The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-27

rAleIEh GETTING ADVICE.
rate among horned cattle along the
right of way Of railways and the lia-
bility OF common carriers for loss of
memory and impaired vitality among
mules, caused directly or Indirectly by
injuries received at the hands of such
common carriers"
1 shall speak with considerable aban-
don regarding railways. l shall CRY
aloud and spare not. Yesterday wrote
to Mr.. Boyd, of the Pennsylvania road,
for transportation for self and wife to
and from tho cncampment, and q good
time may be confidently looked forward
to if Mr.. Boyd should send same as TO-
quested in my esteemed favor of late
date.
In speaking to the farmers of the
United States / feel some freedom and
some sympathetic interest, for by birth
and natural selection am q farmer.
having passed my earlier years on a
farm, and now in my declining DAYS,
when the frost is on the punkin and the
folders in the shock" am again en-
couraging the horny growth which be-
tokens manual toll in the field. Litera
tgre with mo has been merely fad, an
incident, as il were. Farming has been
my joy, my life, my boon, my outing,
my vacation, my dream and my reli-
gion. While have flown to the pen In
my hours of detection and when cast
down, my life work has been to cross
the sheep sorrel with the horse chestnut,
and thus produce clotheshorse that
would. give general satisfaction.
1t is therefore with no newly awak-
ened intelligence that approach agri-
cultural questions, but with the cour-
age and vigor of an 8-pound and 8-ounce
brain that has thought rapidly upon
these subjects while other brains were
seeking good society, where they could
avoid thought. 1t is not a newborn
thought, with q timber neck and long
clothes. that l introduce to your notice
today, but mature and we'll seasoned
judgment upon these matters which so
closely interest the farming millions of
America. We as farmers are like the
horse-patient and intelligent, but yet
with power which if used in our own
interests would easily jolt the spine of
the professional man and cause him to
sit up in the middle of the road and ex-
claim bitterly, "Where was I at?''
The question before us is, "Why do
farmers eat canned vegetables"
One reason, opine, is that they "come
from the store" But is that cogent
reasoni Should we eat an inferior arti-
Gle of food at high price in order to be
metropolitan and assume an air of reck-
less gayety and ground feed which so i'll
becomes us?
Another reason that we eat canned
vegetables, l opine again, is that we
have been trying to live down an erro-
neous impression noticeable for many
years among the gay and goddess but
well clad residents of the city. For
centuries it was generally believed by
those who dwelt in town that farmers
ate large quantities of cream, and that
their gardens were full of every con-
celvable fresh vegetable and fruit. This
theory has been exploded with loud
and reverberating report.
Farmers eat less cream than the pale
and seductory but scholarly green
goods dealer, and the poor people of the
busy marts of trade have more fresh
vegetables, except when they are in the
country on their regular Fresh Air Fund
vacation, than the farmer does. Farm
ers as class have to grow their crops
for market, and they are in luck if
they can market them. If they cannot
market them, of course they can eat
them, but not otherwise.
Of course in these calculations we do
not consider the agricultural freak
known as the fore handed farmer, but
rather the rank and fle-the mass, as it
were-of those who are seeking to wiring
from reluctant and buggy soil bread
for the eater, seed for the sower, wool
for the wearer, meat for the meater and
soup for the souper.
We farmers are often asked: Why
don't you keep our boys on the farm?
Why do we not entertain them more?
Why don't we have a billiard table and
orchestrion In the barn, so that our boys
can be happy at home and not seek to
become ro,les and debauchees7 They
also ask us why we do not get pair of
bright red mules and raise flock Of
nice red mules FOR the busy mart.
Most every one feels free to advise
the farmer, and every little while some
man who haa anna ccad aioh% u, pnvxv. ido1-