Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1863-05-01
The Farmer and his Aids.

The glory OF the farmer is that 1t IL
his to construct and create. Let othors
borrow and initiate, travel and exchange.
and make fortunes by speed ard dexteri.
ty in selling something which they never
made. all rests at last on his primitive ae-
tivity. He stands close to nature; oh.
tains from the earth bread; the food
which was not, he has caused to be. And
this necessity and duty give the farm ifs
. dignity. All men feel this to be their
natural employment. The first farmer
was the irst man, and all nobility rests
on the possession and use Of land. Mea
do not like hard work very well but ev-
cry man has an exceptional respect for
tillage, and feeling that this is the orig.
inal calling of his race that he himself
is only excused from it by some circum
stance which made him delegate it for .
time to other hands If he has not some
skill which recommends him to the far
mer, some product which the farmer will
give him corn for, he must himself return
to his due place among the planters OF
corn. The profession has its ancient
charm of standing nearest to God, tho
First Cause. Then the beauty of nature.
the piety, the tranquility, the innocence
Of the countryman. his independence, and
all the pleasing arts belonging to him. the
care Of bees, Of poultry of sheep, Of
cows, the dairy, the care of hay, Of fruits.
of trees, and the reaction on the work.
man. in giving him strength and plain
dignity, like the face and manners Of Ia
tlre, all men are sensible of. All of VI
keep the farm in reserve as an asylum
where to hide our poverty and our soli-
tulc, if we do not succeed in society
Who knows how many remorseful gances
arc turned this way from the competitions
of the shop and counting-rooms, from the
mort tying cunning Of the Court, and the
Senat,s. After the man has been degrad.
ed so that he has no longer the sigor to
attempt active labor on the soil. yet when
he has been poisoned by town life and
drugged by cooks, and every meal is y
forcc.pump to exhaust By stimulus tho
poor remainder Of his strength, he re-
solves -" Well, my children, whom hav.
injured, shall go back to the land to bs
recruited and cured by that which should
have been my nlrscry and shall now b.
M hospital"
TIE farmer IL a person Of remarkable
conditions. His Office is precise and i'm.
portant, and it is Of no use to try to paint
him in rose color. You must take him
Just as he stands. Nothing is arbitrary
or sentimental in his condition, and there
fore one respects in his office rather tho
elements than himself. He bends to ths
order of the seasons and the weather and
the soils. as the sails of ship bend to
the wind. He makes his gains little
by little, and by hard labor. He is slow
person, being regulated by time and na-
turc, and not by city watches. Flo takes
the pace of the seasons, Of the plants, and
of chemistry. Nature never hurries, and
atom by atom, little by little, acomplishes
her work. The lesson one learns in fish
ing, yaching, hunting, or in planting, is
the manners of nature; patience with the
delays of wind and sun, delays of the sea.
sons, excess of water and drought, pa.
tcncc with the slowness Of our feet and
the lttlencss Of our strength, with the
largencss of sea and land. The farmer.
or the man with the hoe, times himself to
nature, acquires that immense patience
which belongs to her Slow, narrow man
he has to wait for his food to grow
His rule is that the earth shall feed him
and find him, and he must be no largo
and graceful spcndcr. His spending must
be farmers spending aud not o mer-
chants
Bat though farmer may be p;nchcd
on the one side, he has advantages on the
other He is permanent; he clings to
his land as the rocks do.
The farmer has great health, and the
appetite of health, and means for his end.
He has broad land in which to place his
home. He has wood to build great fires.
He has plenty of plain food. His milk
at least is not watercd. He has sleep,
cheaper and better and more of it, THAI
citizens. He has great trusts con6led in
him. In the great household Of nature,
the farmer stands Mt the door of the
bread-room. and weighs to each his loaf.
1t is for him to say whether men shall
marry or not. Eirly marriages and the
number of births arc indissoluby connect.
ed with abundance Of food, for, as Burke
said, Man breeds at the mouth" The
farmer is the board Of Quarantine. He
has not only the life, but health of others
in his keeping. He is the capital Of
health, as his farm is the capital Of wealth.
And it is from him and his influence that
the worth and power, moral and intellect.
ual, Of the cities comes. The city is al.
ways recruited from the country. The
men in the cities who are the centers Of
energy, the driving-whees in trade or pol
tiles, or art CT letters the woman Of
beauty and genius, are the children or
grandchildren of farmers. and are spend.
ing the energies which their hard, silent
life accumulated in the frosty turrow. in
poverty, in darkness, and in necessity. IL
tn, summers heat and winters cold.-
Then he is benefactor. He who dgs
and builds well, or makes a stone foua-
tain; he who plants grove Of trees by
the roadside, who plants an orchard or
builds durable house, or even puts .
stone scat BY the waysde, makes the land
lovely and desirable, and makes fortune
which he cannot carry with him, but
which is useful to his country and man..
kind long afterward. The man that works
at home moves society throughous tho
worli.--r Ralph Waldo Emerson.