Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-12-19

4iAopO wiz oulN1NO Dull pOOSCSS tlG
same large hearts and magnanimous
souls that they possessed when lived
among them.
The good housewives and their
amiable daughters know just how to
get up a good "square meal" season
ed to the tastes Of their guests; and
should a strangerdr drop in on them they
never scrape the chunks and coal from
under the dinner pot while it is cook
ing, that the meal may be delayed, to
get rid of the stranger before dinner.
Every place I went the table groaned
under its load of good things, and, as
j. X. Shrimp, Il. L. Harper, P. ALL
bright and the writer, Il use these
names not in an invidious sense), new
er happened to eat at the same table at
the same time, there was. always a SUI
perhuous abundance left.
1t has been we'll observed that the
condition of a church building always
points outthe religious andmoral status
ofthe neighborhood in which it stands.
In an r e OF less then thirty square
miles on lower Back Creek, / counted
eight churches, nearly all in full blast
and running on full time with their
Sunday-schools attached.
AS evidence of their good effects on
the community, during my stay of
four weeks, l never heard an oath,
nor did 1 see a drop of whiskey or a
drunken man, though / attended a
house raising andthe raising of a large
barn. You will not soon see a man
from Back Creek lying in your street
| cutters, all over bloated and blistered,
with a nose red enough to make a
head light for a locomotive.
My opinion was frequently askedin
regard to the advantages of the West
compared with those of the East. To
the old man who is over the hill top
of life and far down on the other side,
unless he wishes to follow his children
and in the language of DR.. Franklin,
" see them comfortably situated
around him,"I would say stay where
you are and get down the foot of the
hill with the least possible joliting.
To the young man who has better
prospects of a long life before him,
especially if he lives on Back Creek,
1 would say with Greedy, /" go West"
and to use tie language of a Western
man, make you a farm" where the
land is fertile and cheap that you may
comfortably situate yourself for mid
die life and old age. Your lands, as a
general thing; are too barren for the
number of inhabitants they contain.
| think it requires but little reflection of
the intuitive and ~foreseeing faculties
on the part of any one to prophecy
that in the near future the whole pro-
cess of farming must be changed.
Less blowing must be done and more
stalk raised. Too much of the coun-
try is cut up in small farms of sixty
and eighty acres, just small enough
to keep the owners poor as long
take tosuppose that exhausted lands
can be renovated and kept up with
mineral manures. AS they add moth
ing to the strength of the soil, not be-
ing in themselves the food of plants,
they cannot directly contribute to the
growth of vegetation. The beneficial
effects of lime, plaster, potash, &C.,
as manures have long been known to
practical as wen as scientific farmers ;
but it is generally believed that their
fertlizing properties are chiefly to be
observed on lands rich in vegetable
mold-that they do not supply the
place of the organic matter Of the
soil, and that influence is never so APP
parent as on their first application. 1t
has been pretty well demonstrated
by agricultural chemists that the in
creased growth of vegetation that fol-
lows the use of mineral manures is to
be ascribed to the chemical affinity
that exists between those manures and
the vegetable mold. When those
substances meet each other in a chem
ical union, not in a mechanical mix
ture, at the roots of plants, galvanic
or electric action is the result, which is
supposed to be essential to the growth
of vegetation ; but the new compound
formed by this union, which is at the
expense of the humus or vegetable
mold, is in no sense fertilizing. AS
moisture in this case is necessary to
the action of chemical affinity the far
mer, has an explanation of the fact
that" lime will burn up the crop of a
dry summer" That electricity plays
a conspicuous part in the growth of
vegetation can be easily demonstrated
by sending currents of electricity from
a battery through the roots of house
plants, which will cause them to grow
more than one inch in twelve hours.
To any One who desires to move
West / would say that 1 believe the
people here are about as good as they
are anywhere. 1t is true that with
some religion is more for time than
for eternity, and with others charity
must bring in a little more than it
gives out. Our politicians are of the
vicarious persuasion politicians must
excuse mel have but little conf
dence in the best of them anywhere1,
who care more for the "loaves and
fishes" thespoils o foffice, than they do
for the welfare of their dear friends
and fellow citizens"
l would say to the little boy, wher-
everyourl lot may be cast, stand firm
in well doing. Do right to yourself,
to those around you and to your God.
Pass not through life like the swift
winged swallow passes through space,
leaving no trace behind, nor like the
polluted snail that leaves nothing be-
hind but its Shiny track but live in
such a way that will prove to the world
when you are gone that it is better off
fo- you having livedinit. In a word,
conquer yourself and then you will
have done more and achieved greater
honorS and more lasting fame than be-
long to all the military chieftains of
earth. Their honors grow out of 1.-THE
red shirt" and the will huzzas of mad
dened multitudes ; yours will come
from the love of God, the appreciation
OF Heaven, the smiles of angels and