The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1841-06-02


his way; and with his departing footsteps,
that famous young artist, Spring, comes
forward to touch the whole scene with
her tints of green, and to remodel all that
rough old Winter has destroyed.
Spring brings her balmy skies and fra
grant breath to all; but none so sensibly
as the farmer feels the exhileratlon of the
season, the release from his Winters in
activity, and the excitement of his rural
labors; none looks forward to the prospect
before him, and to its succession of
changes, with more Joyous expectation.
The fresh soil is now uPturned in every
direction, change of scene which some
may regard as not very decidedly pic
turesque. But as preparation for his
crops, it is inexpressibly pleasing to the
farmer. And if the black mould is, in.
deed, unsightly to the eye of refinement,
one might suppose that the most fastidious
could not fail to be pleased with the va
rious fancy colors which are brought to
light on some of cur farms by this handy
work of the plough. The most brilliant
hues are often exhibited-red, yellow,
orange, &c. &c. This might please even
the Indian taste, which delights in lively
colors, but we appeal to the farmer if he
had not better go to work with the soil
which show these gaudy hues, and bring
it, with all possible speed, to the color and
qualities which accord with the standard
of true agricultural taste:
Very soon, however, this aspect of the
fields is succeeded by another far more
vivid and pleasing. Natures own favor
ite color, green, sheds its soft mantle upon
the whole scene. The small grains, in
array, but beautiful in their dis
order, thrust up their bright spires in such
profusion that the soil is no longer visible;
while the stately corn, marshalled in ranks
like regular troops on review day, stands
erect as grenadier, and rustles its flags
in the breeze with great dignity.
But another glorious change comes with
the coming of harvest. The small grains
have shed their verdure, and they now
ripple in the wind like sea of molten
gold. Before the touch of the reapers
that majestic grain is cut down in day;
and the field from which, in the morning
the footsteps of man and beast were care
fully excluded, is now open and accessible
at all points. Your ground is your own
again; whilst the thick array of shocks
upon it, assures you that it has made a
good return for your temporary banlsh-
ment from its precincts.
A similar feeling attends the moving of
the luxuriant meadow, and the change of
its crowded surface to the smoothly swept
of its embryo aftermath.
Those also who practice cutting the
corn crop at the ground early in Autumn,
find the sudden change of scene inde-
scribably pleasant and exhilerating.
The preparation and casting of the
Fall sown crops renews this routine Of
variety; and SO on throughout every re-
currence of the seasons. A benevolent
Providence has literally provided for the
indulgence of our innate fondness for no.
veIty by wildly stamping that character
istc upon all the successive vicissitudes of
the crcling year.
The manual occupations of husbandry
are change and variety, correspondent
with the varying aspects Of the farm
This alienation is so rapid and diversified
as forever to exclude the WEAKNESS of
monotony at least, and greatly to relieve
the husbandmen in the fatigues of his
farm labors; no slight amelioration this,
of the primeval doom of man, that he
should "eat his bread in the sweat of his
face"
The rigid utilitarian will doubtless re-
gard the above reflection as altogether
superfuous and Improbable. We do not
succumb to any such criticism. We be-
leve it to be point of no considerable
that the farmer should take a
high and exalted pleasure in his employ
ment. We wish to see him love the dgrii-
cultural life because of its own intrinsic
charms. To him who delves the earth
wholly and solely for the present pelf he
may be able to extract from it, farming is
a sordid and dirty business. 1t is indeed
an ungrateful and a ruinous business with
our common mother, who is almost Ger
tain to be reduced to extreme poverty by
the unnatural practices of such son.
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