, 1884-02-09
WHEAT FARMING.

The new system of farming, 90 raise
wheat only, is subverting the whole sys-
TEN of American farm life This wheat
growing doee not resemble farm business
half 90 much as it does Lumbar business.
Both want shelter and food for their men
and teams while they make crop, the
one Of wheat snd the other Of sag logs.
The bcsinsss implies no home.
Whereas the primary, the all absorbing
dea in farming is ito make homes The
grand idea and work Of all American pio-
neer ife4rom the first landing at James
town and Plymouth TO the present, have
been 70 make homes But now come cur
Dalrymples and plant their magnificent
wheat fields along the great highway Of
the sVarming nations, TO corrupt their
tastes and pervsrt their habits
A Green Mountain boy comes west TO
make home in Dakota He stop. to see
Dalrympls's twenty-five sslf binders
gather in the golden sheaves, and listens
to the glib, often repested, story Of profits.
He goes on his way changed man. He
thinks no more of a western home; but OF
a wheat farm in Dakota and home in
the Green Mountains. where his wife and
children can enjoy all tho Injuries Of ss-
tsblished society
This is good for Vermont, but ruinous
10 Dakota and the west
When these wheat-growers have skim.
med off the cream Of the soil, aud Put
the results in eastern homes, men may
begin to make homes in Dakota by gen.
eral farming in a comparatively barren
country. So will msn bagin 10 make
homes on the poor lands from which the
lumbermen have cut the Pine forests.
A skanty {or workmen and teams and G
wheat field is not farm. The houss, the
wife and children, the stable and horses
and colts, cons and calves, sheep and
lambs, chickens and ducks and turkeys,
and the dog and cat, fields of wheat, oats,
buckwheat and corr, meadows aud pas
lures, garden and orchard. these make
the American farm home, aud these have
been the strength and glory Of ;hs Re-
piblic.
On tless farms have been raised the
men who ara nos and ever have been,
the leaders III our manufactures, mer-
chandise, and commerce, who have built
our canals and railroads, and who have
made our constitutions and laws. Thase
farms lave nursed tho great men of the
land.
He who destroys he American farm
Life, vii iss.,oy the fountains Of Repub-
haan last utiols The tendency oi city
life is to monopoly, olislrchy, and mon
archy, But for these hundred years, our
farms have given enough Of their honest,
sturdy sons, and strong, beautiful daugh-
ters 20 the cities to keep ~ respectable
show Of physical energy, business activity
and political integrity.
1t Is thus that our farms have sent their
best sons and daughters TO give physical
and moral stamina 10 city life The Cit
les are now seeking further publication
by sending 10 the country the drecs o!
their social clldron, thsir f9undl,ngs and
-.asa2lsSs orp.is.is, to Is reared and taught
the lessons OF manhood on our farms
How would thess orphans fare in the
shanties Of the wheat farm or logging
CAMP What kind Of materials are these
places rearing TO be the leaders in Ameri-
can business and societyi II thi, system
continues, men viii not 20 West with
their families. Homes in ths East and
farms in the West is the DIlrymple style
God save the West. While making homes
was the work Of the West, the West grew
strong and great.