Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-20
Mistellameol,s.
EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURE on HEALTH.

Mr.. F. G.. Pratt recently read a paper be-
fore the Concord (Mass.) Farmers Club
on The effects of Agriculture on HEALTH"
from which we take the following:
at is the common opinion among all
classes of society that the cultivation of
the soil is favorable to long life, and
most of the dwellers of the cities look for
ward to the time when they can sit under
the shade of their own trees, and enjoy
sense of rest, independence and comfort
not to be found in city life. We know
that few ever come TO realize these dreams,
and we know how many young men,
brought up on the farm, leave it as soon as
possible for the more bustling life of the
city; but do not also know that many Of
those, later in life, return to the country,
worn out and broken down, to lay their
bones in peace near their early homes?
Farmers are supposed to live longer
than those OF most other occupations, but
statistics seem to show this is not fully so.
Travellers and natural philosophers aver
age the longest lives, and even clergy
men, with little exercise, comparatively,
live longer, as u class, than farmers. This
should not be so, and perhaps we may find
what is the reason for it, and the remedy.
1t IS found that incessant thinking on any
one thing tends more to unhinge the mind
and body. Travellers use all their powers
their eyes, feet, brain, and all, and there
by give healthy action to all parts. On
the contrary, book-keepers, writer's, and
people of 'one idea strain their one idea
TO the destruction of the rest OF the body
The great mass OF farmers seem to be
given to this one idea 1t is dig, and grub,
and toll, day after day, year after year,
with the mind never raised above this
everyday toll. The remedy to me is plain
We are to look beyond our cattle, our po-
tatoes, our grass, and take portion of our
time for searching out the causes and eff
fects of the various operations in which we
have hand. Book-farming gives us a
chance to work our brain, while our hands
do the mechanical part This is where l
think our Farmers Club does the most good.
We have done our days hard work, and
now comes in play another set of muscles,
more delicate perhaps, but for that reason
more important, to be exercised. 1t en-
larges our minds, and gives a healthy ac-
ton between the brain and hand which
will not lie found when either is used to
excess.
Prof. Pierce, of Cambridge, who has
given much thought in this direction, re-
marks. as the result OF his observations.
that, taking classes in the average, those
are the first to die who are the dullest and
most stupid, while, as a general rule,
those who exercise their brains, most con-
stantly, thoroughly. and faithfully, are
the longest lived" This is in relation to
students of Harvard. 1t is the same among
farmers. 1t is noticed in prisons, that
many of those sent in for long terms, or
for life, become idiotic but of these few
are to be found who have had liberal
education or mental culture in any direc-
tion. In foreign political prisons, highly
cultivated persons have spent the greater
part of their lives in the darkness and SOL
itude of dungeon, and even then came
out in there old age, with mental and ply
steal activity unimpaired. Mary, Queen
of Scots, fingered eighteen years in pris-
on, and then went forth to the block with
her full vigor of mind "whiIe an unin-
structed farmer" says DR.. Hall, "who
| can feed on the fat of the land-who pass
es near three-iourths OF his existence in
the blessed sunlight, greedily drinking in
the luscious outdoor air in all its purity,
with no restraint of bodily liberty, but
abandoning himself to the dali routine
which comprises about nothing but to
work and eat, and seep--otten finds in less
time than fifteen years, that vigor of mind
and health Of body are both on the wane.n
1t is no longer considered all sufficient
for a farmer to have vigorous frame and
intelligence enough to siillfully use a tool
or drive a team. There is something fur
ther. "Remuneratiye farming is the re-
ward of those who have made themselves
familiar with the analysis Of soils, who
have some knowledge of botany and veg
etable chemistry, and who have given
some study to ascertain the surest way of
obtaining the best seeds, and the best
breeds, and who have "method in their
book madness" in the selection of scions,
and gratis, and roots and plants. Such
not only make money by farming, but have
a positive delight in their labor, and in
waiting for results for one of the sweet
est sensations possible to the human mind
is the development of useful facts, as the
result of trials and experiments"
This is what is wanted to lengthen q
farmers life and increased enjoyment of
such life-more time to be taken from
the hand and added to the mind