Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-06-04
agricultural.
From the Monthly Jo,pnalQf rgrfcdt,re
DesultOry Hints to Farmers~LabOrS
Ing, &C@"cOnlinued.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

ANANj
BY HORACE GREELEY.
Breaking Fgd1 and other ibrous plants was for
merly one of the most toilsome and tedious puf-
suits of the farmer, and at last, owing to I'M
provements in the culture of Cotton and the
consequent cheapenng of the product, Flax has
almost ceased to be raised here for the fibre. |
know that good farmers have sown and harvest
ed many acres of 1t in years past for the seed
only. Yet there was exhibited at the last Fair
OF the American Institute combination Of ma
chi,ery, patented by Mr.. Billings Of Missouri
whereby Flax or Hemp may be thoroughly Drok-
en- and cleaned at cost of one cent per pound
and with an immense saving both in the quality
and quantity of the fibre The rottng is per-
formed in two days in watts of aoarm water, heat
ed from the fire under or about the steam engine
which propels the machinery, and no man need
be told that the fibre is stronger and brighter
than where months of exposure to the caprces
Of the elements are devoted to the rottlng pro-
cess. The saving in quantity is estimated at
twenty per cent-the woody substance being
detached from the fibre with slight and uniform
application of force instead of the hacking and
mangling of the old hax-break" do not see
why this machinery should not work an ndustr-
al TRANSFORMED equal to that effected by its pre-
deccssor the Cotton-Gin, especially as the spin
ming OF Flax by machinery is no longer deemed
impossible. 1t is now done regularly in Con-
nectlcut as well as over the water, and doubtless
will be brought gradually to a state of efficiency
and perfection equal to that attained by the Cot
ton manufacture.
And this naturally leads to the reflection that
every new achievement in Labor-Saying suggests
farther and still farther trumphs If one of
these Flax-dressers we've conveniently located in
each township where Flax might be advanta-
geousy cultivated, cannot doubt that its opera
ton and primary use would speedily suggest
many other uses of the same or similar machine
ry, to some of the neighborlng farmers. The
sleam-power, the rotting-vas, the breaking and
dressing machinery, would either be applied di-
rectly each to some other desirable end in farm
ing economy, or 1t would suggest machinery bas-
ed on similar principles and employed to produce
different but equally desirable results. Thus a
machine invented to dry Cane Sugar by rota-
ry blowing process, having proved deficient in
power for that purpose, has yet been applied to
other purposes with decided success. | have
seen it employed to dry rinsed clothes in great
Washing establishment, and was assured that it
performed admirably The mighty progress of
Invention during the last half century has yet
been gradual, step-by-step advance. There
probably never was man with genius sufficient
to have invented outright one of the power-looms
now used in the manufacture of the richest Car
pets, Shawls, &c. To construct modern
Steamship would have defed all the power and
skill Of Archmedes. From the first rude con-
ceptions of Fitch or Fulton to a steamboat like
the Oregon or st. Nicholas, is distance not to
be traversed by any one intellect. 1t has been
traversed, however, in moderate lifetime, by
the successive Improvements of one man Oh the
suggestions of predecessor and so on. In Ag-
rculture, only is this advance hating and Ca
PRECIOUS. Half the meadows and grain-feds as
level as house floor are still harvested b,
scythes, cradles and rakes, although the facility
of attaining the same results by the best m a
chinery with halfth labor has been abundant,
demonstrated.
The sowness with which improvements are
adopted by the most Of farmers sprung from two
causes, want of means and want of knowledge
The plow-jogger who barely lives by scratching
the face of Nature will tell yon, if pressed tina
he knows that Deep Flowing is the correc
course, but what is ne to do with his one light
gaunt yoke of CATTLE that had to browse half thu
winter for want of hay, or his skeleton span o
horses, that are just able TO hold each other ~
by the help of the harness He would like t.
cover his land with lime, gudno or some othe
fertilizer, but then he hasn't money to buy it no
even time and team to draw the muck out of hi
own swamp-holes, where it has lam from time
mmemorlal, loading the summer air with nox
ious vapors to poison the health Of his family
He would like to farm better, but the sheriff ant
the tax-gathGrer are on his track and the mort
gage on his farm (if it is not leased one) warn
him against devoting too much time to costly i'm
provements of which the benefit cannot all b.
realized this year So he worries on, skinnin,
his starved acres by the help of his starving
bruies until the sheriff steps in and turns him OF
to seek in the far west some region where III
rewards Of good farming can be enjoyed by bad
shlitless farmers. If any body knows where tina
region lies, let him proclaim its whereabout
speedily, so that the men who belong there ma
60 at once AS it is, there are thousands VIII
began in New England, moved thence to Yves
tern New-York, afterward to Ohio, then to Mich
igan, next Illinois, are now in Iowa, and mea
to start for Oregon as soon as they can compass
an outit-a along cursng their hard fate i
being trained to so poor business as FARMING
and grumbling at the great profits Of merchants
manufacturers, &c when in truth farming is til
only business by which they could have earne
livelihood at all. If almost any other busine
were followed as ignorandy carelessly, shi1les