Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1871-09-07
Plowed Ground a source of Health.

The pillow, harrow and hoe, accord
inS to recent discoveries in science, con
tribute more to the heath Of the coun
try at large than all the human sanitary
arrangements combined. Recent invcs
LEGATIONS have proved that the deodo.
rjziny powers OF fresh earth make il
the best disinfectant ever discovered
As this is true, does it not present the
design of Providence in striking and
beautiful light? In the winter, when
the air is purest and needs no purifier,
farmers would, if they could, do their
blowing, but wet weather, freezing and
snow forbid In the spring and fall,
however, when the atmosphere is most
charged with lnalarious and other pois-
onous gases, man is compelled to pillow.
This is not all that is good and bene.
ficent in the arrangement. This poison
which the earth extracts from the air
is fertilizer, and returns in the form
of wholesome food for mans sustenance.
1t is not hard to conceive, if it were
not for the fact that fresh earth is a
purifier of the atmosphere, that man
could not exist on the earth for it is
the decay of vegetable matter which
chiefly poisons it, and were there not
some aptidotc the health Of the country
would not be as good as it is in the
cities.
Eoidemics and infectious diseases,
which sometimes almost depopulate
cities, rarely reach far into the country,
because the antidote or corrective Of the
infected atmosphere is there; but in
cities, where there is no earth, either
fresh or otherwise. disease does its work
without opposition. We might multi
ply proof Of this theory, or rather inl-
portant fact, to an unlimited extent !;
but one or two illustrations arc enough
for the thinking mind.
About ninty years ago, part Of the
valley of Virginia, which is now con-
sidered the abode of health, the people
of lower Virginia looked upon as a
graveyard. But the fertility Of the soil
and beauty of the country caused men
to take their chances, and in few years
after the pillow commenced its work, the
health of the country improved, and
just in proportion to the increase of
cultivation was health established.
There are now persons thirty years
Of age living there, who never saw a
case of chills, and who look upon them
as something terrible, found only on
the Water-courses Of lower Virginia.
This fact Of new countries being un-
healthy, and health making its appear
ance with the pillow, is also strikingl y
in the case of Mississippi and
other Southern States.
All elderly persons now living know
that these Southern states, when first
settled, were looked upon in the same
light that the lower Virginians former
ly looked upon the valley; and all
know the health Of those regions has
so much in latter years that
the subject is rarely ever referred to.
At first, it was the only objection to
removal to the South, but now it is no
longer an obstacle.
The truth is, God has so arranged it,
and so merciful is the plan, when we
the fact that through the
plow We receive both our food and health,
VIC can not but exclaim:
uDeon in thc unfothomahlc mines
ncvcr-iaiing skill,
God treasures up his great designs,
And works his sovereign will"