Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-06-20
Proyerbial Philosophy for the Farmers.


Proverbial Philosophy for the Farmers.
The great waste of the world comes from
wickedness.
A wicked government is one that thrusts
its wick into every mans fat, and burns it
at both ends.
There are too many wicks in the national
oil-pot
The wastes of the farm are the bottom
leaks of nations.
When the land fails in strength, vegetation
is dwarfed, animals grow lean and weak,
and men and women become hungry and
quarrelsome.
When we discover that the earth can no
longer be tickled into the laugh of harvest,
the fun of farming is over, and we sober up
suddenly with hard times.
So long as the farm pans out well every
other industry goes fluking
We are panicky people; when we spend
we spend with perfect rush, and when we
are taken with saving spell we pinch and
screw with all our might.
Land improvement is not in order by com
mon consent, and the doctrine of rights in
the soil which provident men must respect
is a strange one to most farmers.
If farmers mean to lead in public affairs,
they must be able to go ahead in a wise ex-
penditure.
80 ~ -, Ian
is like sailor without faith in his ship.
1t is a waste of the soil to take dust enough
from it to make doubling farmer of.
We are never entirely short Of unpopular
priests, sounding sharp truths at the risk OF
their lives.
Chemistry is cross or hybrid, betwixt
divinity and medicine, and better than either
for exact farm purposes.
| 1t is the chemist who declares the gospel
IF the gods we have so long ignoranty wor
| ,hipped in barn-yard manure.
A trader never cares for land, except foI
he rise on it, and farmer with traders
heart has no genius for his own trade.
Farm economies have won honorable men,
ton in literature and philosophy, but no.
where has mans duty of dressing and keep
ing" the soil been made the policy of party
or state, nor tenet of any religion.
We are just now about underpinning the
nation for another hundred years shall we
set the superstructure on basis of sound
farming?
1t naturally tends to retard the waste of
the farm to keep the same stock of people
on it, even if they don't know so much. The
aboriginal inhabitants ranged these lands of
ours thousand years, while the soil grew
better all the time.
National safety consists chiefly in being
as hot as hornet at injustice to the least
citizen.
A suitable distance is required for men,
as well as cabbages to head well.
The Jews were obliged to stay one gener-
alton in the wilderness to get the taste Of
Egyptian high-farming out of their mouths,
before being let into the promised land.
1t is tedious try against gravity to renew
the fertility of hilltop.
The ancient dye-pot in the chimney-cor-
ner was a posy to the turbid streams of our
politics.
Men are like sheep, never satisfied until
they have taken the size of their lot.
In our state farming has come to such a
pass that it must save its waste in order
to live.
Through the length and breadth of the
continent there comes up a wall, in one
shape or another, for wasted phosphates and
nitrates.
Has not our farming population been tried
by fire already, and so blown upon by all
winds of doctrine, so returned from the
West and South, and the ends of the earth,
as to love our soil and climate as they are,
in spite of all temptations?
If every farmer signs for the hesh-pots OF
Egypt, or some wash from the mountains of
the moon, or some new land to skim, and is
resolved to sell out to the first cash buyer
if every lad is thinking of scattering as soon
as he gets big enough to scatter then there
is no use in preaching economy.
The reliance for the near future Of our
farming is that men everywhere have got
done whistling for help, and are going to
work for themselves at home.
When the times are hard and mems hearts
fail them, then the valiant and courageous
will show their hands. When farmers are
not equal to the situation there is cause fol
alarm.
How long can afarmer buy at retail prices
and sell at wholesale Or buy soap and
throw away his ashes and pot-skimmings
If farmers will persist in being cheated
we shall have to hang a few of them by thu
seats of their trowsers for examples. Every
body is delighted to dress the farm oyster.
The beginner can't afford to spend his
horse manure upon the village road.
When there is small knowledge to guild,
the use of it, it is better that the capital b,
be small, in order that the wastes may b,
small.
Many are called and few are chosen to ru
raj pursuits.
We have made whistle out of pigs tail
4
and may be able to make a silk purse out o
sow's ear in time for the next centennia
cottage, but we can't make good farme
out of everybody.
Children are born on farms, as elsewhere
that seem of no use except as bad example
of breeding or to keep maggots out of tn
rest.
Choose such help as you can respect, an'
, remember that something is due betwee
master and man more than wages or worl
Well as some of us love experiments, W
must allow that farming has been too expel
mental of late for profit. The alteration
are so rapid that conservative farmers d
not think of making any change themselve,
but are merely waiting, as at circus, I
"see what will come around next"