The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1872-09-26

A'1O 1nooIu "nen nOt In use be care
fully protected from the weather. That
cart or wagon we'll sheltered when
not in use will last twice as long a. one
exposed in Ill weather. That . reaper
will bst'sr last eight years we'll cared
for than three yeart loft in the harvest
field where it was last used. Yet there
are farmers who make the sky their roof
or who put up rude shelter that only
makes matters worse, for it lets the Va.
ter through and prevents it from drying
away readily. The machine needs car
ing for even more than the animal for
bones do not rust, and nature kindly
supplies oil for the joints, and keeps
the whole animal economy in ord,r.-
But let the farmer lie down By the side
of the machine he leaves uncovered in
the field for q single dewy night. His
joints will feel the need of oil, and
his brain be no better than so much
brown paper the next day. How
much more will the machine for which
nature does nothing, work badly.
That man does not usually prove =
blessing, but . curse, to the ground
which he treads, no one who looks
oarsfally At his traces upon tho earth's
surface for the centuries that are past
can possibly doubt. SEQ the New
England of two centuries since, with
her dense forests, and fertile river val:
leys; her soil though rough aud stony :,
yet rieh in the vegetable mould which
goes to make up large crops of corn
and wheat, rye and grass. Az man
brought acre after aore of this stub
born soil under bis control, the rocky
hillsides sparkled with springs of the
purest water, and were covered, doriog
tho entire summer, with the richest
and sweetest Of grasses for tho aoeks
and herds Of cattle which grazsd there
on. Every autumn the large baros OF
tho farmers were filed to the very roof
with the products of the farm. The
preacher from the pulpit had before
him plenty Of substantial men who
could be cited to point the parable 81
will pull down my barns and build
greater" But the years passed on.
The springs upon the hiiisides have
disappeared. The wind howls over
wastes Of rocky, barren ground, whose
only clothing is MULLEN, red sovrel, and
Scotch thistles. Go into the barns il
the autumn. The mesgre mows half
reaching from the floor to the beams,
seem shrinking away as if ashamed of
not being able to initiate the fulnsss Of
their ancestors. Old people are seen
slowly moving about the almost desert
cd ,homestesds. Where are the young,
whose CHEEKY voices used to make the
echoes ring about these old places !?
Gone to the city; or to tho "far west"
to till the newer and fresher lands of
Iowa or Minnesota. Those who re-
main doomed to a life of exhausting
toll to gain scanty living from the
soil.
Notwithstanding the great increase
in the population of the country at
large, the purely farming portions of
New England, whose lands were all
cleared fifty years ago, have been los.
ing population for years. The produc.
lions tave fallen off one.half. Man
has fastened oh those lands the curse
Of barreuness and should his efforts
DO continued in the same direction for
the next century, very large portions
Of that part of the national domain
VII be, for all agricultural purposes, lit
tls better than q desert. 1 have spok.
60 Of New England, because it is one
Of the Oldest settled portions Of the
The Same statements will sp-
ply to East Virgins as we'll. The
wheat harvests Of Delaware used to ri.
val the present rich yields of Miuueso-
Il. Delaware wheat is not to-day
known beyond her own borders. Hud.
son or North River corn was in all the
markete Of the east forty years ago.
You will look in vain tor it now. The
older rich wheat lands of western New
York and Ohio, once thought exhaust
less, yield but very moderate return
now for tho labors of tho husbandman.
A few years since 1 spent ssme time 10
ono of the richest sugar-raising portions
of Louisiana-thoee lands Of wondrous
fertility along the Teche, Aschafalaya
and Vermilisn bayous. The soil is =
rich black mould, measuring in depth
Is many feet as an ordinary soil does
inches. The country was settled 10
very early days BY Spaniards, after
wards occupied by tho French, aud
since Jefersouls time by on, own Ysn-
kee population, who have, however,
but partially displacsd the former ma
tionslities. The bayous arc bordersd
BY belts Of prairie, usually three or
four miles wide l.; aud l was greatly sur
prised to 6nd tho plantations, not on the
banks Of streams, where I should bave
expected them, but far back under the
edges of tho forest. A little examins-
tiop, however, showed me that oil the
land from the bayou to the present
plantations had been cultivated and
worn out, The planters moving back grad
ually upon tho fresh and unworn soil.
What has been done in these older
portions of the country, this SLOW and