Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1867-01-08
The Improvement in Farming.

Timothy Titeomb, in his rnrai life, says:
Farming implements have mot been made by
farmers themselves, but by outsiders-me-
chanics and men Of science-who haue mar.
veled at the brainless stupidity which toiled
on in its old tract OF unreasoning routine and
looked with suspicion aud discouragement
upon innovations. The reason why the far
mer has not been foremost improving instru-
ments and methods of bis own business is
that his mind has been untitled for improve
ment by the excessive labors of his body. A
man whose whole vital energy is directed TO
the supper. of the muscle has Of course none
to direct to the support of thought. A man
whose strength is habitually exhausted by
labor, becomes, at length, incapable Of men
tai exertion and cannot help feeling that
half the farmers in the country establish in
superable obstacles to their own improve
ment By their excessive toll. They are noth>
ing more than the living machines of .
calling which so far exhausts their vitality
that they have neither disposition nor power
! TO improve either themselves or their calling.
There is no doubt about the fact that life
whose whole energies are expended in hard
bodily labor is such life as God never in,
tended man should live.
am perfectly aware that am not reveal.
ing pleasant truths. We are much in the
habit Of clarifying rural life, and praising
the intelligence and virtue Of rural popula>
,ions and if they believe us they cannot re-
oeive this with pleasure. Bat the question
which most interests them is whether these
statements are true. Is the philosophy
sound? Does a severe and constant tax on
the muscular system repress mental develop.
ment, and tend to make life bard and home
" and unattractive! Is this the kind Of life
generally which the American farmer leads
Is noi the American farmer, generally, q
man who has sacrificed free and full mem
tai development, and all his finer sensibili.
ties and affections, and generous and gen.
ial family and social life, aud the dignisies
and tasteful proprieties Of we'll appointed
home, to tie support of bis muscles? There
are instances of be ter life than this among
farmers, and should not have written this,
if those instances had not proved that this
everlasting devotion to labor is unnecessary
There are farmers who prosper in their CALI
ing and do not become stolid-whose homes
are the abodcs Of refinement, whose watch.
word is improvement, and whose aim is to
elevate their calling. Iffhere is q man on
the earth whom honestly honor, it is the
farmer Who has broken away from his sla>
very to labor, and applied his mind to his
soil.
Mind must be the emancipator of the far
mer. Science, intelligence, machinery
these must liberate the boudman Of the soil
from bis long slavery. When I look back
and see what has been done for farming
within my short memory, ! am full Of hope
for the future. The plow, under the hand of
science, has become new instrument. TIE
horse non hoes the corn, mows the grass,
rakes The hay, reaps, threshes and winnows
the wheat; and every year adds new ma
chinery to the farmers stock, 10 supercede
the clumsy instruments which once bound
him to his hard and never ending toll. When
q farmer begins to use machinery and to
study the processes of other men, and to APP
ply his mind to farming so far as be can
make it take the place of muscle, then be il
lumines his calling with q new light, aud
IFS himself into the dignity Of man.