The patron of husbandry., 1882-01-14
Who Will Heir?
Dirigo Rural, Maine.

w no Will help the farmer? Not
the lawyer, the doctor, or the politi-
clan. These are all busy in looking
after number one. Not the merchant
and manufacturer, for they are fully
occupied in studying the needs, the
prospects and the probabilities of
the business with which they are
identified. Not the farmers them
selves, we came near saying, because
they are indifferent to their own in
terests, and because so little unity of
thought or action characterize their
plans and movements Of life.
The winter months are naturally
a season of comparative rest for the
common farmer The season of
frost and snow COMES and compels
him to let the land rest, that it may
be in condition for the next years
crop. This should also be a hint to
the farmer to rest frem active work
and prepare for the aext summers
campaign by getting in complete
6BceddiHati6f 6BeceeddiHaftaiS6 f 8n eFfs. TssGts Oh or Whichh II
he is depending for the support of
him self and family. Useful facts re
Iating to agriculture should be col
lected and put in practice that will,
if possible, make his farming opera
tons pay better than ever
What shall be done to improve
the condition of the average farmer?
There is general feeling that the
tiller of the soil somehow gets but a
small share for the hard labor per
formed; that somebody else gets
most of the profits. He sometimes
rebels against such state of things,
and attempts to remedy it by going
West or by taking to some other
business. And that his children may
not have the hard row that he has,
he resolves to give them an educa-
ton, believing that they will then
find the easier way In other words,
his usual remedy for the hard lot
which he finds farming to be is not
to stand up for his calling and try
to improve his situation like a man,
but to condemn it and desert to the
other side. and educate his children
to enter the ranks of the oppressors.
Years ago England conquered
Ireland and Scotland. The fertile
Emerald Isle"has produced mighty
men of intellect 1t has had its share
of heroes, statesmen and scholars of
a high order, and yet from lack of
unity the condition of its common
people has been only squalor, pow
erty and wretchedness. Millions
have bettered themselves by coming
to this country, but the unhappy
condition of those left behind has
been steadily growing worse and
worse, principally because as a peo-
pie they are not true to themselves.
The instruments of their oppression
have usually been their own coun-
trymen, who could be bought with
office
Scotland, though comparatively
sterile land, has not been abandoned
by its people. Though no less tole-
rant in her disposition towards one
than another, yet England, by the
united voice of the clans of Scotland,
has been obliged to treat them as
literally and justly as it does even
its own people. They have not by
indifference to their own interests
invited oppression and then deserted
their country to escape it.
The two ways are open to far
mers. They can allow themselves
to become the easy prey of other
classes and only fret or complain
that it is SO, or if they will undergo
the necessary discipline that trains
them to think and act in unity, they
can have things their own way.
The Grange is the training school
that will make them power, and
every farmer should cling to it as he
would to the last plank. Monopo-
lies are every day becoming bolder
and more aggressive; only few
more turns of the machine and they
will have the labor element Of the
country where they can completely
control it with the patronage OF
money and office they will have al
J command. And is it probable that