Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-06-02
Use THE MIND.

i
appreciate the capacity of the Grange
for the accomplishment OF good, not In
one but in many ways The best In
venlion by which labor was avoided
and crops were saved seemed to be
pretty generally received by US as in
novations, aud not until the more in
dependent and, perhaps, hazardous
agriculturists, disregarding ridicule and
prophecy, accepted these Innovations
and proved their great utility, did the
mass follow! 1t was even left to other
minds to invent these great improve
ments and agencies by which the work
of the farm has been SO infinitely de-
creased, accelerated, land by which crops
have been neatly cultivated and made
abundant. The farmer is slow to de-
part from old practices, experimenting
but little and keeping his thought main
ly upon timely sowing and rcaping and
putting into barns, toiling necessarily,
directing all his vital, nervous energy
into physical labor. Thus the mind is
left in many instances bankrupt and
thus most of the inventions that have
come as blessings are from minds least
identified With agriculture.
Farmers need to use the mind as we'll
az the hands. AS citizen, he creates
the government under which be should
! partake of the common veal and by
which his interest should be advanced
and property protected and enhanced.
Merely excellent cultivation and growth
of crops will not. bring good govern
ment- Mr.. Emerson well says that
education supersedes politics. So long
as the people have no intelligent con-
ception as to economy that will bring
the greatest good to the greatest num-
Der, we cannot reach such an economy;
so long as prevailing systems OF ex'
changes and Of trade are mystery to
the voter, so long as laws are created
without knowledge as TO their tenden-
cies, so long as farmers will be content
With the mere political fiction of par
tisan sheet which forever blinds and i'm
passions, just so long will we have pot
house politics aud an artificial, unfair
distribution of wealth and bounty.
The Grange invites farmers to meet
together, talk together and work to-
gether. Interchange of thought brings
knowledge and induces search after
facts. These frequent meetings and
suggestions for the good of the order
will eventually induce the mind to seek
facts and plan wholesome remedies bas-
ed upon seif-evident elements OF success.
How we need to know! and what a
benefceut school we can make the
| Grange. Shall we live much longer
upon the breath of demagogues? Is it
not time for us to prove all things, and
TO hold fast alone uuto that which IS
| good? Because this law maker says
this is good, and that certain 'nohody"
saws that is good, is such mere assertion
proof of WORTH We may increase the
productive powers of our SOIL our har-
vests may be made bouEtful through
muscular toll, yet by failure to contrib
ute mentally each and all towards a
solution Of the various practices that
touch our interests, oppression may so
increase that our harvests will do us
little good. Life and fire insurance
have been considered excellent provl-
sions, yet life and fire insurance have
been in so many instances but snare
and swindle, this Notwithstanding we
are constantly making law! This is but
one of thousand illustrations. If the
mind of the farmer depends upon the
little weekly political slip that foments
partizan prejudices in order to live, tor
culture, how easily is he made to serve
other interests and how unwittingly he
betraYs his own. In making our
Oranges a source ofinstruction, means
of reaching reliable knowledge of all
that has connection with our interests,
We make them valuable and attractive.
S. r. DOWNING.