Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-10-03
AGRICULTURAL.
GrMpTION IN FARMING.

Speaking of old farms and the best Nay
of farming, there is one thing IN which
the thrifty New-E -Englander is apt to cX-
eel his brethren of newer communities
and that is in the appliances for DONG ms
work. He has everything ''handy." The
proverbial ''gumption" of his race char
acterizes all his operations. He has in
herited the habit of Saving" from an
ancestry that found il stern necessity.
and he adds TO it an enterprise in adopt
ing all new helps in doing his work which
his shrewd calculation tells him will
pay"
The Western farmer, with his hundred
or his Thousand acres of wheat. would
laugh at the stout little onc-horse mower
and reaper with which his New Hampshire
brother cuts his garden patch fields !:
but the latter. if thrifty and purposely in
dependent, raises his own wheat and oats,
ind he knows that it pays TO he able to
harvest them quickly, with the ordinary
help on the farm. even if he have hut
small fields.
The corn which grows so vigorously ON
the strong soil of his knulls with the
southern slope. is cultivated with the help
of boy and his steady going horse. His
barn is built with basement, to save all
manure under shelter and avoid handling
IT two or three times over and when he
draws it ON to his fields it is in a broad
tired, wheeled cart, from which he
can dump il without pitching His wood,
too. is drawn in a cart. and mloaded in
the same swift and handy fashion.
As We have seen the many ways in
which these carts are made useful, we
have wondered that they are not more
common in the Middle States. i'll place of
the fOur-wheeled wagons with their mar
row tires cutting up the meadow turf and
sinking in the soft places over which the
broad wheels would pass IN safety.
The convenient and economical arrange
ments for foddering the cattle and sheep,
in modern New England barn. would
probably astonish the more prodigal, not
to say shiftless. farmers of more prolific
sections "No waste" is the motto which
has enabled the har,l-wOrking farmers of
the older States to hold their own against
the competition of the fertile and easily
titled fields of the West
Around the house, too, the same habit
prevails On every well-conducted farm
there is workshop. well supplied with
necessary tools. and with bits of choice
'bone-dry'' timber, from which every
thing from II rake tooth To whiflletiee
can be quickly fashioned. Buy and hire
as little Ms possible, but make and do for
yourself, is the rule
Too many farmers act on the assump-
ton that no labor saving contrivance
amounts to much unless it is protected 10y
a patent, and costs money. The man who
has '.gumption" knows better He man
ages, also, to improve his placeby perma-
nent bettermcnts, have water run
into his barn-yard. andto prevent the best
part of the manure from running out to
keep bunch of shingles ready to stop
any leak in his roofs, and tin to make his
granary vermin-proof; TO build fences
that won't need yearly repairs to put in
new fruit to take the place of old trees,
and to keep the latter neatly trimmed To
dig drains and fight the weeds, in a word
to keep up his place in manner that
will advertise him even to the passer-by
as man who respects his calling and
knows how to make it pay.
Deliver us, if you please, from the .
farmer. who never looks he !
yond tine end Of his nose. and never uses /
his hindsight to help his foresight -GOid-
cn RUic.