The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-11-26
RALEIGH N c., WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 1884

classical, but decidedly more expressive
Erery man for himself and The dee
the hindmoSt. This demoralization Wi
ever be the fate of farmers when thei
is no organization. Efforts have beer
repeatedly made to remedy this grea
defect, existing in no other class of meI
but farmers. We are just ike the bodie!
constituting the great Solar System, re
volving in space, century after century
and relatively, occupying the same po
sltions to-day, yesterday and apparently
always.
The truth Is, We are, Individually, too
selfish. Blaine, in his letter of accep
tance. said every one OF US carries hi:
sovereignty under his hat. and we do
be 1t .Stinson's or otherwise. We are
just as we are represented. But. al
being sovereigns. how is il THAT YOU invite
one sovereign to address large body
OF like potentates? Don't you know
that wherever one sovereign attempts tc
advise another that it is considered the
world over, as insolent or officious dicta.
ton! When did you ever hear Of one
farmer telling another something he
never knew before? When did you ever
see ten farmers, the lowest number re.
qulred to redeem city from destruction
looking, at the same thing, from the
same standpoint, and drawing identicall ]
the same conclusion? never! From the
garden of Eden or the vineyard of Noah,
all the way down the centuries, TO the
present time, such coincidence has never
been observed.
In such emergency then. what must
we dos Where shall we 90 To learn
wisdom? 1t has been our previous Gus.
tom to invite the ''emineH men" in the
Learned professions to address US on
such occasions as this. Why not to.
day? They are here in great numb bers
They are like that financer of the Stew.
arts, Sydney Godolphin, of whom Charles
the Second remarked, that ''he was
never out of the way, and never in the
way Just so it is with our learned
friends. They are always convenient,
and we learn from them hugely some.
times. by their telling us what they
know about farming.
We know a lawyer in this county,
who can on any occasion, whenever
called on, tell us just the way to make
farming pay us, however ''few there be
that find it," To do my learned friend
justice, the least that could be said OF
him, is that in his profession he stands
Primus inter pares, the first among his
equals.
On one occasion he concluded to dc
some scientific farming by way of prov
ing his theoretical instruction. He To-
Gated on the farm, moving all his lares
and penates from the village. The
first labor done was pulling up corn
stalks in a small field by the road side.
While his hand was thus employed, he
was leaning on the fence looking on
He might have been cogitating how he
would proceed in legal way to get a
tcrtt Of injunction to restrain the birds
and worms from depredating on his
corn after he planted it, or he might
have been thinking how to proceed in a
''aort of mandamus' against the clouds,
so as to COMPEL them in the summer to
give him rain or to withhold it, as he
might desire. However this might have
been, we don't pretend to say; but he
certainly was there leaning on the fence
looking at his hand, pulling the stalks
up one by one. and throwing them down
as they were taken up About this time
a farmer passed along, and after the
usual salutations Of the day, he asked the
lawyer why he did not have the stalks
cut down with hoe. My friend had not
thought of that, but after rejecting a
moment on the farmers suggestion, he
repliel that, maybe, it would be the
hnc yo nf
Uersus practice.
Now this lawyer, in all that make so
cial intercourse pleasant, and in all the
requirements OF ,leverness, has not his
equal in ten counties. He can address
a body of farmers on the subject O.
farming both theoretically and scientifi
cally. He can appeal to classic legends
and tell us, in the rounded periods, ant
with the eloquence of Cicero, al
about Cincinatus, the farmer statesman
who left his plow in the furrow; anC
hurrying to the city, saves the Common
wealth Of ancient Rome. Notwithstand
ing all this, brother farmers, or occu-
patton was not illuminated much by thii
eminent" test in the learned profession
of the law.
We know a physician also, in oul
county, who at one time, concluded tha
he would show us just how farmin,
ought to be done He thought, no doubt
if he did not teach US something, h
would at least dignity our calling by coop
Grating with us. So he had some hand
plowing corn in the spring time when
was quite small These eminent" men
as you may have observed, always ex
pertinent with corn. The DOCTORS hand
were sorry plowers, and, | have not
doubt, his plows were as sorry as hi
plowers. He became provoked. He sal
that they would begin in a row at on
end of the field. and before they got t
the other. they would be in new row
| fIe ordered his mules to be put In tn
stable and the plows to be removed. II
then concluded that he would cultivat
his corn with the hoe saying that it wa
the proper implement any way, that b
believed in shallow cultivation for corn
that the plow always went-too deep. III
did cultivate his corn, and at the end G
the year. a neighboring farmer aske
him how he succeeded. This was tn
doctors reply, rerJatim: Il was en-
tirely successful with but one single ex
ception. did not have that mechanica
ingenuity about me to attach somethin
IN the shape of a spear, to the ends .
the hoe-handles, SO that when eieYatin
the hoe, it would sticA; behind, ard, there
by, hasten the stroke Now, fello,
farmers, this is not drawn from the i'm
imagination. Ii is fact in every par
ticular. 1t did occur in the county G
IJ Il. sS
of medicine dignifed our calling OF not
it is quite certain he did not advance u
much in what he knew about farming
But to do him justice as | did my legs
friend, l must say that the doctor is
regular graduate of the University {
North Carolina, also a graduate of
Medical College. and among his brothe
practitioners, he stand to-day No. /.
We know preacher too in our count
who is also farmer. Doth Jobe ser,
~, r. n