Thoughts of a Farmer, IV. By-Products

THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. IV —BY-PRODUCTS. In the great manufacturing industries of the world, the practice has grown up of putting to financial account what are commonly called the by-products, those trimmings and incidental accretions popularly known as waste. In the slaughter-yards, there are no longer wastes. In the cotton and woolen factories, everything is put to some account, and thus the by-products represent today many millions of dollars in the manufacturing world. The farmer has had to learn to put to valuable account the by-products of the farm, and hence there has grown up the term known as mixed farming. There is waste wheat and broken seeds for the chickens; he sometimes has frost-bitten grain for the pigs; and if his crop does not mature, it may make feed for his cattle. In short, he has learned in mixed farming to turn to good account that which might otherwise be a partial or even total loss. It is true, he relies upon a main crop, a crop from which he figures in the end his principal profits. He realizes, however, certain dangers, and he foresees a certain amount of waste against which he seeks to fortify himself by introducing some means of utilizing all the by-products of the farm. It not unfrequently happens that the by-products, after all, represent the real gain which comes from mixed farming. So it is in the affairs of our moral and intellectual natures. In college, we have our major and minor studies. In our social and family life, we have our grand ideals and common-place duties. They constitute a sort of mixed morals, so that no matter how grand a man's ideals are, no matter how wonderful his projects are, it often happens that the real gains to his moral nature come from the little things, the common-place duties of life. There are