Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1864-01-29
Agrieul tural.
FARMING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

FARMING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
Ike Marvel. in his new work, My Farm
at Edgwood. just published by Scribner,
draws his just and amusing comparisons be-
tween the laborers that farmers are compelled /
to depend on at the present day and the skill
ed hands Of quarter of a century ago.
There lived some twenty or thirty years ago
in New England race of men, American born,
who having gone through a two winters course
of district school ciphering and reading, with
cropped tow heads, became the most indeiat
gable and ingenious of farm workers. Their
hoeing was a seight of hand they could
make an OK yoke or axe helve on rainy
days by adroit manipulations, they could re-
lieve a choking COW, or as deity hive swarm
of bees. Their furrows were not indeed of
the straightest, but their control of a long
team of oxen was miracle ofguidance. They
may have carried bit OF Cavendsh twist in
their pockets; they certainly did not waste
tine at lavatiuns but as farm orkers they
had rare aptitude; no tool came amlss to
them; they Graded they churned. if need be;
they chopped and piled their three cords Of
wood between sun and sun. With bare feet
and a keen-whette1 six-pound Blanchard,
they laid such clean swaths through the fields
of dewy herds-grass made old-country-
men stare. By kind of intuition, they knew
the locality of every tree, aud Of every medic
inal herb that grew in the woods. Rarest of
all which they possessed, was an acuteness OF
understanding, which enabled them to com
prehend an order before it was half uttered,
3 and to meet occasional and unforeseen diff
| culties with asteady assurance, as if they had
! been an accepted part of the problem. 1t
was possible to send such man into a wood
with his team, 20 select stick of timber. OF
chesnut or oak, that should measure given
amount; he could be trusted to find such
to cut it, to score it, to load it; if the gear
! ing broke, he could be trusted to devise some
artifce for bringing it down and finally for
its sure and safe delivery at the point indi-
Gated.
On the other hand. your lrishman balks
at the first turn he must have multitude
of chains he needs a boy to help him with
the team. and another 10 carry bar he
spends an hour or twoin his doubtful estimate
of dimensions but " begorra, it's umpish
tree" and be thwacks into the rind a foot OF
| two from the ground, so as to leave " nate
Irish stump. Half through the hole, he be
gins to doubt if it be indeed a chestnut or
poplar, and casting his eye aloft to measure
it anew, an ancient woodpecker drops some
thing sms rting in his eye, and his howl start
the Eliminating team into a confused entangle
ment among young wood. Having eased hi
pain, and extracted his cattle, he pushes OF
, with his axe, and presently, with light cras
! OF plant boughs, his timber is lodged in tn
top of an adjoining tree. He tugs and strain
and swears, and splits the helve Of his axe /
E adapting it for lever, and, presently, nearl
= noon, comes back for three or four hands
give him a boost with the tree. You return
to find the team strayed through gate lie
open, into thriving corn-6eld. and one {
!, your pet tulip tree lodged in 1.-THE youn
e hickory tree.
"Och and it's a toolip--it is and l wa
: thinkin twas niver a chsnut begorra, it
Z lucky thin it didn't come down entirely"