Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1879-04-30
FARMERS TROUBLES,
4 Humorist Tells Nv ot the Many
Trials which the Patient Agri'
euIturist undergoes.

cuiturist Cndergoes,
II. ], Burdctle, tho Burlington
Hapkeye journalist, while on u recent
leclunng tour through Illinois, wrote
as follows
From Augusta to Macomb, every
field was iull Of plowa aud patient
farmers. Dear patient good-natured
grumbliogl agriculluri'ts, Where q
farmer gets hi0 good nature from Is q
mystery to mo every time l look at
him. | watch him from the car win
dow, plodding along ut the tail Of the
p'ow, aud | wonder that he ever
smiles at all, under any provoeat'on'
OF all men, il seems to me the farmer
has the best righ, to grumb'e, Only
he never grumblcs at the right things
lie grumblcs at the price, and then
of course nobody sympathizes with
him or cares cent ior his troubles
because we all grumble at the same
thing. Price never did suit anybody
The seller always thinks they are too
low, and the buyer always know they
are too high, The merchant goes in
to bankruptcy because he is compelled
to sell his goods for hall they cost
him; and the customer goes naked
and s,aryes because he cant afford to
nav one.half what is asked for them,
So the farmer when he grumbles at the
price is no worse off than the rest OF
us, and accordingly attracts no sym
pa'hy.
But here is where, to my way OF
thinking, the gazellc comes in tor the
farmer.
1t is spring and the annual warfare
begins. Early the morning the 70.
cund farmer hies him to the field, and
hunts around in the dead weeds and
grass for the plow he left out there
somewhere last fall. When he finds
it he takes it to the shop to have II
meuded. When it is mended he goes
back into the field with it. Half way
down the first furrow he lays, he runs
, the plow fairly into bigliv oak root
the handles alternately breaks a rib
on this side of him and jab the breath
+ ont of him on the other, and the
sturdy root, looking up out OF the
+ ground with pleased smile OF recog
, milton, says cheerlully.
r "Ah, Mr.. Thistlepcd,l at it again
, ell p
/ Fifty feet further on he strikes
/ stone that doubles up the plow poln
like piece of lead, and while th'
p amazed and breathless agriculturls
, leans, a limp heap of humanity, acros
g the plow, the relic of the glacial perlo'
remarks, sleepily:
"Ah, ha! spring here already
Glad you woke, me up"
o And then the granger sits dow
: and patiently tries to tie on that ploN
point with hickory withe, and Will
:. he pursues this fruitless task th'
, friendly crow swoops down nea
,, enough to ask:
n "Going to put this twenty in corr
e this year, Mr.. Thistlepod 2"
o And before he has time to answe
v the sable bird, tiny grasshoppe
e wrierled out of cloud so full OF egg
It that they can't be counted, shout
br1skly:
.e .Here we are again. Mr.. Tlstlepod
u dinner for 5OO,OOO,OOO,OOO!'
:" And then moving, but yer
i positive potato bug, crawls out int
j. the sunlight to see if the frost has fa'
le ed his stripes, and says:
ID "TLe old-fashioned peachblow pot
ID toes are the best for sure crop, b
IS the early rose should be planted Il
the first market
Then several new kinds of bu|
'o who hav'Dt made any record ye
III climb over the fence and come up
I" inquire about the staple crops OF tt
neighborhood, and before he can g
~ -, through with them Professor III
VI sends him circular stating the
- won't be drop of rain from the mi
"' die of May till the last of Octobe
us This talmost stuns him, but he is b
~ ginning to fell little resigned when
~ dispatch is received from the Depal
~ ment of Agriculture at Washingtc
"o saying that ali indications point to
"' summer of unprecedented rains al
floods, and advising him to plant
vs. root crops at all. While he Is tryl
Nv TO find words in which to express b
IN emotion, neighbor drops in to t
to him that all the peach trees in I
nd country are winter-killed, and that
no hog cholera is raging fiercely in Z
- ..,bo., nart of tho tOwushlD. In