Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-08-24

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| since the creation.
| But the farmers of to-day are different
creatures. They are really the only useful
class of people we have. Were 1t not for the
farmer, you and would 60 to bed hungry
before Saturday night, but if | were put un-
| der hydraulic cotton press and all the farm
| ing qualities squeezed out ofme, there would
not be enough to raise one gram of mustard
seed. would sooner be cut up into rail-
road spikes and driven into oak ties, than
farm it, SO little do love the pursuit. If it
were left to me to earn my living by farming,
| don't think could raise sausage enough to
| keep me from starving.
| | honor the farmer, as l do the truthful
ness of George Washington, but should
have he'd the old man right out of his boots
about that cherry tree, If l had been George.
| freely confess that | do not like farming
| any better than | do castor oil. There Is
| more hard work to the acre in farming than
| in any occupation / know OF, If We except
| the dentist. There is heap of hard work
| to the acher in that business, though the
| work is chiefly to the acher rather than TO
| the dentist.
The farmer has an inborn idea that the
| sun will not rise unless he gets up and per-
| sonally superintends the job. When was
| small boy | was told by my good mother that
| the sun rose every morning and always
believed her. l never got up to see, for
| always felt as if it would look as If doubted
her word.
After the farmer is up he must cut up some
green wood for his wife to build the fire with.
A farmers wife who had kindhngs and dry
| wood fornished her would consider that she
had good grounds for u divorce. While the
breakfast is being cooked the farmer HES to
| the barn to take care of and feed his cattle.
ANYBODY who has ever taken hold of a pitch
| fork handle when the thermometer WAS be-
| low zero never will outlive the remembrance
of it. There may be things colder, but new
er touched them. / took hold of white oak
pitchfork handle over twenty years ago and
have never had the full use of my hand
since.
After completing the chamber work In the
barn, the next thing is 10 water the stock.
Watering stock on Wall street and watering
it on a farm are two different things. Pump
ing water up through leaky pump, when 1t
seems as if the first drop came from the GEN.
tire of the earth, is more cheerful TO read OF
than to do. Perhaps it is not a pump, but
an icy well-pole that you are called upon to
embrace, and as it slips through your fingers,
and the cold drops Of water splash up yoIr
| shirt-sleeve, you begin to wonder whether
this really is the bright world that you al
ways thought it was, and whether You VIII
be called upon to draw water from deep
well with an icy pole in the other land be-
| yond the skies.
1t is during the winter that the farmer
| throws aside the drudgery and hard work OF
the farm, and engages in the sport of cutting
and hauling out cordwood. Next to making
tatting, there is scarcely any labor more easl-
| ly done than breaking out Il wood-road
| through snow three feet deep.a then chop
ping down trees, splitting and cutting them
| into cord wood, then hauling load OF 1t fiji
| teen miles to market, and then stand III the
street all day. and finally sell it for So cord.
| and take your pay in something you don't
| want When / think of this easy way of
| earning O dollar have to hire a stout man TO
| hold me down into chair, in order to keep
me from plunging out and buying wood
| lot.
When spring fairly sets in, then it is that
the farmer begins to realize that he owns II
farm, and that he is sturdy yeoman. He
starts out with his plough to turn up the fur
rows in the glad earth. How beautifully the
poet sings about all this, and how nice it
sounds if the poetry is good l think there
is q charm about poetic lie that does not
exist in prose.
For delicate invalid, a course Of treat
ment consisting of holding a plough for iii-
teen hours day, through rocky field,
would be likely TO make another man OF him
| i'll u short time. 1t might possibly be dead
man, but still it would be another man. |
held u plough once and helped TO break up
| piece of new land. Through the kindness
of friends WAS taken into q machine shop
and rebuilt over as well as the machinist
could do the job. never seemed to feel eX-
actly right since, but don't suppose | ought
| mot 10 h.. IA.
| both pulled out of the sockets and | WAS all
stretched out CT shape, and he did as well as
| anybody could for me. | shall not hold a
| plough again rs long as hold my reason,
and when that leaks out of me 1t will not
matter much what hold or what holds me.
When farmer wants little play, instead
| of putting out his croquet set, he turns to
and builds piece of stone wall. Building
stone wall is more exciting than playing bill
| lards for there is more variety Ia It. ANA
| teur billiards always reminds me OF the itch,
there is so much scratch to it, but huildng
stone wall is diversified ; something TO do all
the time, like catching fleas.
| No one can realize the charm of digging
round big rock, and getting chain under
| it, and twitching it onto Il drag, OF Of getting
| q crowbar under it ; and lifting and strainng
| on it, enough to strain the whole Atlantic
ocean, and then of having the bar slip. and
stone roll back, barking hin, or otherwise
bruising you, while you plunge forward with
force enough to drive your head into the
ground. ] say no one cun realize the charm
OF this, unless he sat on IA fence, ms | have,
and seen 1t done.
The bug problem TO the farmer is Il stu
pendous one. 1t amounts to more to Il small
farmer than it does to the biggest hotel pro-
prietor in the country. good smart cham
harm a at
will fix bed so that you can plant a man at
| 9 O'Clock at night and have to haul him out
| OF bed with 1. steam tug III the morning. he
| will sleep so soundly.
The potato bug is native of the West
| He originated i'll the canons of Colorado. aud
| may be called an ofishoot of That section.
| The State is rammed iull and 10 AIDED down
with them. They formerly lived ON wild
| plants, but one OF them went up to Denver
on Il little pleasure trip, and at the hotel
there he had some fried potatoes, and they
struck him as being about the best TIN ny
| quiet hunger he had ever lighted on. lie
went home and advised his brethren to go
East, and they simply packed up IL few col
lars and change OF clothing and started.
| The potato bug daUns on the farmer very
rapidly he sees his potatoes nicely up, then
green tops reminded him that potatoes ia Tia,
fall ut IL dollar u bushel are better than - ser
! pent's tooth OF II thankloss child. and Il,
| goes to bed dreaming of wealth pounng IN
| on him in burrows, and the next morning h,
| visits his field, and sees some red spots on
the potato vines, about big ns pin heads
He notices that they give rather gontcc
look to the leaf. In day or two he sccf
these red drops begin to grow. md then I,
crawl, and in three or four days lac pOcs ou
and rs SO surprised at what he sees that yor
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