Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-09-30

ask whether that can be good farming
which disqualifes land for producing
the very staff of life.
But s'the insect the weevil, midge,
or fy-I hear it said, has stopped the
growth of wheat in New England. |
dc. not admit the apology. Iregard the
alleged cause of failure as itself an ef-
feet of bad husbandry. I may not be
able-nay, I am not able-to trace the
evil to its ultimate source ; but [ find a
clew to that source in a fact related to
me from his personal observation by the
late Gov. William f. Packer of Penn
sylvania Said he: 81 am familiar with
the narrow valley of one of the pretty
tributaries of the Susquehanna, un the
middle of which highway ran for forty
years, with narrow field in cultivation
on either side. At length, the road was
thrown up, and the entire width Of the
valley, roadway included, became one
field which was sown to wheat. At
harvest-time, there was good, sound
grain for the full width of the roadway.
while the strip on either side was mere
straw and chaff-the grain having been
destroyed by an insect" 1t was some
thing lacking in the soil which weaken
ed the plant and invited the ravages of
the insect
It is quite currently assumed in our
day that our youth shun agriculture be-
cause they hate work. This assumption
is one of those partial, imperfect truths
which have the effects of falsehood.
Our boys do not choose to lift, and tug,
and strain, when the ends of such exer-
tion can be attained without such ex-
penditure of vital force-who ever did {?
AS we come to think and reflect more,
we learn to moderate our physical exer-
tion and be sparing of our muscular
force. The untaught, unthinking slave
, raises his wheelbarrow to the top of his
, head and carries it there the school
taught freeman prefers to trundle it be-
, fore him along the ground. The hay
, crop of to-day is saved with less than
half the tax on human muscle freely
paid by our grandfathers. Admit that
, our boys do not choose to bend their
| back-bones into hoops and indurate their
, muscles into whip-cord, if they can a.
chieve comfortable livelihood other
, wise, see nothing in this to provoke
invective or justify reproach. An intel
| lectr~l PcUpIe naturally prefer
: to substitute animal or mechanical pow
| ers for that of human slnews, wherever
t it can do so with facility and manifest
: advantage
n Now, it is the simple, manifest truth
e that far greater progress in this substi
e tuition has been made in other industries
It than in agriculture. Commerce, which
s. once employed wagons, and caravans
o and row boats, has nearly dispensed will
y these by the aid of wind and steam
y of sailing vessels, steamships, railroad
t. and locomotives. Steam takes our cot
d ton, corn, and other staples, from sta
% tion near the grower, puts it on ship
n board by an elevator, speeds it acros
ID an ocean, hoists it into the merchant
Of loft, and lowers it down again whereve
It it is wanted. Mind directs and guides
I'd while steam applies all the physical fore
ly that is needed. So in almost every dc
j. partment of manufacture. The brain
ne power is of human origin; this CON
=, mands, impels, and regulates all th
of other power required. In agricultur,
TX this is but partially, imperfectly para
MS leled and agriculture loses in cons,
j, quence the service of the brighter, able
t. portion of our youth. We must remed
es this, not by fruitless, senseless railin
,e, at the boys for doing what seems
" them fttest and most inviting, but t
ry extending the conquests, by enlargir
he the domain of mechanical power.
en- Let me barely hint-for l can on,
"a take time to hint-at some of the dire
us tions in which this enlargement is to
ed sought and realized:
,ly l. Wsnd.-For at least five thousa1
be years, wind has played a leading pa
ed in navigation why not in cultivation
ms Does nature afford any reason for /
Ter garding wind as inherently tractab
The and serviceable on water but not
,od land? Men have ground grain by wi
ng power for at least a hundred generation
to why not thresh it as well ? Nay, W
of should it not press cheese, and tu
BILE grindstone. and saw wood, and pun
ore water, and even, ultimately, pillow field
ust Who dreams that the inventions of
ike past bear any proportion to those of
of imminent future? We have at leng
learned that such is the elasticity of
the that windmill running through'
ress the night, may thereby accumulate pc
i'd | er to be expended during the ensui
she day OF days. Can you suppose that
and shall much longer know this enorm
eat aggregate of power, which has hithe
If thrust itself into our very faces III
gra- garded or at least uncomprehended,
wool expend its energies in topping over
and chlmneys and blowing the apples Fl
ind o11r. tr-ooc 9 / toll .ro,. tL:r L. nd 10