We believe in small farms and thorough cultivation.
We believe that soil loves to eat, as well as its owner, and ought,
therefore, to be manured.
We believe in large crops which leave the land better than they found
it—making both the farmer and the farm rich at once.
We believe in going to the bottom of things and, therefore, in deep
plowing, and enough of it. All the better if with a sub-soil plow.
We believe that every farm should own a good farmer.
We believe that the best fertilizer of any soil, is a spirit of
industry, enterprise, and intelligence—without this, lime and gypsum,
bones and green manure, marl and guano will be of little use.
We believe in good fences, good barns, good farmhouses, good stock,
good orchards, and children enough to gather the fruit.
We believe in a clean kitchen, a neat wife in it, a spinning-piano, a
clean cupboard, a clean dairy, and a clean conscience.
We firmly disbelieve in farmers that will not improve; in farms that
grow poorer every year; in starveling cattle; in farmers’ boys turning
into clerks and merchants; in farmers’ daughters unwilling to work,
and in all farmers ashamed of their vocation, or who drink whisky till
honest people are ashamed of them.