The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-05-16
A HARD LESSON.


farm succes is economy. 1t Is a
lesson. the effects of which must
be seen in the household, IN the
family. in the labor, N the sup
plies, and everywhere on the farm
1t must be an ear-nark 10 every
work. and to all that concerns the
farmer, so plain, that one running
NAV see it. 1t is a lesson hard for
our people TO Learn !; harder than
farming itself. But the lack OF It
has not been found alone with the
farming class. As a people, we
have been slow to learn it. 1t Is
today not recognized in many a
Southern family. 1t Is no part OF
the farm and household manual.
And even where it has been recog-
nized, it was not the plant set out
and maturcd by intelligent fore
thought and calculation f: but, oft
ener than otherwise, it was an IN
truder that forced itself in, and took
root in, cold necessity. II, at the
close of the war, u people had
have simply gathered up and hus-
banded the weeks of their former
fortunes and assumed a "masterly
inactivity" policy, they would to-day
have been a thousand times better
off. 1t is a question that we have
hardly been able to decide, when
our people were worse deluded when
they allowed themselves to be
plunged into an unnecessary war;
or when, at its close, they com
menced to farm their poor lands
with demoralized free labor on the
old broad-acre slave systems Of the
country. Many a precious life ha
been fretted out and frittered away
in the vain attempt. Poverty CT
be no disgrace, coming to a peopl,
as ours came, and the sooner we
come to feel this, and learn some Of
the plain rules of economy thai
poor people use, then will We check
up and start back. And the longer
it is delayed the lower we will get.
We know families that move as
surely down hill, each year, as
Christmas zones The father. to
keep up appearances, has yainly
kept wife and daughters visiting,
shopping, or in the front parlor;
whilst the driver, the servant, the
nurse, the cook and washer have
been as surely drawing their wages
and undermining his establishment
in the real. On the farm his
"partners" have been skimming
and carrying off the cream.
Is there any thing bright ahead
to such a family? Not to our eyes.
They may be pointed to and the
remark made, that Mr.. Smith own
ed a "quarter" and had a hundred
negroes but there will be so many
Mr.. Smiths that this can be but a
dry consolation. We must come
to study economy as we would pro
gress in agriculture. The farmer
must learn its rules and be able to
enforce them-not only on his
farm, but III the household. Let
it be an accomplishments matter
of pride-with every member of
the family, and that, too, before
the last remnant Of the wreck has
gone, and with it the prestige of
the family.
The trouble is, our wants are too
much the wants of an education
that atf1uence gave us, and not the
wants of IN education our present
condition would give. The French
stand ahead of the world in recu-
perative powers, and they have
gained this reputation simply by
learning the'value Of small things.
and the use of this word, economy.
1t may not be a pleasant school for
people who have been rich !; but it
does seem that we are all in the
condition IN which we might feel
that
The art of our necessities is strange