The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-05-05

y for not having carried forward in ev.
cry detail the elaborate programme first
laid down, for having failed TO do things
which are most desirable to be done, let
them remember that hitherto our resour-
ces have been by no means commensurate
with the duties pressing upon US, aud that
we desire only the means for greater use
fulness. But to return from this digres.
sion, let US see whether as farmers we are
guilty Of any neglect, whether about us
are any natural forces, any raw or waste
material utilized, for let US bear ever in
mind that not alone in boastiul rhetoric
are we the Lords of erection, but that in
every deed this title is ours, decreed to
us at the very dawn of the earth's his
tory, established by fat above all hui
man tribunals. And God said "Be
fruitful and multiply, and replcnish the
earth, and subdue it and have dominion
over the fish Of the sea, aud over the
fowl Of the air, and over every living
thing that move,h upon the earth" Let
us see whether we are obedient to this di.
vine injunction. Let us see whether we
appreciate this high commission.
|. 1st. Amid the resources Of nature
both in material and in power from which
wo may draw, let US consider first the air.
From this exhaustless reservoir our va.
rious crops, the trees of the forest, our
very bodies, even, obtain, with more or
less directpess, most Of the material
which constitutes their substance. With
its composition we have little to DO, but
in the distribution Of its treasures, the
hand of man is often apparent, generally
with disastrous results, oftcntimes most
benefcially, We all know Or may easily
satisfy ourselves that since this State was
settled great changes have been observed
in the character Of cur soils. Sections
once fertile and heavy with abundant
crops arc now arid wastes other places
formerly the nurseries of miasmatic va.
pors, have been transformed into our most
productive bottom lands and meade VS.
Streams formerly steady and continuous
have become devastating torrents at one
season of the year only TO be dwindled to
Insignificant rivulets, trickling over dry
beds, at apother season. Gradually our
people arc awaking to knowledge Of the
fact that these grand climatic changes
beneficial or otherwise, as in certain cases
they may be, are due principally 10 the
great destruction Of timber, the dcnuding
Of our mountain ranges which formerly
not only modified the course Of storms
but even determined their occurrence, and
also served to retain for months those pc.
riodical supplies of rain, yielding up its
moisture gradually to the thirsty earth.
but which now in deluging torrents rapid
ly finds its course to the sea. At the
convention of agrculturists held in Wash
ington, two years since. no subject was
more vigorously pressed upon the atten-
ton of the assembly than this, and at the
present time few subjects are the occa.
sion Of more anxious dcliberation, That
this prevalence Of certain winds, with the
Intervention Of mountain ranges deter.
mines the condition often between ex-
IRENE productiveness and absolute sterili-
ty we may call attention to California,
as compared with those arid wastes,
the alkali plains Of our western terlitor-
les where nothing but water forbids most
abundant harvests. Witness Colorado,
where the devices Of man have remcdicd
in copious irrigation the lack Of abundant
showers, and where upon a desert as
blank as Sahara 30 to 10 bushels of
wheat to the acre have been repeatedly
grown. Witness, too, the Sahara itself,
our synonym of desert, traycrsed only
by winds stripped of their moisture by
the mountains OF Atlas; so, too, the
Himalayas, with the accompanying des.
ert Of Cob, and cur own desert country
of the west between the Rocky mountains
and the Sierras
OF course 10 one individual agricultur.
list, no isolated township, may hope to
modify such general laws, but there is
hope to believe that the time may come
when more enlightened spirit shall gen.
orally prevail, and when nation, such
as is ours, whose territory is washed by
either ocean, may adopt policy which
shall again cause the desert TO blossom as
the rose Atmospheric moisture then, is
one OF those matters which we may con-
troll even as individuals, and by its con.
densation may secure moisture 10 lands
otherwise dry. This may be affected by
undertaking, method so generally
adopted for an opposite result, and thus
we mry find most beneficial results from
the draining Of dry land as well as wet
since by allowing a circulation Of moist
air. its moisture will condensc and afford
to the growing plant this indispensable
requisite. But not only is the atmos.
phere a reservoir oil natural food, supply.
ing those heterogeneous compounds which
by the rains are washed down into the
earth as supplies to the growing crop
not only aiiording as it probably
does in its carbonic acid ourcc Of sup.
ply for all the carbon which is the chici
constituent of its structure, but it is also
a source Of power as well, which we may
often utilize with profit, since literally il
is as free as air. la foreign countries
upon our western prairies, are to be seer
countless windmills, which supply by
pumping an abuudancc OF water for vari
, our purposes, or turn the stones Of ih(
mill, and it has seemed TO me that il
,, many cases our farmers might utilize thi.
never.ending supply of power, to provide
for their stock, their farm houses, theil
dairies, streams OF water and at no grea
expense.
I'd. Another force in nature too Of
ten allowed TO 20 to waste upon oul
, farms, or at least but partially utilized i,
water. We perhaps can scarcely appre
ciate flor the most common blessings O.
life are so common that we fail to realize
their full value often The peculiar bless
ipgs which We farmers Of Now England
possess in our countless water.courses
Indeed, rarely do we find farm of any
extent which has not one or more gener.
ally fulfilling every requirement if only
thew furnish a sufficient sunnlo IN M