The Portland daily press., 1883-01-17
Reading tanners.

Every year mas their numbers vastly in
creased, and, consequently, the business of
farming vastly improved still there vet re-
mann many farmers who could not be con-
sistenilg placed in the reading classes But
they must all come in before cur calling
can be brought up to that high level to
which it justly belongs, and therefore it is
the duty Of every reading farmer to lend his
influence towards bringing them in. Once
Sc ured and they are safe-such thing as
hacksliding has never yet been known in
the case of reading farmer. Get one of
these noD-reading farmers TO take and di-
gest The Mobile Weekly Register one year,
and if, after that, he goes back to his old
ways and cuts off permanently from all
reading, we will agree TO have him put
down as life subscriber at our expense
There is no danger whatever of our during
anything of the kind.
There may have been time when the
farmer could get along as well as the aver
age without keeping readAp concerning the
progress and improvements of the day, but
that time isnot now. In this age of progress
we must keep 10 the front, else we shall be
left so far back that our case will soon be
entirely hopeless as regards any promise of
success. 1t will be like attempting to sew
with an old fashioned needle against one
of our latest and best sewing machines
the sewer on the machine will be able to
put the price of the work so low as TO rem
der it impossible for the needle-sewer to
work at the sames figures and live. Just
so with the two kinds of far1ners-the one
who reads up and learns to adopt all the
known Improvements of the day must event
ually starye out the man who remains cling
ing TO the non progressive ideas of his
grandfather.
The reading farmer unusually becomes an
experimenting farmer, thus adding his mite
TO the progress of the time. OF course his
reading makes him as high as the highest
in his calling, so far as information goes. It
places hin upon the shoulders of the best, so
to speak, which position enables him. If he
will .tro each the best who oroceede him. 1t is
his which, makes succeeding generation
wiser than the preceding one. But if we re-
tfuse to read and keep posted with reference
o pass progress then we remain standing exss
actly on the same footing with our predeces-
sors, consequently we can reach no higher
than they were able to reach, whileour more
energetic cousins who mount upon their
shoulders by reading up, will stand before
our wondering gaze calmly welding s'the
pole that kno ks all the best persimmons.
But" says one, 81 don't want to be
elassed With mere readers and experimenters
my idea of farming is, that it should con-
sist of something more solid" And there
you havesfallen into wrong idea. It was
tie reading and experimenting farmer who
changed the wild boar into the Suffolk and
Berkshire; the wild bull of Britain into the
Shorthorn; the mountain sheep, with its
lean body and hair fleece, into the South.
down and Merino; they have brought up the
milk OF cows from pint to gallons; they have
heightened the sirloin of the bullock, deep
ened the udder of the COW, enlarged the ham
Of the hog, given strength to the shoulder of
the OK, rendered finer the wool of the sheep.
added fieetness to the horse and made beau
tiful every animal that is kept in service of
man. They have improved and fastened
the development of all domestic animals
TIL they hardly resemble the animals from
whence they sprang. They have introduced
irrigation and WITHDRAWING they have
taught us the value of cooke and ground
food for stock; they brought us all the diffeI-
ent varieties of frnits and flowers, and have
been of immense value in adding to the
revenue of the country, and yet they are not
solid enough to suit your idea Of good farm
ingl OIL yes, they are-your notions spring
simply from lack of careful thought; 90 to
reading and thinking, and then you will
soon be able to see things exactly as they are
TO the decided gain of farming in general
and yourself in particular-MobiIe Regis
ter.