Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1860-11-14
November.


lis easy to resign a toilsom place,
| But not to manage leisure with n grace:
Absence Of occupation is not rest,
| mind quite vacant is a mind distressed
Inc veteran steed, his task excused at length
IN KIND compassion of his failing strength
ANA turned into the park or mead to Craze.
Exempt from future service all his days,
Ihero feels pleasure perfect in its kind
hahges at liberty and snufs the wind
But when his lord would quit the busy road.
10 taste n JOY like that he had bestowed.
ne proves less happy than his favored brute,
life OF ease difficult pursuit'-CowPER.
The only period of rest in the circle Of
the farmers year is now at hand period
OF enjoyment, bat also one of peril. The
business OF cultivation--the appropriate
occupation Of the husbandman done.
lie has passed through the pressing cares
OF seed time and tillage, the Joys of the
early and latter harvests, and has wel>
coined the last Of his crops 10 the barn
and the granary. His store-houses are
FULL and the hocks and herds now live
upon the accumulated provisions OF the
summer. The last Of the flowers las
AIDED, and the frosts have turned field
ara forest to a russet brown The leaves
that put on such gorgeous coloring in
october, are now either changed TO q
sombre 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
htiul and every sunny day is succeeded
by cloud and storm.
In the olden time farmers accomplished
very little after the potatoes and turnips
were gathered, and the cider was made
until the opening of the Spring At
home, the cider barrel had its potent
temptations, and abroad, the village tav-
ern and grocery held out their alurements
to drinking and dissipation. The country
was new, tho soil fertile and the farmer
did not feel the necessity Of those i'm
! provements which prepare the way for
successful cultivation. Draining had hard.
Iy been heard of, and the muck mines had
not been opened He fed his cattle, pre-,
pared his fuel for the winter fire, mark eted
his crops, and the rest of his time ran to
waste. AT this season be visited his
friends, enjoyed their hospitalities. and
too often contracted their drinking habits
and prepared the way for debauchery and
ruin. 1t was the most perilous period OF
the year, because he had not learned how
to improve its leisure.
We are so constituted that we cannot
enjoy idleness. This may satisfy the toll
worn brute, as he quits the yoke or the
cart, and regales himself in fat pastures.
lie knows nothing better than the gra.ii-
cation OF his appetite for food. But man
cannot be satisfied while the best part of
him, that which constitutes his manhood.
lies waste. The mind must have occupa>
tion ofsome kind, and the release from the
more pressing cares Of cultivation at this
season, should only induce a higher actiy.
ity of the mind.
1t is indeed well to employ portion of
this leisure in visiting friends and rela-
tves, and in keeping alive thesympathies
and associations of earlier years. Some
are so situated in their business, that this
is the only time when they can return to
the old homestead, to look again upon the
familiar scenes of childhood and to
receive words Of blessing from father and
mother. These social reunions at the
annual Thanksgiving, are worth all they
cost, and more. There is reviying in
fuence in going back again to the old
hearth-stone of childhood's home: the old
wei, and its oaken bucket, the ancestral
trees gathering new glory with their in
creasing years, the garden, the orchard,
the fields, the forests where our eyes first
opened upon the world. The farmer Is
made better citizen and better man by |
thus cultiyating his social nature, apd
keeping alive the ties that bind him TO his
kindred.
These annual visits are also profitable
for his business, as they afford opportuni
ties for observation Farming is no
longer stereotyred business. One can
hardly visit the most limited and obscure
rural district without seeing abundant
evidence that the leaven of new ideas is at
work. The tlllers Of tho soil are getting
out of the old tracks of the fathers, aud
are beginning to use mind in theip hus-
bandry The barn is no more a nero de-
pository of the harvests of the field. 1t is |
a manufactory of fertilizers, the one thing
needful in profitable tllage 1t is the
great hinge on which everything in the
operations of the year turns. Barns are
now q profitable study, to learn hcw
practical farmers contriye to shelter all |
their cattle, and to make the most Of their
manure. The plow has become tool
constructed upon scientific PRINCIPLES, |
turning the furrow with the lenst expen-
diture of strength, and making it broad
or narrow, deep or shallow, and laying the
slice fat, or at sharp angle with the sur
face of the field, at the will of the pow- |
man. Tools have become prime neces.
sity of economical cultivation, and the
strength of the OK and the horse is moro
and more taking the place of human
sinews. Nomancsn observe the different
methods of farmers in their business.