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Excerpts from Souvenir Submitted by David M. Waid |
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CARE
AND THRIFT ON THE FARM. A man's nature runs either to herbs
or weeds.
Bacon.
Much has been written on the subject of care, thrift and economy in
the conducting of affairs, public or private, political or military,
civil, agricultural, commercial, domestic, or any other.
And of all these it may safely be said that matters relating to the
farm (to which all other occupations are more or less subservient) have at
all times commanded the chief attention of writers on economy.
None have been so much benefited by the intelligent reading about
and studying of the subject of care and thrift on the farm as those who
have practiced them in their experience, and I do not think any one will
attempt to deny but what care and thrift are indispensable in the
conducting of a farm, or any other business, to success.
The absence of these essentials means certain downfall and poverty,
but where care, thrift, prudence, industry and economy are observed in the
carrying on of agricultural pursuits, there you will find the best and
most successful farmer.
When I wrote the article on "Farm Economy," which appears
in my first SOUVENIR, I neither traveled as far nor lived as long as I can
say of myself now; so, of course, I had not my present experience to
strengthen my several arguments. Webster,
in his unabridged dictionary, gives the following as the synonyms of CARE:
Anxiety, solicitude, concern, caution, regard, management,
direction, oversight; and the following as the synonyms of THRIFT:
Frugality, economy, prosperity, gain, profit.
Now any one of these synonyms, carefully analyzed and intelligibly
interpreted, is an essay in itself; and in no occupation of life are they
more appropriate or applicable to than farming.
But I do not wish to prove the adaptation so much as to impress on
the mind of the agriculturist, be he young or old, the necessity of
observing in every condition of farm management CARE and THRIFT.
Of all the synonyms above given ECONOMY appears to me to be the
most potent. It is something
that, if duly regarded, is sure. I
have never known it to fail in its workings during my own life.
My father taught me to practice it more than fifty years ago on the
same farm I am now living on, and I have to say that, as a part of my
capital or "stock in trade," if I may so constitute it, economy
has repaid me better than anything else I have used or exercised on the
farm. If it had not been good for a boy, my father would never have
given me such lessons in economy as he did, or trained me so thoroughly in
its school. I am even at the
present day trying to honor his precious memory for the advantages I have
gained by care and thrift or economy on my farm, in accumulating property.
Very much would have been lost to me had I not learned to save as
well as to earn.
Industry is good on a farm, but without economy it is labor lost. Then,
again, thrift and industry, like peace and harmony, should uniformly
travel together as twin sisters, for they help each other, and both favor
prosperity. The successful
farmer has as much need to save a dollar as to earn one; and sometimes he
can do it far easier by just attending to a certain piece of work at the
proper time, or by doing a simple "chore," such as putting a
tool under cover. There are
very many ways, by the exercise of thrift or economy, that a farmer can
save money than by reading an advertisement or speculating in some trade.
Method is a powerful factor in the carrying on of a farm on
economical principles. Time
is money, and Goethe tells us that "method will teach you to win time." Says
Talleyrand: "Method is
the master of masters."
The farm ought never to be neglected, and as soon as we despise
method, management, thrift and economy, we at once open the waste gates,
which will assuredly lead to want and ruin, poverty and shame.
He that refuseth instruction is not wise.
Farm economy, like charity, should begin at home; it never becomes
of age, therefore it can be practiced during life. However, the habits of economy mature, and as they ripen they
yield a larger increase in the products of the farm. It is not difficult to tell where economy lives.
The observing man, whether he travels or remains at home, is able
to say who saves or who wastes. When
looking over the farms, East or West, where I have been, I confess I have
been completely surprised at seeing the amount of waste permitted just
through lack of proper economy, waste of produce, lack of order or method,
want of housing tools and keeping machinery under cover, for the means to
purchase which the farmer has toiled many a wearisome day.
Some one, perhaps, asks me what he is to do, and my prompt reply is
simply this: Take care of
your implements when used.
Solomon in Proverbs xxxi: 11-12,
says of a virtuous woman: The
heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no
need of spoil. She will do
him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.
There is one thing I like better than economy, and that is the
Scriptures. They teach us farmers both economy and the way to Heaven,
while economy teaches us merely how to conduct a farm to success. How
my heart trusted in my wife, Eliza, and how much she did all the days of
her life! So of the farmer,
or any one else who practices economy, it will do him good as long as he
lives; and often are children blessed by being left an inheritance by such
a man. Does not the old
maxim, "Waste not, want not," teach us economy and thrift?
I wonder why we do not put in our lives more Bible economy; that is
as essential on the farm as anywhere else.
The Bible teaches it in the highest degree in a two-fold sense, or
the good Master would not have required of his disciples that they should
gather up the fragments after the five thousand had been fed, so that
nothing should be lost. And
we are told that a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His notice,
and that the very hairs of our heads are numbered.
But you ask: "What of this?"
Well, we are counseled to be like Him; not like Him in the things
we can not do, but in those things we can do.
The proper interpretation of temporal blessings will lead us to the
spiritual, which is the duty of every man.
So God's economy is two-fold, and if we will not regard it in
temporal affairs, how shall we understand or obey Him in the higher sense.
Unless we are like David, and in our hearts say, O that men would
praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the
children of men, we will never be able to appreciate all His blessings.
David understood the highest economy when he said:
His praise shall be continually in my mouth.
We can "get there" by doing His will.
David was a shepherd boy, and knew much of farm life.
Economy is one of the most essential things connected with farm
life. It consists not only in
saving all the products of the farm, its income, but also in requiring a
wise control of its expenses. Many
farmers earn and raise much, but spend within the year more than their
income from the farm comes to, which course, if continued in, is an
indication of very poor economy, or rather a total lack of thrift.
Buy only the tools and machinery used on a farm, asking yourself
first if you really used this or that article, before purchasing.
"Will it pay? Can
I afford it? Can't I get
along without it until I am better able to buy?"
etc. Here is a good
place to bring in the word "Can't;" sometimes we get discouraged
and use the word too often, and where we ought not to let it even enter
our thoughts. It pays or it
is economy for farmers to buy machinery for farm use, when they have
sufficient employment for such machinery to justify the outlay or make it
an object. But should he have
no profitable use for it, he had better try to get along without it, until
he is sure it will pay him to have it.
His neighbor or some one else may have more tools and machinery and
things convenient about him, but that is no reason why he should go to
the, for the present, unnecessary expense of buying machinery or tools, or
such like. The farmer should
buy them because he needs them and has work enough to make them pay, and
not because his neighbor, who may be better off in all respects, has them.
Until such an investment is safe, it is economy to wait.
Some have said: "When
you do buy, and have not the funds to pay 'spot cash,' it is better to
borrow the money and pay for them than to get the goods on credit."
This is a difficult question to decide.
I would like to help you, brother farmer, for my advice is free,
and I am here to do good. If
anyone can profit by my experience, I cheerfully give it.
It depends a good deal, however, whether you can buy the implements
or tools cheap enough to make it an object to you or not.
If you can buy ten per cent less for cash than for credit, and you
can borrow cash at six per cent, you had better borrow the money.
But there is yet a safer and better way than either of those I have
just mentioned. Economy leads
to this good way, and I discovered it early in life.
I learned it, in the Bible, Romans xiii:
8; Owe no man anything, but to love one another:
for he that loveth another hath fulfllled the law.
Again, are we not taught that he who is in debt is a slave?
What better maxims have we than those old-time ones:
"Out of debt," "out of bad company" and
"out of jail"--a free man!
Now economy helps the poor man, and I marvel not that it had its
origin from Above, that the good Teacher taught it, and that it is a
blessing to mankind. I have a
feeling akin to pity for those who do not love and practice economy. I know how much it has helped me, and how much it can help
others. I feel like trying,
as I have already said, to help my fellow-men, and I wish just now that I
could say something on this subject that would benefit you my fellow
farmer. Perhaps few men have
worked more faithfully and with greater pleasure to practice farm economy,
and keep out of debt, than I have. At
the same time I have no doubt that there are many farmers (who have failed
to observe the rules of economy) who have worked harder to get out of debt
than I have to keep from getting into debt.
Young man, just beginning life, whoever you may be and in whatever
occupation, beware of going into debt.
Take the advice of those who have made farming a success.
Don't live an aimless life; have some object in your vocation.
Let wisdom, thrift, economy and justice guide you in the affairs of
every-day life; and that may you here, in this world, share greater
blessings than I do, and that you may have an eternal life in the future
is the earnest prayer of
Your sincere friend, FRANCIS C. WAID. Blooming Valley,
Crawford County, Penn. November 15, 1889
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