Huntsville gazette., 1881-11-19
The Practical Farmer.

The farmer, of all others, it would be
supposed, is truly practical man, and
does his farm work in such way that
the least outlay will bring the largest in
come. Let us look at some of the kinds
of farmers that our broad country con-
tains, and try to decide which comes the
nearest to the practical farmer, in the
highest acceptance of that phrase.
We do not have to 60 very far from
many of our own homes to find a farmer
who, having inherited a small farm from
his father, tills it, and that in much the
same way that it has been titled by his
father. He is content to do his work in
the ssgood old way" and holds up to
everyone that would suggest improve
ments the argument of antiquity; that
his father made q fair living in his way,
and he doubtless knew what was best.
There have been great many improve
ments in farming during the past thirty
years, and it would take large volume
to simply state the greater advantages
which the farmer of to day may enjoy
or rather needs to have, to successfully
compete in the agricultural strife-oyer
those within the reach of the farmer OF
a quarter of century ago. There is
much truth in the current expression
that the machinery of the farm is get
ting so perfect that men do not have to
work as hard as in former days. There
is the lazy mans mower, and the ease
loving mans thresher; and so on,
through the whole list of farm-tools.
/ am no advocate of idleness, but do
stand strongly for anything that will
shift hard work from the shoulders of
the farmer, and also the farmers wife
and children, to those of horses and
oxen and the forces of water and stream.
l do not wish that the farmer may work
less that he may spend his days in idle
ness. Deliver US from the state such
idleness would bring us into! We ought
to look upon all labor-saving devices, Of
whatever nature, not as means OF dong
mans work, but as means Of shifting
his labor from that which is purely OF
the muscle to that which is partly of the
brain
The farmer who is content to labor
with his hands from early morn until
late at night, leaving no hours for men,
tai labor, no time for the enjoyment of
the world of beauty in which he exists,
not lives, does not understand this,
though. Such farmer sees no value
in books; and as for using them in his
work-getting an idea here and sug-
gestion there-it is out of the question.
Book farming to him is nonsense, SIM
ply because he does not know what
farming is in its highest sense. Books
are not of value to anyone as a source
of information unless they are read and
their contents undergo process of men,
tai digestion.
Suppose we start with another farmer
who has likewise inherited farm from
his father, and upon which land he con-
tinues the agricultural work. This
farmer inherited more than simply the
farm; with it came desire for prog
ress, a longing, to be satisfied with only
the best of everything that farm can
afford, and at the same time keen
sense that the farm must be the means
of obtaining these desired ends. His
father was of course good farmer, and
saw the Importance Of getting the larg-
est possible crops by the best means
within his reach. This farm was more
to him than means of getting his daily
food; it was source of delight; por-
ton of the face of the earth in which,
so to speak, was reflected the very be-
ing of the Allwise. With this thought
uppermost-and men live in their
thoughts, and they are the truest meas
ure of their iving-it was his desire to
make his surroundings beautiful. Trees
were planted along the highway. Or
oI,orJc e +Lo hocf f,-,,;t do a c;lo l,;1l
fair to look upon. The buildings were
substantial and convenient, and in them
were snugly kept through the winter the
prize herd of the county. Surrounded
by such things as these the boy grew to
be man, each day drinking in some
thing of the higher life upon the farm.
He had a better start-sOme may say
than the poor farmer with whom he is
contrasted, and that but proves the very
point in hand. I wish it could be un-
derstood upon every farm in the United
States, from Maine to California, that
there is one crop that should stand
above all Others 1t is not sectional
one; but must be grown wherever farm
life lasts-the end toward which all 9TH
er crops tend. This great product of
American farms is the crop of boys and
girls, without which our country would
soon 60 out in darkness and its records
be the records of shortsightedness and
folly. On the proper raising of the
children depends the future of all human
institutions, and nowhere is this more
true than upon the farm. Our second
farmer had, then, the advantage of a
superior raising and he in turn
makes good use of that tillage of his
heart and brain, and lives a larger,
broader and therefore better life. He
keeps in view the Importance of the
proper training of his children and thus
:. farms it, in the most approved man
ner. He does his work that it may live
after him in a better farm, with good
hands into which to commi. it, when he
is gone. The first farmer does his work
for the present; literally he 6 works by
the day. the other for the future. Is
it not clear which is the better farmer,
and far the more practical one?-Dr.
Byron ID. Halsted, in Christian Un;on.