Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-22
Farm and Household.


NuNkehNonh lot EhFuheFhs
The Scientific American in reply to a cor.
respondent who wants to know how farmers
can most proftably employ their spare time
in winter, says:
Time was when the average New England
farmer was a man Of more than average in
telligence and thrift Now it may be ques-
toned whether the average New England me-
chanic is not his superior in these particulars.
And the difference is shown not so markedly
in the farmers winter idleness as in his UNI
thrifty laborousness at all seasons The char
acteristics of the Yankee mechanic, which
have made him king of artisans, are not those
of the Yankee farmer. The one is alert, ev-
err ready to discover and adopt improvements,
and always bent on making the best use of
the materials at his command. The other is
remarkable rather for plodding industry, for
unthrifty economies, for slowness in chang
ing his practices TO meet the changing wants
aud conditions of the times.
Even among the moro intelligent New Eng
land farmers there is n serious lack of knowl-
edge as to the capabilities of the soil under
cultivation, as to the crops that can be made
most profitable, and the best means of pro-
ducing such crops, not to speak of the pres
ervation of the fertility of the soil of means
for preventing the ravages of insect pests; of
methods of experimenting garden and field
crops by the rearing of fine grades of fowls,
sheep and other live stock of augmentng
the bulk and variety of the food supply by
restocking useless ponds and streams with
fish, and so on. In n thousand ways the
farmers of New England are pursuing un-
thrifty methods, by which they lose every
year as much as they win, by which they
miss possible advantages that might increase
enormously both their wealth and enjoyment
II 1. z. l.
fit TO many n poor farmer to be told how by
indoor industry in rough weather he could
add hundred dollars to his income. Ger
tainly that would be better than to spend the
time in idle gossip at the crossroads store.
But the chances are ten to one against the
farmer, who could so waste his time, having
farm SO well kept that the same labor would
not be worth twice as much if it were ap-
piled directly to the clearing up of neglected
corners, to repairing fences, out-buildings
tools, and machinery, to say nothing of eff
forts to gain a higher knowledge of the
science of farming, to improve the condition
of the farm, and increase its productive ca
pacity.
1t is safe to say there is not farm in New
England the value of which could not be ad-
vanced-perhaps doubled or trebled-by a
few years of intelligent effort. 1t is certain
that not one farm in thousand is in so per-
feet II state of cultivation, or its capacity so
widely developed, that its products might not
be greatly increased in single year by cult
waiting in the best way the crops best suited
to it and the nearest market avoiding prod
ucts for which it is illadapted or which can
be more cheaply raised elsewhere Accord
ingly it may be fairly questioned whether
the experimenting of poor farming with
some sort of manual labor not related to farm
work would not be less profitable than to en-
courage poor farmers to become intelligent
and wisely economical farmers. Trying to
compete with skilled labor and machinery by
hand work cannot be other than discourage
ing, even to save otherwise idle time to do
it when the time can be put to better use,
more especially when the main business of
life demands all of ones time and thought,
il certainly not the height of wisdom. Shift
less farming, even when allied to winter
thrift, can never accomplish as much as skill
full farming fostered by winter study and per-
rennial intelligence and thoughtfulness. New
England needs good farmers rather than any
hybrid class of unskilled farmer mechanics.
And what is true of farm owners is equally
true of farm workers. There is no way in
which young farm hands can employ their
spare time so proftably as in studying to be-
come intelligent farmers. And the best work
that can be done for the young people of our
rural districts lies, it seems to us, in the di-
rection of encouraging among them, especial
ly in winter, studies calculated to make their
summer work more intelligent and more
profitable to themselves and to the commu-
nifty as whole.