Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-11-07

Nnrrnher.

4.Atulpt rom future service All MS uA9 -
There feels pleasure perfect ia lts KIND
Ranges at liberty and snuhs the wind,
But when his lord would quit tile busy road
10 taste joy like that he had bestowed
He proves less happy than his favored brutel
A life of ease a ditheult pursuit '-CoWfEh'
The only period OF rest in the circle OF the
farmers year is now at handi period ofen-
jOyment but also Of peril. The business Of
cultvation-the appropriate occupation of the
husbandman--is done He has passed through
the pressing cares of seed time and tillage,
the JOYS of the early and latter hsryests, and
has welcomed the last of his crops to the
barn and the granary. His store houses are
full, and the flocks and herds now live upon
the accumulated provisions of the Summer.
The last of the flowers has faded, and the
irosts have turned field and forest to a russell
brown. The leaves that put on such gorgeous
coloring in October, are now either changed
to a somber hue, or fallen, leaving the forest
bare and desolate. The skies have lost the
roseate hue of Summer, and begin to look
chill and wintry. The weather is ftful, and
and every sunny day is succeeded by cloud
and storm.
In the oljen time farmers accomplished
very little after the potatoes and turnips were
kuNlHIEQ anu AAG GAuNl WIS nAh4Gi AAltAA NuN
opening OF the Spring. At home, the cider
barrel had its potent temptations, and abroad,
the village tavern and grocery held out t1eir
allurements TO drinking and dissipation
The country was new, the soil fertile, and
the farmer did not feel the necessity Of those
Improvements which prepare the way for
successful cultivation. Draining had hardly
been heard of, and the muck mines were not
opened. He fed his cattle, prepared his fuel
for the Winter fire, marketed his crops, and
the rest of his time ran 10 waste. At this
season he visited his friends, enjoyed their
hospitahties, and too often contracted their
drinking habits and prepared the way for de-
bauchery and ruin. 1t was the most perilOus
period of the year, because he had not learn
ed how to improve its leisure.
We are so constituted that we can not en-
joy idleness. This may satisfy the time-wOrn
brute as he quits the yoke or the cart, and
regales himself in fat pastures. He knows
nothing better than the qualification of his
appetite for food. But man can not be salts
fed while the best part of him, that which
constitutes his manhood, lies waste. The
mind must have occupation of some kind, and
the release from the more pressing cares OF
a higher activity of the mind.
Il is, indeed, well to employ a portion Of
this leisure in visiting friends and relatives
and in keeping alive the sympathies and as
sociatiOns of earlier years. Some are so
situated in their business, that this is the only
time when they can return to the old home
stead, to look again upon the familiar scenes
of childhood and to receive words of bless
ing from father and mother. These social
reunions at the annual Thanksgiving, are
worth all they cost and more. There is
reviving influence in going back again to the
old hearth-stone of childhood's home; the
old we'll and its oaken bucket the ancestral
trees gathering new glory with their increas-
ing years, the garden, the orchards, the fields,
the forests where our eyes first opened upon
the world The farmer is made better citi-
zen and better man by thus cultivating his
social nature, and keeping alive the ties that
bind him to lis kindred.
These annual visits are also profitable for
his business, as they afford opportunities for
slssv- E-----i-e5 -;zua igor a stpreo-
typed business. One can hardly visit the
most limited and obscure rural district, with
out seeing abundan: evidence that the leayen
of new ideas is at work. The tillers Of the
soil are getting out of the old track Of the
| fathers, and are beginning to use mind IN
their husbandry The barn is no more a
mere depository of the harvests Of the field.
It is a mandatory Of fertilizers, the one
thing needfsl in profitable tillage. 1t is
| the great hinge on which every thing in
/ the operation of the year turns, Barns
are now a profitable study, to learn how
practical farms contrive TO shelter all
their cattle, and to make the most OF
their manure. The plow bas become a
tool constructed upon scientific principles,
1 turning the furrow with the least expendi
ture Of strength, and making it broad or mar
row, deep or shallow, and laying the slice
! fat or at a sharp angle with the surface OF
! the field, at the will of the plOwnan. Tools
] have become a prime necessity of economi-
/ cal cultivation, and the strength Of the OK
and the horse is more and more taking the
| place of human sinews. No one can observe
the different methods of farmers in their bus
mess, without learning something profitable
He wiIl,return with new ideas and a new zes
| to the cultivation of his own acres.
Nor reed the season upon which we are
entering, be wholly lost to the farm. II
many parts of the North, plowing can still
be done for the first half of the month, anC
the surface of the fields be left in that rough
broken condition, in which the freezings anI
thawings of Winter will most benefit them
There is no human invention that will breal
down rough clods AID pulverize them lik
the frost. Farmers are using this season 70
labor, much more than they did in Older
time. Trenches are dug for walls, and ston
I f,rrfff b-nnra their Gtn Ia hor
ing force at work-an arrangement mucl
better for the laborer, than four months c
fdleness, or occasional work by the day.
Many have muck deposits so situated tha
they can be worked at this season. Muc
thrown up in Summer, can be carted, an
the deposits in the barn cellars can be CON
+ posted with manure from the stables and th
! sites. Many improve the leisure to top dres
their meadows with compost from the yard
and where the land lies level and is not sui
: ieet to washing, this is good practice.
/, is found by shreWd calculators, that the Ii
J bors of the next four months, spent mainl
in handling muck, digging, composing
spreading, and laying up stores for Summ'
> use, are the most profitable of the yea
Whatever labors are attended to or neglec
= ed out Of doors, reading and reflection shOu
= be carried on vigorously within. The mo
successful farmer now, is the man who a
: plies most Of thought to his businets. II
! days of routine farming are numbered, al
d the man who plods on in the ways Of
fathers, is certain to be distanced. II
problem is, not how to grow erops-not ey'
great crops-but how TO get them econoH
cally. We want to get rich by farmin
without selling of all the fertility Of t
soil under our feet. A rich farm, giving
i generous yield to toll, makes arich farm'
whether be have much or little stock in
bank or railroad. He may be sure of dir
n dends when banks fail We want to stu
: not only to get great crops Of corn and gra
ID but to make crops pay for the labor and n
nure, and leave the soil richer. There 8
manifold details Of husbandry that requi
forecast and reflection. Now is the time