Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-04-24

and are apparently good for another dozen of |
years. That man there will spade more
ground in a day. even in this hot climate
and hard soil, with his heather mattock or
great hoe, than any two Vermont gardeners
can with Ames best spade, and do it bet
ter, too.
Tom may laugh at the idea of my little
palm-leaf basket being model Of the best
well-bucket ever invented. But see what
they are doing yonder--watering field Of
great plants. Tobacco plants, am sorry to
say they are. for these poor heather do not
know any better than to cultivate the vile
stuff. They do it with an enormous basket
that hangs from the middle of long rope.
Each end of the rope is fastened up in some
tall trees, and the middle of thangs down over
the pond or cistern. There are two more ropes
on the basket, at right angles to the other
rope, and two companies of men pull it back
and forth over the pond. As it swings down
they jerk it SO skilfully that it dips up per-
haps barrelful of water, and then when
it is up another jerk pours it out into a ditch
that carries IL all over the field. Why the
best Chain Lightning Pump" that Yam
kee peddler ever sold to a poor farmer could
not begin to water field so cheaply or so
easily, or so quickly. Yes, wish Farmer
White was out here. These heathens would
teach him how to get good crop off from
a little land how to raise rice and millett
and yams, and pineapples, and beans in pods
as long as your arm, and many other vege-
tables such as he never saw. To be sure he
could, if he only knew how and went to
work right, improve some of their ways
little. But if he went to work first trying to
civilize them, even il he succeeded at all,
he would not help them to be Christians.
If he would hire them to work for him some
of them would profess to be Christians.
"Give me twenty dollars and I'll be Chris
tan at once" said a learned and influential
heather to me once. We could make such
Christians in Ceylon perhaps for an average
of ten dollars a head. But that would be
ten thousand times as much as they would
be worth.
The fact is, children, the heather of Cey-
Ion know enough to despise man who pro-
fesses to be Christian and does not go right
to work as if he believed what his Bible
says-that unless men repent and believe on
Jesus they are lost. They will not respect
the Christian who does not preach the Cos
pei to everybody he meets
But let us look around at some of the other
farm work. Those are not hop poles Tom.
These poor heather have not vet learned to
make lager beer Farmer White could teach
them to raise hops. But do not believe
he would dare do it, But these are yams.
lis beautiful vine, is it not, with bright
green leaves ? Down there in the ground
you can find big potato-lke roots that look
and taste something like potatoes.
1t will be harvest time next April. Then
the rice will be harvested. You will see
men going along with little crooked knives
cutting off the heads very carefully and
putting them in baskets or on mats. And
behind them will come row of women
and children creeping along on the ground
What do you suppose they do? Just
!. what Ruth did in the field of Boar Pick
up the little kernels of grain one by one
The reapers try not to drop any, but il
by hard days work in the lot some one
of those women saves pint she gets good
pay for the day. 1t is time to pick some
of these palm nuts. Now how would Far
mer White do it? 1t is perhaps seventy
feet up there where they grow, higher
r than his longest ladder, and there are nc
branches to help him. Now Tom, can yol
climb it? No not even with your climbing
: irons such as the men use on the telegraph
poles. This wood is too hard for them. Blu
call one of those heather boys and tell hin
to go and gather the nuts. He will go VI
there in about one half minute. And al
the ladder he needs is piece of stout core
5 about three feet long. He ties the ends o
t it together and puts both feet through thu
1 loop, and then reaching up as high as he cal
, be clasps the tree with his hands, draws VI
a his feet and putting the bottoms of then
"S"iioN WIZ ocVi 40 ldl apart dS tile SII III
1 will let him, he holds on with his feet
straightens up, and takes new hold witt
0 his hands, and so on he goes, perhaps tw,
j feet at step. His feet are braced so tina
e unless the cord breaks he cannot slip. On
Z of these boys would climb any flagstaff il
! Vermont in one minute.
d No, children, if you ever again hear an,
u one say the heather of Ceylon do not kno,
e anything, are only monkeys whom it is n
i use to try to teach, you tell them that it i
h a mistake, for they are smart, active perst
e vering people. In anything to which the
i are accustomed they can do as much as W
+ can. In some things we can teach then
e but in others they can teach us. If it wer
r not for the influence of their heather reli
4 gion they would be our equals.
The religion of Jesus Christ is what the
r need. 1t will civilize them as well as say
d them. Wherever it goes it makes the deser
o to blossom in beauty like the rose, and eve
e turns the Ceylon jungles into gardens.
Vt In my next letter III try to tell you som,
1t thing of these Ceylon flowers
n