The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-28
The 8ntland gailu Glohe.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY %, 1877.
THE FARMERS BODY.
Reply to DR.. Hit.
EAST RUPERT, Feb. Oath, 1877.

EAST RUPERT, Feb. Oath, 1877.
| noticed in late number of the GLOBE,
an article by DR.. j. E. Hit on "The Far
mcr's Body" and knowing his reputation
as an medical doctor to be very good,
thought that although he had got hold of
a tough "subject," be would be able to
thoroughly dissect 1t, and being a farmers
daughter and farmers wife, with the care
of several young farmers who have ad-
vanced in working 10 the soil as far as max
ing mud pies, read the article with keen
interest. must confess was disappoint-
ed, for although he handled the scalpel
with skill, laying bare some of the effects,
he failed to reach the seat or real cause of
the disease. To say that farmers do not
exercise enough is as absurd as If one should
say of q country doctor who has great
ride, that he does not take the air enough.
He must 90 out to ride-if he can get time.
wonder when the Doctor was moving
that heavy grass, those hot August fore
Moons, If he felt like seeing how far he
could jump, or what heavy dumb bells he
could hold at arms length, wien he went
in to dinner. To be sure flrmer's don't
NOW by hand much now, but every body
who labors on farm knows there is plenty
of hard, heavy work to be done. The far
mers in this vicinity do not use machines
for hoeing, or digging potatoes, splitting
wood, plowing, milking forty or fifty cows
twice day, etc. etc. All tnat they do by
a combination of muscle and what the doc
tor calls "elbow grease
He laments the "burglsres OF foreign
ers," and in the same breath says there are
too many machines used. Now l can re-
member when the haying season on large
farms, meant for us "women folks" a whole
regiment of Canada Frenchmen 10 cook the
"pork and beans" for, and l must say that
in place of those French machines, PIE
fer woods mowers" that neither eat pork
nor wear dirty shirts to be washed. IL was
q fine sight, certainly, on bright summer
morning, to see the farmer march bis army
into the field, their scythes glittering in the
sun, and watch their elbows play with
measured swing, as the tall grass fell un-
der their blades. 1t made one feel poetical
to see them, and developed great deal OF
muscle--in the Frenchmen Of course he
would have us dispense with sewing and
washing machiues too. l am afraid this
hundreth anniversary has turned the doc
tors head, and he would have US return to
the PRINCIPLES and practices OF our tore
parents l know an old man who tells
stories about women he used to know, who
were good for something. Besides doing
all the house work for a large old fashioned
family, and bringing water from the spring
quite diet 4nce away, they still found time
to tp and weave, and then for recreation
often MIXED the cows with iby in arms,
and tight here doctor, we touch one of the
causes. They continued to bave children,
they made that popular" and they con.
tinued to ovei work. Put that aud that To.
gether and you can see the next geLera
tion had to suffer as matter of course.
He says, too, that "iarmers seldom NEE
except at funerals" That is too true, anC
the reason is because they over exercise
overwOrk, rise TOO early, and work too
laie. giving themselves no TINA for rest
inform themselves on subjects they ough
to understand, for when man rises at foul
o'clock and works until some time in th'
evening, if he takes up the newspaper, HI
is pretty apt 10 nod assent to everything i
contains in a few minutes, and close hi
eyes-to mediate on what he has read,
suppose.
There are some, Of course, who think i
quite as necessary 10 develop brain al
Drawn. Show me euch an one who tsket
time to learn the laws of health, for In
stance and not only teaches them to hi
daughter. but sees that she obeys them
and will show you young lady who can
not remember the time she thought "wasl
waists" becoming to her sex. And thi
same young lady, if she has well educatet
father, will have no taste for dime novels
If she reads fiction. her standard will no
fall below Charles Dickens or George Eliot
She will not think it degrading to know
how to cook a good meal, or how to rea
healthy, intelligent children.
Farmers do not need fewer machines
and more drugery, but more leisure for cul
ture and sociability.
A FARMERS WIFE.