The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-06-03
The EarInerS of NernOnt.

The farmers of Vermont are now in
the midst of their most intensely active
season, planting the seed preparatory to
the coming harvest, and we have no dis
position to discourage all due diligence
in this and kindred duties, though we
propose to improve just this busy time
to suggest some thoughts tending in
another direction. Our theme is this,
that no man, be he farmer or otherwise,
ought to become so thoroughly oDsorb-
ed in physical labor as to neglect other
important duties, among which are the
cultivation and enlargement of his men-
tai powers and vision, and the acquire
ment of adequate knowledge, by read
ing and social intercourse, of what is
going on in the world about him. The
man who does this, and vigorously sets
apart the time to do it Thoroughly, will
in the long run, other things being
equal, far outstrip in the race of life his
physically overworked neighbor, who
allows his mental powers to 60 to seed
and their activities to rust for lack of
use, while pushing his bodily activities
to the limit of endurance, as SO many of
our farmers do. They make life a
mere routine of drudgery, year after
year, instead of what it ought to be, if
nationally ordered, a wholesome inter-
mixture of heathful labor and pleasant
physical and intellectual enjoyment.
The farmers life is one of comparative
security, exempted from many calami-
ties that befall his neighbors engaged
in other pursuits; land his reward, if he
is faithful in his work, is much more
secure and uniform as the years 60 by.
And the calling of the farmer, in which
he is an earnest cO-worker with nature
herself in her infinitely various and
wonderful processes, ought to be, as it
might always be, the most delightful of
all employments; for it opens to the in
telligent and inquiring mind an almost
endless number and variety of interest
ing and mysterious problems, the solu-
ton of which cannot fail to excite
pleasurable mental activity.
Since it has been decreed that all men
must earn their bread in the sweat of
the brow,-(a doom and at the same
time a rich blessing, from which he
man can escape without mourning the
severe penalty of dwarfed capacity OF
all his powers from non-use) labor in
some form is not only necessity, but
an honorable boon. No man ever be-
comes full and true man, or lives q
life worth the living, without constant
and earnest labor; and he has no pow
er within him, physical or mental
whose development TO usefulness does
not depend upon its vigorous exercise
There is no calling among men Il
which, in all ages of the world and a
mong all civilized nations, such univer
sal honor and dignity have been accor
ded as to that of the husbandman-th,
tiller of the soil. But the farmers o.
Vermont, as a whole, do not yet full,
appreciate the true dignity of their cal
ling, or make the most of their oppor
tunities. They fail in this, that the.
put too much muscle and too little mini
into their work. They magnify tn,
physical drudgery and dwarf the menta
activity and delight that ought TO be
part of it, and so, in the end, too offer
become mere physical forces, or ma
chimes. To eounteract this tendency
the intellectual part of the man shoul,