Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-08-07

A Rainer's VaeatieS.
The farmer deserves . vacation -
much as any other man. He has to ask
no ones permission or favor to enjoy
it but his own, and for this reason. Per
haps, he rarely gets any vacation ct an:
But it is an advantage which ne shouid
not forego or neglect, because be can
turn it to account in the most useful
manner. A week or two spent in q
Journey across our vast country In any
direction that may be chosen can nos
fail to fill the farmers mind with new
ideas and matter for profitable thought.
One of our most remarkable peculiart-
ties as Americans Is the absense OF 10
cal manners, methods and prejudices.
With the exception. perhaps. of . few
Southern States, an American farmer
finds himself Mt home everywhere, and
can pass muster in Massachusetts, or In
Minnesota or Kansas as q citizen Of
either State and can make himself at
home in either or all. This is q great
advantage to him, but he does not make
IS much of it as he might. just now.
when the great Northwest is open to
settlement. and the broad. hitherto
trackless plains arc fast becoming COW
cred with roads and villages and towns
and farms. and the cOpiOus stream
of grain from these new fields
is yearly swelling and overlooking
tho older farms, it is q farmers
duty to gain all the information
he can of what other farmers are doing
with whom he has to compete, SO that
he may properly arrange his own bust
ness to meet this competition. There
are the great wheat farms 70 inspect.
the live stock ranches to explore, the
great stretch of railroads. and the great
elevators, the abattOirs, packing houses,
and other facilit es for the handling and
forwarding of products 10 become &C
quainted with; and these the farmer
must know OF. or he is ignorant of .
most important part of his business.
An iron man. or lumberer, or 3 rail-
road man knows precisely WHIST is doing
in his special interest. both at home, in
every corner. and everywhere in foreign
countries. and if he did not he would
very soon be out of business. But the
| farmer, as q rule, knows no more Of
what is doing 500 miles away in his line
of business, and perhaps net so much.
as he knows of what is doing in Central
Africa. TOn4uin, or Egypt. One must
90 from home to hear the news ia an
old and trite but true adage, and the
farmer should 90 rom home by all
means now that he has an opportunity.
Let him take his faithful partner and
companion with HIM, and leave the
homestead to the boys and girls. who
will be vastly benefited by the trust re-
posed in them and the new experiences
of authority and responsibility, and 90
q thousand miles East or West or South
Is chance or desire may indicate.
And just here we would especially
recommend tho South as q field for in
vestigation. No other part of the
country has progressed 50 rapidly in all
| important branches of industry and
prosperity as the South. The mountain
and transmOntanc regions are alive
with enterprise and work, building
roads, factories, fOundries, workshops
and mills, which are trebling the popu-
lation in places every year, and in other
places are making ipopulous cities to
spring up suddenly, as if by enchant'
ment, out of ali nninbabited wilderness.
The low region devoted to cotton is also
an unknown land to the great majority
of Northern farmers and yet these and
it are bound together by industrial and
business ties of the most intimate char
acter. There are also unwarraDted and
injurious prejudices existing on both
sides yet, which iced only better ac-
quaintance to become dissolved like the
early mists before the Summer sun.
And there are great openings there for
Northern farmers, dairymen, mechanics.
and small capitalists to fill. with the
most beneficial results to the men who
90 and the country and people they be-
come associated with. All these things
are of timely consideration just now.
when the farmers everywhere need
rest and some recre:tiOn, and how cs0
they better rest or recrcate themselves
than by acquiring that valuabls infor-
nation which is picked up by travel.
by new scenes, and by better acquaint
ance with their own country and their
fellow citizens p Henry SteUast, tn
| N r Times,