The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-09-14
AGRICULTURAL.
The Isolation and the Quiet of Farm
Life.


Monotony is wearing on most people.
If farm work were as monotonous as
shop and factory work, to say nothing
of most kinds of off ,e work, there
would be scores and hundreds Of far
mers going crazy. But there is hard
ly an occupation which has 80 little of
monotony in it as farming. / do not
think half of the farmers real re what
blessed occupation they have. To be
out of doors, to see nature in all her
beauties, TO do work which changes
with the weeks, months, and seasons,
these are some of the bl ,ssings which
the farmer enjoys. But can hear
some farmers saying that there is no
pay in farming, that all this talz about
nature, etc., is just nonsense. Well, l
would like to have such farmers go
with me to some of the places where
hundreds and thousands of men work,
and learn how well off farmers are.
Take the factory and mill hands who
go to their work early in the morning,
work till noon, get time TO eat dinner,
and then work again till night. No
matter how badly man feels, he must
go when the whistle or bell calls, if it
be possible. The farmer who does not
feel wei can lay off a day, and there is
no overseer or superintendent TO COM
plain, no docking of pay. There are
a great many days when the farmer
can rest,-rainy days, stormy days,
days when there is no pressure of
work. If friend comes to make a
visit, the farmer, except at certain
times, can stop work and visit; while
working men must keep right at work
except in rare cases. Or take the
night workers and there are thousands
of them, going TO work at six O'Clock
in the evening, working all night on
railroads, steamers, police duty, as
watchmen, and night workers in fac
tories, newspaper offices, and scores OF
other places which modern civilization
has opened the way for. And then
when the sun rises and the world gets
light, the night worker must 60 10 bed
and to sleep day after day or he will
lose health and strength, and often he
loses these anyway. How different
with the farmerl He can 90 to bed with
the. birds, no late evening engagements
to keep him from sweet sleep at the
time.when nature calls for it. He car
arise refreshed, 60 to his work. These
are real bl4ssings, woul that al farm
ers and their families might realize
them.
The last census credits Vernon
with about $4,000 farmers and agrcul
tural ,laborers. More than twice thi,
number.of people are engaged in The
cotton factories of New Hampshire ant
Massachusetts. Were you ever in 1
cotton factory? Did you ever try t'
talk in one when the machinery wal
running? Itwould do lots of farmers
good to 60 through such factory ant
see where thousands of men and womeI
spend their working hours, get &C
painted with the noise, the care of tn,
workers, the rules of work, the strife
about wages which is going on, ant
then 60 back 10 the quiet farm ant
think it all over. / know it seems mic,
and it is nice to 60 on visit to the cit,
and to the factories, etc., but to be
part of it all, 10 have to endure tn,
noise, the daily grind of toll, the hea
and dust, the rush and strife for liV
ing. 1t is not nice at all but is bond
age of which the farmer knows it'll O.
nothing. Never be sorry that you ar
Vermont or northern farmer. The,
have trials and hard things to endure
but let me say that l believe they ar,
better off than almost any other elias
of people. 1t is not small blessing t,
have plenty of good food to eat. TIL,
stories from Cuba ought to teach u
that. The isolation is in some cases
necessary evil, but much smaller evi
than the restless rush and lack of quie
in the city. Man is so made that he
needs both companionship and retire
ment. Too much of either is bad. o
the two the isolation is by far the leas
evil. There are ways of meeting ii
The farmers's wife suffers the most
but they are learning how to meet tn
evil and overcome it. And / honestl,
believe that the exactions which farm
life makes on woman are not as har,
as those which "society" makes upol
its slaves. There are farmers VIII
never try to make their wives happy
who would not know how to go to worl
to do such thing, but there are thou
sands of farmers wives who are amony
the happiest women of the world. Thei
husbands are kind end attentive, the,
are not compel ed to be drudges. the