Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-12-30
The Necessity OF Oversize alton OF
Labor and Products

attaining of food, then agriculture would be
the only study essential to his happiness.
Man in the savage state. ignores even agii-
culture and relies upon his superior cunning.
to entrap the brute creation, and render it
subservient to his wants, either as beasts of
burden or as food TO sustain life. Emerging
from barbarsm, man finds his wants increas-
/ ing in proportion to his advancement in civ
! ilizafion, and so gradual has this advance
ment been. that like Milo who commenced
| by lifting the calf over the fence daily, did
not perceive his increasing weight until the
calf became an OK.
The savage has no use for the telescope or
| magnetic compass. sees no utility in the
steam engine, or electric telegraph, but at
/ once perceives the use of firearms and the
| value of gunpowder as agents OF defence and
/ attack. Emerging man, finds that although
/ he can subsist upon raw meat, can clothe
/ himself with the skins OF beasts. Cooked
TODD is more palatable and cloth more con-
! venient for his protection against the inclem
| encies of weather. That horses are preferable
| to cows, and the arts of peace TO the arts Of
/ war.
Even at the early stage of mans advance
/ ment now under consideration, the necessity
/ of diversifcation of employment becomes
| apparent. The suhiugation of the horse and
| OK to the upturning of the soil introduces the
/ ~,
struct i'm plements rude indeed. but iudspen-
sible. The pillow, once but the branch of
tree sharpened and hardened in the fire, has
advanced in perfection with the advancement
of man, in civilization until now. When if
the primitive instrument of agriculture
shall be placed aside the modern pillow. the
tracing of any analogy between them would
be difficult yes. both of them are plows and
the men who made them machines. Not less
difference exists in the Improvements. than in
the mechanics who made them. The first,
rude, imperfect in its structure, i'll adapted TO
answer the end for which it was intended
The latter perfected in shape, and more COM
plete in design, turning with facility and
ease the soil. that in turn yields in proportion
To the tillage bestowed. As with the instru :
ment, so with their makers, the first destitute
Of education, was lilly acquainted with the me-
chanical powers. with tools to construct. as
well as the constructed article upon which he
labors, lie blundcrs, but still there is hope -
The modern mechanic with tools so perfect.
and knowledge of the rechanical powers
that enables him 10 calculate with precision
the form of an instrument to perform given
result. goes to his work with a greater degree
Of certainty that his labor is not in vain.-
To secure food tor immediate use is instinct
| i've with both man and beast. The uncer-
tainty of securing food at all times when
needed, and in all places when needed,
| prompts us to store for future rise the surplus
of to-day against the scarcity of tomorrow.
The uncertainty of the chase drives the hunt
er to become an agriculturist, and the desire
to gain with the least possible labor the
! greatest possible product for that labor, slim
ulates him to improvement of the means TO
obtain that. end. Hence arises the efforts to
improve and construct machinery ariven by
the least expensive agents, 10 pillow, to trans
port, to mar facture. TO annihilate time and
| space. The stage coach that hundred years
since was the swiftest means of commuT ica-
| ton. either as a conveyance of information,
as far az change Of locality, is to the loco
motive in point of speed, as the snail to the
race horse and the locomotive is to tele-
| graphic communication, only as the snail is
TO the locomotive. The railway with its high
| capacity for carrying sa fely and swiftly hum
dreds or tons of freight at n single load, and
which load can be multiplied to almost any
extent, allowing only room for the stopping
! and starting of each train, fills one with
! amazement at the amount of freight that
may be sent east and west in single day.
! The men who had the mind to conceive. and
| the skill to execute these prodigious advan-
ces towards civilization, merit the admiration
OF posterity and the applause of cotempora-
4 res and yet he shall discover and put in
I opttaNlOn Il system ny winch q community
shall have the least possible use for these
great thoroughfares of freight consiste t. with
the advancement of useful husbandry. and
the consequent happiness of man, shall be
hailed no less public benefactor. The lar
! gest use that at present is made of the rail-
! ways of our country is TO transport from the
| west and south to New York and BostoR and
other seaports the rare products of our coun-
try, and returning with freghts of manu-
J featured goods from other countries beyond
| the sea.
| To transport our products. is to lose the
excess of freight of our products, over that
| of manufactured, added to the loss of waste
| that should be returned TO the soil upon
| which it grew. No saue farmer ever made
a constant business of selling his hay crop
off his farm, unless he had facilities of REIN
MIGRATING the soil and he Who does it will
/ find in the end that to exhaust his crop is but
to exhaust the soil upon which it grew.
| The cotton crop of the United States for
| the year 1850 was 1884, millions of dollars
aud was The principal crop of ten states
/ This crop is nearly all exported from the
| states in which it grew, 10 the exhaustion of
| the soil. Hence the desire of those states to
add TO their list territories not exhaust
| ed by this destructive drocess of exhausting
\ the soil. The hay crop of 1860 amounted to
| the sum OF 963I millions. but being cor
/ sumed in the states in which il grew returns
| again to the said and retones it TO its former
fertility.
All vegetable productions tend more or less
to the Instrumentation CT the soils upon
which they grow to meet which all the re-
| fuse waste, should be returned again to the
! place from which they have been distracted.
| AS well might we expect to continually draw
| from an iron furnace the liquid metal with
out corresponding supply of ore and coal
| or steam from a boiler of water and fuel.
| The abstraction Of ore from the earth renders
the soil the more fertile, hence the exhaustion
of metals is the least detrimental to cOun-
| try. The soil of the United States is being
continually exhausted, not in the form of soil
but its products to purchase iron to make
| roads to carry still more of the raw pro-
| ducts of the west to the eastern coast for
shipment abroad.
The rustic, who for the first time cam q. to
a river, sat down and waited foi the liver to
pass, that he might cross its bed dry and un-
| harmed, acted more wisely than those who
continue in the face of facts so obvious that
| but to look is to see, that a country to be
| prosperous, independent and happy, must
prefer to keep it's own people employed rath-
| er than those who are at all times liable to
become their enemies.
| III this state had its own mechanicc. and
manufacturers within its own borders to
! work the raw material into the shape needed
by the farmers an ontlet would be found of
more practicable utility than all the railroads
| That stretch their iron arms across the land