Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-09-18

in the way of subiugating and directing
physical forces and shaping material
forms Its inventions are the marvel of
the world. 1t would seem that the Am
erican mechanic and machinist never
slept. The opposition of nature has
been so gigantic that nothing less than
incessant application to-day could clear
the path for tomorrow. Under such
conditions, no wonder that the brain
force of the nation has been in the ag
gregate astonishingly developed.
The fact is, then, that a wide anddeep
intellectual development, independent of
letters, has been going on for the last
fifty years of the nations life. Ameri-
can literature by no means represents
American thought Over against Whit
tier with his six volumes of poetry and
Emerson with his ten volumes of
prose, put the Manchester print works
and the cotton mills of Lowell, and say
that the factories as truly as the printed
pages must be taken into account when
you try to estimate American thought.
The fact is the whole atmosphee of Am
erican life has been warm with provo
cations to think, and the very roots OF
our population have felt the STRINGS of
d VIAL NdIIiljl anu III lllCN III llIN AAAhlS
and mold of their destiny.
The branch of industry that has
shared least in this general mental ac-
tivity is beyond doubt the agricultural.
Under the old method of farming, there
was little necessity or provocation to
think. 1t was a life and pursuit in
which the hands played the most impor-
tant part and the brain was left in the
background. In that old order h0rtlcul-
ture, aborculture, Horticulture, scientific
breeding of the domestic animals, and
those other branches Of agriculture that
call for ingenuity and enterprise and re-
suit in culture We're nearly unknown.
Farming was only dull routine ot
planting potatoes and corn, hOeing and
haying, and reaping and gathering the
crops in the autumn. This, with the
hauling of the winters wood and repair
ING fences, composed the annual round
Now in all this the brain played no part
The hands did it all, and were able to do
it all. There was no recreation, no Gull
ture; and almost no reward. The arms
aud legs did all the work and got all the
profit. The mind cid nothing, and gam
ed nothing, but rusted in ignoble disuse.
From such life every active-minded
young man naturally broke away. 1t
was "A life in which labor was only a
| kind of base physical toll. There was
no spring, no elasticity to it. There was
/ no chance to rise, or grow. The great,
/ wide. stirring, progressive world was on
/ ly few miles away, with Its splenqId
( opportunities to amaSS and achieve. EV-
en- its lower grades of industries were in
/ structive and expansive. How could
the boy STAY on the ancestral patch, and
/ be content. He could not, and claim he
had no right to remain. No industry Is
worthy young mans following, unless
it ministers TO the higher and divlner
side of his nature. A pursuit that mere
4 lv tasks the body and supports the body
is base, and should be despised. This
was one cause why farming was desplsec
by the youth of the land. Ii was mer'
manual toll In it the hand was OF
/ higher use than the head. Muscle was
absolutely worth more than brain. 4
man with one idea was as valuable as he
! whose mind was quick with suggestion
A fool of Websters size was as good {
man on the farm as Webster.
Now, lay it down as a law that al
| forms of humaA industry are graded II
value to the individual and society a'
they are or are not connected with mans
| higher faculties. All labor worth the
doing is eduCative and expansive. Tht
countless industries of the earth make
the earth a school, and toilers are only
scholars. The shop and field, the deck
of ships. and even the damp and drip
ping mine, are only different colleges II
that great university where the human
faculties are being trained. To quicker
thought. to widen the field of inyestlga
tion. to substitute the cOarser with a fl
ner culture, to enlarge knowledge tha
the heart may be enlarged, to Danish th
curse of poverty, by which mems facul
ties are cramped and many pushed int
crime. these are the results that make in
dustry of value to man.
These, / regret to say, were precisel,
the results that the old style of farmin!
in this country did not produce. In /
ambition found no opportunity and en-
terprise, no encouragement. 1t looket
upon chemistry with contempt, and b.
who considered success in breeding any
thing more than mere luck was regarded
as a visionary. 1t disregarded entirel,
the value of location in its relation t.
markets, and continued to raise pOtatoe
and corn and rye at 20 per cent. los
when the same soil and labor Nigh
have produced early vegetables, fruit
and flowers at 100 per cent. profit
Worse than all it put itself in opposition
to Improvement 1t hugged its own ig
nOranCe as wisdom, and bigOtedly resist
ed the introduction of anything new il
theory or practice The rotation o
crops, the relative-adaptaiOn of ditferen
manures to different soils, the substitu
tion of machine for manual labor, th
Improvement of native stock by imPor
tation of foreign blOod-these and sim
liar changes it fiercely opposed an,
made the butt of its anathemas and Yul
gar Jokes. While the mechanics OF tn
nation were perfecting themselves il
their several trades, and the maChinist
inventing new tools, and the merchant
of the nation betting the globe wit
their ships, and the manufacturers brib
inc the skill of the Old World to on
shores, and every other form of industr.
was racing along the path Of progres
with its face an aglow with emulation
the New England farmer continued t
plOd on in the path which led him yea
by wear into deeper discomfort and poy
erty. In this way ambition and enter
, prise. wealth and culture were ALLEVIATE
! from the soil to which they should b
most warmly attached, and in the cult
: walton of which whatever is best |
mans mind and heart can find an
should find its highest exercise and mos
! enduring pleasure.
If YOU should tell me the picture
! too darkly drawn and somberly shaded
and point me to this audience and thes
/ grounds, swarming as they do with th
e finest animal, vegetable and instruments
E results of our State thought as di;
: proving the picture, | reply first ths
4 here are grouped the achievements ne
5 of the old but of the new order of agr
t culture, which has won recognition an
support, not by the help of the assis
d ance but in spite of the opposition
! the average farmer as he existed twent
t years ago; and secondly, should as
It you to look beyond these grounds to tt
e country itself-not at the farmers thf
s are here, but at the farmers who are M
h here-and see if my words are not tru
I'd This is Vermont Fair, but Vermont
~ | ,,ot hara She is reDreSeuted here t