It is very surprising to see how slow men are to take a hint. The
frost destroys about half the bloom on the fruit-trees; everybody
prognosticates the loss of fruit; instead of that, the _half_ that
remains is larger, fairer, and higher flavored than usual; and the
trees instead of being exhausted, are ready for another crop the next
year. Why don’t the owner _take the hint_ and thin out his fruit every
bearing year? But no; the next season sees his orchard overloaded,
fruit small, and not well formed; yet he always _boasts_ of that
first-mentioned crop without profiting by the lesson it teaches.
We heard a man saying, “the best crop of celery I ever saw, was raised
by old John ——, on a spot of ground where the wash from the barn-yard
ran into it after every hard shower.” Did he take the hint, and convey
such liquid manure in trenches to his garden? Not at all; he bragged
about that wonderful crop of celery, but would not take the hint.
We knew a case where a farmer subsoiled a field and raised crops in
consequence which were the admiration of the neighborhood; and for
years the field showed the advantage of deep handling. But we could
not learn that a single farmer in the neighborhood took the hint. The
man who acted thus wisely, sold his farm and his successor pursued the
old way of surface-scratching.
A stanch farmer complained to us of his soil as too loose and light;
we mentioned ashes as worth trying; “well, now you mention it, I
believe it will do good. I bought a part of my farm from a man who was
a wonderful fellow to save up ashes, and around his cabin it lay in
heaps. I took away the house and ordered the ashes to be scattered,
and to this day I notice that when the plow runs along through that
spot, the ground turns up moist and close-grained.” It is strange that
he never took the hint! There are thousands of bushels of ashes lying
not far from his farm about an old soap and candle factory with which
he might have dressed his whole farm.
A farmer gets a splendid crop of corn or grain from off a grass or
clover lay. Does he take the hint? Does he adopt the system which
shall allow him every year just such a sward to put his grain on? No,
he hates book-farming, and scientific farming, and “this notion of
rotation;” and jogs on the old way.
A few years ago our farmers got roundly into debt; and they have
worried and sweat under it, till some of them have grown greyer, and
added not a few wrinkles to their face. Do they take the hint? Are
they not pitching into debt again?
A few years ago _mules_ commanded a high price; everybody raised mules
forthwith; the market of course was glutted; the price fell; everybody
quit the business; markets became empty and the price rose; a few men
who had stuck to the business pushed in their droves and made money;
and now everybody is raising mules again. The same game is played
every four or five years with pork; men make when pork is scarce, but
few farmers have stock on hand. They instantly rush into the business,
flood the country with hogs and get almost nothing for them. Why don’t
men take the hint? _A moderate stock all the time_, makes more money
than that system which has none when the price is high and too many
when the price is low.
Because one year, the wheat crop has been very large and fine, and the
price low, not half so much will be put in another year. Those who are
wise, foreseeing this fact and sowing largely, will, if the season
favors wheat, reap a handsome profit.
Auctioneers tell us that a “wink is as good as a word.” We give both,
and hope our readers will _take the hint_.