Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-05
LOST.
REWARD.
FlRM AND GARDEN.
COLORADO FARMING.

COLORADO FARMING.
Mr.. Ohaffee, of the House of Repre-
sentatives, has reported bill for the
admission of Colorado into the Union
as State, and TO promote that object,
makes statement IN detail Of its pre-
sent industrial operations. 1t appears
incredible that so young a Territory,
and one SO far removed from the sea,
should so soon construct $50 miles of
canals for irrigating and farming pur-
poses; yet it is claimed that this great
achievement is to be credited to Colo
rado enterprise and industry. To feed
1aborers employed in working rich gold
and silver mines, grain, meat and vege-
tables are indispensable; and to trans
port them thousand miles, more or
less, would be nearly impracticable.
Hence the energetic, scientific farmer,
who knew how to transform a rainless
desert into luxurient meadows, wheat
fields and gardens, was the sine gRa
non In the development of the mineral
resources of Colorado. 1t is curious
that, while the gold and silver products
of 1873 were 100000, those Of cere-
ais alone were S6,750,O00; live stock
S2,OOO,OOO; wool S6OO,OOO dairy pro-
ducts S950,000; lumber 100000; -four
81, 700. The manufactures in the
city of Denver alone are set down at
S3,249, 100. The assessors returns
show the value Of cattle to be S4,295,-
143; horses 81, 4O5, 2SS; sheep S493, 62l.
Where can one find more striking H.
lustration of the fact that knowledge
is power than by comparing
what the Indian did, with
what the white man has done, and is
doing, in the heart of this continent?
The European knows in part how to
utilize the productive force in nature,
whose fruits may be seen wherever the
white mans shadow falls on the ground.
But like the debris of Rocky Mountain
rocks, his brain is arid and unfruitful
unless artifcially watered by science
and cultured by honest industry. Tele-
scopes, spectroscopes and microscopes,
instead of pointing from the white
mans eye outward, are now all turned
inward, and wonderful are the discove.
RES made in the realms Of thought and
of spirit. There are those, however,
who act IN good faith, believing
that the earth must ever be
titled with bull-tongue plows, and
worn out as in past generations.
Progress in farming is at war with their
cherished hereditary ideas, their agri-
cultural religion. They can trust time
honored traditions; but as to this Moses
called science, they are as incredulous
as were the children of Israel who in
sisted that Aaron should make them a
gold idol In the form of calf, because
it had a reliable traditional value In
their experience in Egypt. All must
see that agricultural science is more
spiritual than severe hard labor In any
cultivated field; and all who read the
Bible must know that the great He
brew law-giver did his best to persuade
his people to rise happily from the de-
grading worship of visible idols to the
worship of an invisible spirit.
knowledge is the connecting link
between the ponderable and the i'm
ponderable, and it is suicidal to at
tempt to break it and destroy the nat
ural chain that binds together matter
that Is little known, and spirit that is
less known. Truth is spiritual if it has
any existence at all; but truth in agri-
culture is an abiding force which only
few are prepared to recognize in our
day and generation. Truth is not
grain, nor meat, cotton nor tobacco.
Who wants an abstraction? Who
cares to learn how to use it as applied
10 tillage and husbandry? Admit that
truth belongs to the highest order of
mathematics, and expresses the exact
rule by which the universe was called
into existence. Should it be neglected
or despised on that account?