The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1863-12-30
Srlrtt S}listellanw,


In his last book, "My Farm at Edge
wood" Tx Marvel describes the farm hand
Of tho olden time, now, alas no more, but
instead of whom is the machine laborer.
The man of faculty" has departed, lcav-
ing, as his successor, one vastly inferior to
him. We copy the picture:
There lived, some twenty or thirty years
ago, in New England, a race of men, Ameri-
can born, and who having gone through
two winters course of district school ci-
phering and reading, with cropped tow
heads became the most iudeGatigahlc and
ingenious of farm-workers. Their hoeing
was slight of hand; they could make an
ox-yoke or aX.helve on rainy days by
adrOt mani ipuatiou, they could relieve a
choking COW, or as deity hive a swarm of
bees. Their burrows, indeed, were not of
the straightest, but their control of long
team of oxen was miracle of guidance.
They may have carried bit of Cavcn-
dish twist in their waistcoat packets they
certainly did not waste time at lavatous ;
but as farm workers they had rare apti-
tude no tool came amss to them; they
craded--thcy churned, if need were they
chopped aut piled thoir three cords Of
wood between sun and sun.
With bare feet, and kcen-whetted, six
pound Blanchard, they laid such keen and
broad swaths through the fields of dcwy
herdsgrass, as made old country men"
stare. BY kind of intuition, they knew
the location Of every tree, and of every
medicinal herb that grew i'll the woods.
Rarest of all which they possessed, was an
acuteness of understanding which enabled
them to comprehend an order before it was
half uttered, and to meet occasional and I'M
| forcseen difficulties with steady assur-
ance, as if they had been an accepted part
of the problem.
/ 1t was possible to send such man into a
wood with his team, to select stick of
| timber--of chestnut or oak--that should
measure given amount; he could be
trusted to find such--to cut il, to score it,
/ to load it; if the gearing broke he could
/ be trusted to mend it; if the tree lodged
| he could be trusted to devise some artice
/ for bringing it down aud, finally for its
sure and prompt delivery at the point indi-
Gated.
! Your lrishman, on the other hand, balks
at the first turn; he must have a multitude
of chains; he needs a boy to aid him with
the team, and another TO carry bar he
spends an hour in his doubtful estimate of
dimensions; but "begorra it's lumpish
tree" and lie thwacks into the rnd foot
or two from the ground, so as to leave
mate" Irish stump. Half through the
bolc, lie begins to doubt if it indeed be a
chestnut or poplar; and casting his eye
aloft to measure it anew, AN ancient wood
pecker drops something smarting in his
eye, and his howl starts the Illuminating
team iuto confused ENHANCEMENT among
the yOong wood.
Having eased his pain and extricated his
cattle he pushes on with his AK and pre-
sently with &, light crash of plant boughs
his timber his lodged in the top Of an ad
ljoinug tree. lie tugs and strains, and
swears, and splits the helve Of his AK il
adapting it for lever, and presently, near tC
noon, comes back for three or four hands tC
give him boost with the tree. You re
turn-to find the team strayed through 1
gate left open, into a thriving corn field
and one Of your pet tulip trees lodged in
1.-THE young hickory.
"Och! and its toolip--it is and wa
thiukin' twas niver "A chistnut Begorra
it's lucky thin it didn't come down intirely.