The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-11-24
Regeneration OF Farming.

the accumulated impulse which in
creases steadily. The man or woman
OF fifty years ago would find a totally
new world, if he or she were to reap
pear on the scene and the trouble is
that many of us are to-day as far be-
hind the advance in the times and the
condition of things as if we had been
sleeping with Rip Van Wrinkle. l
have read with much interest the re-
marks on this subject by DR.. GLADDEN.
in American AgriculturiSt for Septem-
Der Is, and wish to note especially
where / think he missed the true point
of the situation, which just now con-
fronts the industry of agriculture. And
when he writes in regard to the great
army of the unemployed who waste
their time in the cities and says their
labor cannot be employed on the farms
until farming becomes more profitable
than it has been of late, l cannot help
pointing out what l think is q great
mistake, but one generally prevailing,
and the very secret of the present con-
dition. He forgets, or misses, the fact,
that just previously to making this state
ment he remarked that the presence OF
weeds-which this unemployed army
might remove from the lands N of
the most effective causes of distress in
the industry of agriculture.
Just now we are all congratulating
ourselves on the return of prosperity to
the agricultural interest. Alas, on
what a foundation of horrors upon hor-
rors piled, is this prosperity basedl 1t
is not a true prosperity at ali. 1t is the
accidental happening of short crops,
and threatened starvation in some
places, and in others actual slow tor
ture for want of food to millions of our
fellow creatures, whose lives waste
away slowly, until want of food has re-
duced the people to living skeletons,
little children of India have persisted
their parents could not purchase on ac-
count of the greatly increased prices in
the worlds markets. And yet, know
ing this, we are joyfully congratulating
ourselves and each other on the i'm
provement in the times and the great
advance in the price of our food crops,
and claiming that is merely the advance
wave of a continuing prosperity
Alas for us if this is truel What hu.
name mind can gather satisfaction from
such a situation? 1t is not in any way
any proof of the recovery of our indus
try from it's former depression. Quite
otherwise; and the remarks of DR..
GLADDEN. 90 to show this to be true.
He finds no indication of improved
work on the farms. On the contrary
his intelligent mind wonders whether
or not the prevailing weeds will not
drive many farmers off their land and
make of them more recruits for the
great army of the unemployed. And
he is right. L can corroborate this
statement that the present condition of
the farms everywhere is far below that
of thirty or forty years ago. The cul.
ture of the soil is hardly worth the
name of it. 1t is not culture. 1t is
simply wringing from the unwilling
soil, indeed, the unable soil, the last
shred of its fertility. Agriculture is in
a depressed condition simply because
there is not labor sufficient bestowed
upon the crops. What it wants is that
enterprise by which the farmers shall
90 into the cities or elsewhere and COM
pei the laborers to go to work in the
fields and remove these greedy par
asites by which the crops are eaten up
or crowded and starved to early death.
Everything in all other industries has
advanced of late years and every step
in this progression has been to make
human labor more effective and cheaper
its products in proportion. Every
where we see this extension of all in
dustrial enterprise by the general cheap
ening of the products. All but agri-
culture are enjoying this marked pros
perity due to improved processes. 1t
is true that this improvement in me-
chanical construction and appliances
has thrown W of employment thou
sands of men and horses, and 80 far as
the latter are concerned it has borne
heavily on the farmers, who have lost
millions of dollars in consequence.
But this loss has been a general gain,
for the substitution of machinery for
the more costly horses has largely in
creased the common wealth of the ma
ton in the economy of time and labor
and material thus secured.
When we leave the cities, the
wharves of the seaports, the machine
shops, the mines and every great CEN
ter of industry and go abroad into the
fields we find still the old-fashioned
ways in vogue. There are few i'm
%provements except 80 far as the me.
chanic has aided the farmer in provid-
ing labor-saving implements and ma
chimes. But the weeds, the wastes of
manure, the misapplication of labor, in
short, every old way of not doing
things, still existing to make the farm
er's labor ineffective, we cannot doubt
but this alone is the cause of the dis
tress of agriculture and of the poverty
and consequent distress of the farmers.
What would have happened had there
been full crops in Europe, and no fam
inc in Indial Wheat would have fall
en- to fifty cents or less, possibly, a
bushel and of course other products
would have been correspondingly cheap.
Then we should have been considering
the causes of this depression and those
of us who know why it is would have
been trying TO convince the unhappy
farmers that before agriculture can be-
come really prosperous it must advance
to the front in all those ways by which
only human labor can become prosper.
Gus; by improved culture of the soil,
the total eradication of all narasites-