"Good and Bad Investments for Farmers"

I found an article of that title while searching the internet for something else. I wondered if it might be of as much interest to you as it was to me.

From The Country Gentleman: A Journal For The Farm, The Garden And Fireside, Devoted to Improvement in Rural Affairs, To Elevation in Mental, Moral and Social Character, and to a Record of Science, Progress, and the Times.  Vol. VIII-No. 18; published October 30, 1856. (Italics in article is theirs.)

Good and Bad Investments for Farmers

   Some, perhaps we might say many farmers, when they find themselves in possession of a little capital, neglect to avail themselves of the safe and profitable mode of investing which is ready always on their own premises, and which is subject entirely to their own control, and too often seek an investment for their spare funds in the stock of some railroad, banking, or other company. This is turning aside farmers' profits from their natural channel, and the consequences are the loss of the profits which judicious improvements in fields or implements, or stock or buildings would certainly hjave yielded them, and sometimes the loss of principal as well as interst, by an injudicious investment in stocks.

   We have upon a late occasion, as well as upon many former ones, submitted to our readers some suggestions in reference to this subject, intended to persuade them that their safest and most porfitable mode of investment lies within the compass of their own legitimate pursuits. Our columns, also, are at all times abundant in hints as to methods in which capital may at any time be invested to good advantage, as in draining, manure-saving, composting, digging and drawing muck, and other modes of increasing the fertility of the soil; in purchasing improved and really useful and labor-saving implements; or, to name no more, in improving the quality of the stock of all kinds, and enlarging and making more conveninet the buildings of all kinds upon the farm. In these and many similar ways may a farmer at almost any time, make a better investment at home, and in his own business than he can do by the purchase of almost any kinds of stocks, or even of bonds and mortgages.

   To add confiramtion and force to what we have already said on this subject, we give the following remarks from The Ohio Farmer:

   "How many a farmer has lost the avails of ten years' prosperity by buying railroad stocks! Let him do so no more. The farmer cannot trade in stocks with success. This is a species of venture for which his training disqualifies him. Let him throw no more hard-earned gold into this greedy vortex. He will pronounce our advice good if he will notice the facts."

This is a good example of agrarian thinking, and finding it was like a pat on the back for what I've been trying to say about mindset:

• Mindset: Key To Successful Homesteading?
• Contemplations on Value & Money
• The Lost Art of Bartering, Part 1

I think this is important for those who seek relative self-sufficiency through their farming or homesteading. Many folks assume that investments are the only way to have financial security. That has not always been so and following that same tradition, we can consider investing instead, in our homestead for the security of our future.

For the original article, click on this link, and scroll down a bit. It's in the left hand column.

Except for the Country Gentleman article,
"Good and Bad Investments for Farmers" is © February 2012
by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/