Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-02-03

politicians together" Nor is this avery high
compliment to the intelligent and successful
laborer Whatever praise may he given to
the scientific farmer as a public benefactor'
certainly none at all can be justly given to
men whose only interest it is to have, like
Cardinal Wolsey, an unbounded stomach y
for office and place. Such men are Of very
small account in this working world. They
are the consumers Of the wealth and produc-
ton Of others. They are the mouth that de-
yours and not the brains that construct and
the hands that execute. The agriculturist,
ON the other hand is the food-producer and
the wealth-mauufacturer Of the nation. lie
turns guano into corn, and super-phosphate
of lime into wheat, and oil-cake into beef
and mutton.
But to do the highest and best work in
agriculture, man must he intelligent.
Farmers who stick To the traditions of a
comparatively ignorant past, never turn slab
sided oxen into quick-fattening Deyons nor
lean sheep into round South Downs nor
drifting sands into cornheldsi nor rocky
pastures into vineyards and orchards nor
succulent grass into such products Of the
dairy as Solomon never classified in his book
Of wisdom.
1t is a noteworthy fact that, in the Latin
language, the words ground and man have a
common root 1t is also memorable that
Adam, the parent Of all living, means clark
red loam." The old Athenians were called
d" Amochtheaes," " children Of the soil" We
call our country, our "father land" and a
traitor is also a parricide. Thus language
seems to consecrate the soil aud make it the
basis of human life and power The stew
ardship Of all life, national social and do
nestle, is vested in the men who till the
fields; and the question as to how they shall
discharge their responsibilities, is one of the
highest moment--and the answer to IT is as
obvious as it is emphatic Muscle must
not be divorced from mind. The farmer
must be man of thought The hundred
hands of Briareus were never used until the
hundred eyes of Argus were all opened. Great
and useful methods of action always have
some great and cultivated mind for their an
cestor, and education is as needful to the
farmer or mechanic, as it is TO the lawyer or
physician. Some professional men can make
little learning go great way with the ig-
uorant multitude but nobody can play any
tricks upon the forces and laws of nature
A schemer and charlatan can make money
out of the weakness or inexperience Of his
fellows; but no trickster and schemer can
make farming profitable. The finger of in
telligence alone can touch the secret springs
of nature, and clothe the naked fields with
grain, and make the rocky pastures flow
with milk and honey.
Ignorant labor is always the dearest. On
the farm, in the shop, at the factory, igno-
rant operatives are an expensive luxury
Ignorant and uncultivated farmers are al
ways poor, and their farms are poor. They
have no skill or power 10 make two ears of
corn grow where one grew before, and so their
farms are half-tilled and half-productive.
An agent of one of the manufacturing
corporations of New England city, once
said that there were in his mills one hundred
and fifty girls who had been engaged in
teaching school. The wages of these school
mistresses were eighteen per cent above the
general average, and forty per cent. above the
wages of those girls who were obliged to
make their mark. In cotton mill, the diff
ference between the labor Of educated oper-
atives and the labor of uneducated opera
tives is the difference between dividends
and assessments. And by educated labor "
we mean the labor of persons who have been
instructed and mentally developed in other
directions and ways than in the mere routine
and drudgery of the particular tasks to
which they are called. Other things being
equal, the operative who is learned in things
beyond and outside his special handiwork is
the most successful and profitable The
physician who is cultivated in general sci
ence and literature, is best in his particular
calling Anything that enlarges the mind
of man insures more skilful and vigorous
use of any special function. An educated
farmer, one whose general learning and cul-
ture carry him beyond the range Of his daily
tasks, and is also scientifically instructed in
his own department, will beat every time,
his unthinking, threading and unframed
neighbor. The best sweat that falls on a
farm is the sweat of the farmers brains.
The next best is the sweat of his brow.
Ignorant farmers are superstitious. They
wean their calves when the calendar sign is
in the stomach, so that the poor animals may
not pine away over their meal and clover
They sell or cast away the pig whose tail
curls to the left. They consult the moon
when to pack their pork. They plant their
potatoes when the same luminary is in the
wane, so that they may not run to tops.
When a COW or an OK has " lost the cud, +"
they make new one for the sick animal, in
stead Of investigating the nature of the dis
ease and applying the appropriate remedy.
They thrust knife through the dew lap to
cure swollen bag, when a mich cow has
taken cold from exposure. But the educated
farmer learns what soil needs guano and
what soil prefers ashes aud lime. lie treats
each animal according to its nature and
special necessity. He feeds them all with
regular and suitable food. He thinks that
in the dairy cleanliness is next to godliness,
and that without cleanliness not even godli-
ness, were it possible, would be profitable.
lie is familiar with the conditions Of vegeta-
BILE growth and knows how 10 make his fields
in the highest degree productive. His daugh
ter deems it no disgrace TO work" and the
son Of the richest and most respectable eiti-
zen thinks il an honor TO take her as his
welded wife, II he can get her. The edu-
Gated farmers field and dairy and kitchen
will be laboratories of science where theories
will be tested and pronounced wise or worth
less, as the result may be. II we allow labor
to be surrounded with low associations, the
sons Of our farmers will leave the homestead
10 get their living by their wits, and their
daughters viii fall out by the way some
where through some orange-tinted novel,
and the farm will come TO thistles and
weeds. Labor, TO be respected must be
respectable; TO be lucrative, il must be in
telligent and educated.
II is an old maxim that om of nothing,
uofL;na ro,aasu and n l. trua l., a,.a.., IL