The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-10-01
THE FAR NH II R.
A FARMERS LIFE AND FARMER
DUTIES.

of the larmer,-the Intelligent, lhuependeht anu
happy farmer who owned his own land, his
house and his barns,-who was free from debt
whose family was growing up prosperously
around him-upon whom God seemed to have
smiled and blessed in his basket and his store
Ave have seen such a farmer, and we could point
TO hundred such in our state; and, in sober
truth, we know of no man so happy, and no
business so permanently proftable-none, IN
deed, that make the owner so independent and
places him so far above board. To begin with
an independent farm:-He has his house to live
init is his own, and he has earned it by the
lab or of his hands. He has his granares filled
with the productions of his farm-his barns
with the stock reared, and the hay raised upon
his farm. His cellars are filed with potatoes,an
half hundred kinds Of the necessaries and lux
aries of life. Almost every thing necessary to
feed him and his family, grows up around him
lie may lead his OK TO the slaughter-raise his
own pork - .fatten and kill his own sheep,-eat
his own poultry,-devour his own eggs,-live
upon his own home grown gand home made
bread,-weave his own cloth,-raise his own
wool and his own eather,-knit his own stock
ings, through the agency OF his wife and daugh-
ttfJ-dllSt di', INC t"o HloSl iCCCso"y aPPShN"
ges to good farm and an independent far ner,
make his own butter and cheeSe:-in short
live like prince, ana dress comfortably with
out going off his own homestead. All this is no
fiction, and it is the fact that there is no fiction
in this picture that makes the farmer the most
independent man in the community. Fairly in
business, he wants less money than almost any
alan to pursue the even tenor OF his ways, be-
cause his business is of character to require
less money than any other
An independent farmer, however, is not alto
gether Independent Of the community where he
is, OF of any business professions; and the more
intelligent farmer is, the more readily will
his dependence be felt and acknowledged. He
is only more Independent than his neighbor OF
another profession, but by means altogether
Independent of him. For example, he could
not consume all that he produced, even if he
fed "a whole school district instead of his own
family. He must have labor in seed time ana
harvest, and through the SUMMER to give INN
q helping hand in the production and harvest
ipr of his crops.-Tlis aborers must have money.
He must have a hundred little mic nacks at
home, all of which cost moneys is 20 be had on
" blythe production of his farm. Taxes must he
paid, for the most part in money. Iron does
not grow every where, and his tools must be
bought aud paid for. Horses and oxen want
asheeing-There must be ploughs, and nails, &
hundl ed other implements which are cash ar
tices and which are to be bought with the very
money received for the produce carried to mar
ket. Again, children are 10 be educated, and in
the establishment Of good schools begins the first
duty of good farmer.
That farmer who is Indifferent to education,
neither knows his own interest cares a pen
nv Tor the interest of his own children, or his
neighbors children, of the community, or pos
ferity, or any body but himself now or hereafter
Education then costs money, and good farmer
will give abunGantly, if he is is able to conrl-
butte to the support of all the purposes of Ed"
cation. The pnlpi too is to be supported ant
is to be we'll supplied or i'll supplied almost jus
in proportion to the money paid for its supply
A minister to he sure is not to make money hi:
God, or the one object or first object of hi
preaching. But as he is man, he will value
money and he is worse than an intidei to be in
different to the lucre, base as it is, which is tC
give bread to himself and family talented
preacher generally breaches where he is hes
paid for it, or at least where they will keep him
his wife and children from actual starvation
which by the way is not always the case
Cheap ministers, cheap schoolmasters and all
most every thing in the way of cheap wares a,
cheap enough, that is, they dear, that
you make the business Of employing the one am
purchasing the other, you are ten to one likel
to go doubly ignorant, and to be doubIy poor
Is it not so? The most independent farme
then in the land, may be more independent tina
his neighbors of another professional expo
renee tells us that he is far.yery far from bein
altogether independent OF him. To be happ
and to make his lite useful one, he muir. b