Litchfield enquirer., 1866-08-16
A9rlfutural Departn,er,t.
PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR THE "ENoUrRER.n sy
 T.S. GOLD. West Cornwall, Ct. 10 whom a1l Communications should De addressed
NEIGHBoRs AND NEIGHBORHoODs

Among merchants and manufacturers it is the most natural thing in the world, that jeal- ousies should arise, for the business one does is the direct detriment of others engaged in the same trade. If two shoemakers live in village either would willingly engage to do all the work, for he could hire more iourneymen and proportionately increase his profits and just so it is in almost every trade supplying limited market. The farmer may congratulate himself that he can with satisfaction look up- on his thrifty neighbors prosperity without the thought that there is clashing interest. In fact there is none. If my neighbours repu- tation for cheese or butter is such as to bring purchasers from distance to his door, it is for my benefit and for the benefit of every dairy man in town. His sales will not be injured by the reputation of the neighborhood, even if it should become a question in dispute whore butter was the best, his or some of those neighbors to whose advantage he has cortri- buted. .f
 The sheep breeder who improves his own flock and by introducing fine animals raises the standard of the focks and heeces of his neighbors, not only does himself no injury, but promotes his own interests, as he could in no other way. The feeces of few hundre,l sheep, even if they are of superior quality will not bring in the market the price that the wool of a whole district we'll and similarly washed and of equal quality will command.
 The Iact's that it is for any farmers inter- est to improve the agriculture of his district, and if every farmer felt this what n different state of things would exist. There is too much of the opposition and jealousy, and it is as foolish as it is impolitic. We can account for it's existence only by the fact that most farmers feel that with them their profession is pnpt,p hoy 1arI nf hno.n .l that their own success or failure compared with their neighbours is a comparison of their relative shrewdness in the calculation of times and seasons, of the accuracy of their res pee tive guessing powers, or something of the kind. Whereas the true comparison would be be- tween the actual knowledge of this profession possessed by each. Now as tbis knowledge is something which may be indefinitely dispens- ed, without impoverishiug the giver, and as the principle of guessing cannot be imparted anyhow, the way to improve our farming, gardening and stock breeding, seems plain enough. Let every man learn all he eau, im- part freely of his store of facts and deductions from facts, allowing his reasonings and his practice to be criticised, each doing what he can to put his neigbbor in possession of the re. suits of his experience etc if he only wants to know it.
 There Is to be sure one difficulty. Every go ahead farmer has some neighbors that will scoff at every fact and reject every new idea. and plod on in the old way. These are rather useful people after all. Time will show that they either do work harder for the same re- suits, or that with all the hard work the results do not come and this following in the march of improvement twenty to twenty-five years behind others in the adoption of modes of s, oH aNs- mouy which tbe a risiag Generation of % farmers even their own sons, vii not be slow to mark. The effect of farmers clubs in promoting the comparisons and sitting of facts and opinions and criticisms of practice it is not difficult 10 see. May these institutions rapidly become general, aye universal in farming neighbor- hoods