eggs." But perhaps Mr Beecher's most disastrous experience. was the time<he tried to rise an immense crop of dried apples, He planted 1500 dols worth, but never one of them sprouted; He' has never been able to understand to this day what was the matter with the apples. Mr Beecher's farm is not, a triumph. It would be easier on him if he worked it on shares with some one, but he can,not find anyone' who is .willing to stand Half the expense and not uianythat are able. Still persistence in any case! is rbound to succeed. He was a very inferior farmer when he first began, but'a prildnjjed and'-unflinching assault upon his-agricultural difficulties has had its effect at last, a : nd he is : now fast rising from-affluence to poverty.