The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-11-09
AGRICULTURAL.
Keep the Cobwebs Out of Your Brain.

OublOOh iOh ~ bhN
South and in New England. There is
one thing which will go far towards
rescuing the farmers from their peril,
and that is intelligence. The more in
telligent man lie, the less likely will he
be to fail. The more intelligent the
farmers of any community, State or
district of the country, the more likely
will the agriculture of that section be
to enjoy success. Good schools, good
roads, good Libraries, and reading,
studying, thinking community of farm
ers, contain the greatest elements OF
success. The great difference between
an intelligent, enterprising farming
community and its opposite can be seen
by any one going from prosperous sec
tions of Vermont to some southern
State.
Ask the business men in almost any
part of the South if the farmers of their
section are intelligent, enterprising,
and prosperous. The nearly unani-
nous reply will be that"they are not
Their brains are full of cobwebs. They
are poor readers, do not take farm
papers, are not progressive. A great
many of them are really the "poor
white trash" of whom we in the North
used TO read. The rich of the South
before the war were either business
men in the cities or were owners of
plantations and slaves. There were
very few small farmers in comfortable
circumstances, such as have been scat
tered over New England for more than
a century and half 1t is not to be
wondered that the southern farmer is
poor when we consider his antecedents,
his education, and his system of farm
ing. But it must be said that if the
southern farmer can live under all his
adverse conditions the northern farmer
ought to take courage. l believe it
would do the Vermont farmers world
of good to visit the South and see just
how men and women live there to-day.
They would go back home feeling that
they were kings compared with their
southern brethren.
/ know what it is to live on a poor,
rocky, Vermont farm, know good
many of the discouraging conditions
under which many labor, know how
easy it is to get disheartened, to feel
that it is no use to struggle along; and
then l know something of the help it
is to farmer to have clear brain, to
be we'll informed, to keep in touch, by
the agricultural press, with the rapid
development of new conditions and
ideas in farming. The worst cobweb
that a farmer can have in his brain is
ignorance, and the second is discourage
ment. The best way, believe, for a
farmer to feel today is to accept the
situation, to have his eyes open to see
just how things are, to realize that his
business is in peril, while yet he mix
es a good deal of faith with his
thoughts of the situation. A real
Christian faith is the best thing in the
world, aud wish every farmer had it.
But great many do not, so all l can
say is this: In your farming do the best
you can for your business, for your fam
lily, for yourself, and for those about
you. Then, whatever comes, you feel
that the blame of evil days does not
rest on you. If farmers belong to a
doomed class, as some assert, then let
them meet their doom like men. But
the worst will be slow in coming, very
slow if all farmers do as well as they
can. The best way to feel is that we
are weak and frail of ourselves anc
that we must have help from God tt
succeed. If all the discouraged people
farmers and others, would only be dis
couraged with and about themselves
then do as a certain old time king did
who Encouraged himself in the Lore
his God" there would be very few dis
couraged people in the world.
So, there is the cobweb of unbelief
that of ignorance, that of prejudice
that of shiftlessness, that of blaming
others for our losses, sufferings, anC
failures, instead of turning away from
all such thoughts and looking for bet
ter things. If once man gets into
the power of doubt, envy, hatred of thu
rich and prosperous, and all that sort o
feelings, he will have a sorry time o.
it, a taste of what men call hell in hi
heart while here Oh the earth. Thu
fact is, very few northern farmers real
lie how we'll off they are. If we coult
only see our blessings instead of GU
hardships, we should be so much bet
ter off. AS l have said, it would be
most useful lesson to give northern
farmers view of the farmer of thu
South. Think of house with two o
thraa rOOpno M ,looo Min dnmo a 1oos,