The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-10-25

informed participant in the management
OF the public affairs of his government.
to be an intelligent assistant in the adj
mlnistering of the laws of his state. to
know how and when public servants do
their full duty towards the common
wealth and the citizen. A knowledge
OF organic chemistry and of botany will
enable him to cultivate the ground with
the greatest advantage; to know where
and how to enrich and fertilize his
helds; what kind of compost and nutri-
ment is best adapted for a particular
SOIL and for particular vegetable pro-
duct; what particular soil is itself best
lifted for exact and careful planting or
sowing; when and how to alternate
crops; when to pillow, to seed down and
to fallow; and when and how to select
the best, the most nourishing seeds,
plants, fruits and vegetables.
A knowledge of natural philosophy
Will enable him to know when and how
to reclaim the barren ana waste places
on his farm when and how to drain, to
subsoll or to irrigate his land; where to
build his houses, his barns, his stables.
and his cattle sheds, and how to keep
them dry and healthy.
A knowledge of natural history and of
veterinary surgery will teach him how
to raise horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and
poultry, how to get and keep the best
and most improved strain of all these
classes of domestic animals; how 10
know what kind of food is best adapted
to their wants and necessities; to know
when they are healthy or diseased, to
know when and how to give them at
tentlon, and to minister to their care
and comfort when they are sick and
disabled.
This education will, therefore, as you
perceive, teach its possessor how to be-
come perfect farmer. But many an
old and skilled farmer may say that this
knowledge which ] call most important,
cannot be learned from books, and is
only to be acquired by experience, and
Will show us his own career OF prospect
ty as illustrative of the truth of his the
DRY. But, this is where / believe my
critical friend errs. knowledge is
power" This is a correct axiom IN agri-
culture as well as in any other pursuit,
aud the success or failure of any two or
more persons of apparently equal sur
roundings, in any industry is a testi-
mony to the truth of the proverb. ]
readily admit that much, very much is
to be learned by experience, but | GER
tainly know that without the rich soil OF
book learning experience is a plant OF
slow and sickly growth, yet with It's
nourishing and vivifying Influences, ex-
perience has more healthy progress
is more easily, speedily and certainly ac-
CURED, and when theoretical knowledge
and practical experience are joined to-
gether, the successful agricuiturist will
have arrived at the very summit OF his
dignitied and honorable profession, as
he believes it is. 1t is commonplace
belief that the farmers life lis duh and
uneventful one; that the busy world. in
its lust and greed for power, for wealth
for social, and for political positions
passes him by unheeded, unless there
may be, in the race for the latter, an ex.
ception during the few weeks prior to
an annual election, when he then be.
comes, upon the part of the politician
the subject of interest, attention, and
cajolery.
Grant this to be substantially true
yet from my observation, and with ny
belief, do / conclude that the farmer s
life ought to be, and is, a contented,
serene and happy one. That he lives a
hfe of toll is true, yet it is q life undis-
turbed and peaceful, amid the thousand
troubles and auxieties which beset his
uneasy and care-worn fellow mau who
IS engrossed in the business Of tie
world.
Let the farmer, therefore, be proud
OF his calling. Let him remember that
the whole world looks to him for It's
life, that to it under the providence OF
God, he contributes the means of living
that he is the benefactor of mankind.
More than one hundred and fifty
years ago, one of the wisest of statesmen
aud political communists affirmed this
truth, and the force and wit - the
aphoIism nave lost none OF tbeIp vigor
by lapse of time. He said, Whoever
could make two ears of corn OF two
blades of grass to grow upon spot OF
ground where only one grew before,
would deserve better of mankind and
do more essential service to this conn
try than the whole race of politicians
put together"