Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-01-25
4 arm, GarAen i Aousehold.
How 70 Make garmIng Moro RtoalaDLe.


cussed with q good deal Of WARMTH some
years ago, in Che New England Farmer, and
u wiseacre proved, to bis own satisfaction at
least, that the tiling Of tho soil was losing
business. Yet our farmers have kent on
plowing and sowing ever since, and the
tion has been growing richer al the while,
Notwithstanding the waste and ruin Of y eoar
years war. As husbandry is the basis Of alb
other kinds Of wealth, it is difficult to rcun
cile this theory with the grand result The
mechanic, the manufacturer, the merchant.
the professional man, can only prosper as the
farm prospers. The daily bread Of oil must
come from the tillage Of the soil As the
country is bearing its enormous burdens well,
and paying up its debts at the rate Of two
hundred millions year, It is quite manifest
that farming has paid somebody, if it has not
paid farmers.
Yet there is o wide spread conviction, more
largely shared in the rural districts than in
the cities, that labor is not as well rewarded
upon the farm rs in other callings The
young, especially, graduate from she farm in
the older States at very early age, and in
large numbers. It is not a little owing, we
imagine, to the fair rewards Of husbandry
that this is the case. The farmer, as soon as
he has capital enough to carry on his business,
and few shares in the bank, sends his son
to the best academy in the country, or even
to college. The youth grows ambitious in
the new atmosphere, learns to despise the
plow, and runs to the city to seek his fortune.
He sends his daughter to the best female sem
mary he can hear Of, at an expense Of five or
six hundred dollars a year, where she learns
much that is valuable, but grows shy of rustic
lovers and cowhide boots. She has an eye
for kid gloves, and Congress CATERS. Through
the farmers prosperity his older children are
lost to the farm, and it is only by dint OF
much persuasion and liberal offers, that he
keeps the youngest at home, to be the stay Of
his declining years.
And if he be not prosperous enough to
send away his children to school, his inabili-
ty is taken az the bsss Of all reasons for quit
ting the farm. In the olden time farmers
sons felt under some obligation to stay on the
homestead until they were twenty one, to pay
for their bringing up; but now they grow un-
easy at fifteen, and feel abused if they are not
released from service at home at sixteen, to
begin life for themselves, as clerks or appren-
tices. Nothing is returned to the farm for
the expenses of childhood, and the farm is by
that much poorer Whether true or false,
the opinion is general, that husbandry does
not pay as well as other callings Everywhere
in the older States, and in some of the new,
the towing and cities are gaining in popula.
ton at the expense of the agricultural dis
tricts. Hardly an exclusively farming town
IN New England can show as large & popula-
ton as it had fifty years ago. In some there
has been a serious decline, and churches,
once strong and able, have now ceased to be
self-supporting.
These are dark shades in the picture, and
show that better husbandry is called for,
rather than that farming il necessarily poor
business. As many conduct it, it does not
pay very well, and no other business would
pay, prosecuted by the some methods.
To make husbandry more profitable, more
brains must be invested in it. The day has
gone by when brute muscle will win in hu-
man contests. Even the pugilist has bis
training, and It is the training, that
makes the victor. The well educated
Prussian soldier and his needle gun,
conquered Austria in a months campaign.
Ideas nurtured in the Northern school house,
crushed the Southern aristocracy, and broke
the manacles of four millions Of bondmeu.
We want more thought applied to farming.
There has been great change for the better
within the last fifteen years, but a still greater
is needed. The indications of a change are
every where apparent. We have State and
County Agricultural Societies, with their an
nual fairs, and lively competitions. We have
our Agricultural journals and farmers clubs.
with neighborhood meetings and farm visits.
We have a large number of books published
on Agriculture and kindred topics, and the
aroma Of plowed fields and orchards is breath.
ed into our magazine literature. We have a
few live farmers and rural improvers, in al
most every town, who are showing their faith
by their works. They invest literally in
barns with cellars; in the best farm imple-
ments; in rock-lifters and tile-draining; in
good stock and manure; in ornamental trees,
and in orchards. They execute plans delib-
erately formed, and spend as much brain
power upon their business as the merchant
or mechanic does upon his. Their minds
are wide awake to every new invention, or
process, by which labor may be saved, and
the earth coaxed to yield her increase at the
least expense.
But these men are still the exceptions in
our agricultural towns. There are muIttudes
of routine farmers, who are carried along in
their improvements, il they make any, sim
ply by force of example They have no well
digested plan of farm operations. They have
no rotation of crops, and cannot tell whether
a given crop is raised at a profit or loss They
buy new style Of tool only when they can
not find the old one in the market They do
not believe in mowers, reapers or threshers
that go by horsepower. They swing the
scytbe and the cradle, even on smooth mead
ows, and the thud of their fails is heard on
the barn floor, with the frosty morning oi
winter. They will not give up the old tools
and the old familiar sounds, though the new
are a hundred fold better
These men, who cling to the old ways, are
to be found in almost every township. and