The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-08-02
IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE.

A Paper Prepared to BIO delivered at the
Meeting of the Vermont board Of Agricul-
ture at Clarendon, by J. Grafton Griggs
of Rutland.
Fifty years ago tins question was dis
cussed in lyceum. VIII there be as
many improvements in the next fifty years
as there have been in the last fifty? That
question was decided in the negative.
Were the same question discussed to-day
il would no doubt be decided in the same
way. When we contemplate the improve
ments that have taken place in the last
forty years Improvements that prevade all
departments of h.map pursuits and of hui
man happiness ali. tondins " make life
more valuable and to prolong 1t. We are
astonished at the progress that has been
made in this direction and are ready to-
jump to the conclusion that we have found
out about all there is worth knowing and
that inventions will die with us. Whereas
the truth is we have seen only the first faint
bushes of that morning which are the sure
day, or rather like Columbus we have but
discovered small island in the ocean
while just beyond there lies an undiscov-
cred ccutnent stretching from pole to pole.
We forget t,.et the human mind is all but
infinite in its resourccs and all but infinite
in its powers. True Stere is boundary
to human progress. The sculptor when
he has given the last stroke OF lie chisel
to the marble statue of the "human ,Eo-m
divine" cannot make the marble speak.
Its ears hear no sound. The silence of
death is on its iips, no light of the soul
flashes out from its stony eyes. 1t is cold
silent rock nothing more. The artist can
picture on canvass beautfA landscape
scene. As work OF art it may we with
that Of the sold masters" but he cannot
cause the shadows of the summer clouds
40 chase each other over the fields. lie
cannot make the leaves of the trees rustic
by the passing breeze. He cannot make
the brook murmur down the painted lands
cape compared to natures own, it is an OPP
tical illusion, a chadow, a nothing. Man
cannot create, nut he can bring TO light the
hidden forces Vt nature and subject them
to his own will These forces work for
him and thas alleviate human toll and pain.
No class of men have been more benefitted
by the improvements above limited at than
the agriculturist. Improved implements OF
husiandry and machines have come TO his
aid and he nov finds his labor but little
more than pastime compared to that of
fifty years ago.
The old wooden plow of that time was
but little better than the crotched stick OF
the ancents, and the harrow was often
nothing but erotched stick with teeth in
it. In tropical climates where the earth
produces almost spontaneously everything
for mans substance agricultural nipple
ments are of no great account but how our
fathers succeeded in wringing subsistence
and competence from the cold stony soil
of Vermont with the cumbrous implement:
then IN use will perhaps TO future gener.
atoms remain as much of 4 mystery as that
of the "lost arts" 1t took 100,Q 900 men AZ
years to build the great pyramid Chat OF
Cheops) in Egypt aud it was all doae b.,
the sheer force of human muscle. Now q
structure of the same kind could be reared
almost wholly by machinery alone.
So has agriculture from the dawn of his
tory up to the last few years been carried
on mostly by the same power that reared
the pyramids while all.along down. through
the ages past no minds had the power to
bring to its aid the latent forces IN nature.
1t is not alone with new implements that
| the agriculturist of to-day is favored bu
with new ideas by which progress has beef
made. Science has shown HIM pathwa,
whereby he can cut across lots and arrive
at the goal much easier than 10 follow The
torlous and hard beaten way OF his fathers
Science has taught him now to make I'M
greatest crops. How to enrich soil. How
to devclope better qualities OF his domest''
animals and how to construct his iarI
buildings. Science opens to him inc pooi
of nature and shows him by what laws SUI
works and if he makes that book his study
success will surely crown his efforts. IN
greatest need of the farmers OF vermont u
\ not so much the development OF our MN
eral resources. Not so much the utilizint
\ our immense water power rs some nave
claimed, but II is a more thorough educatioi
that is wanted, to lift them to higher pian'
of intelligence 1t is to no purpose 10 max
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