The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-15
The Romance of Farming.

Memphis COmmercial-AppeaI.
 Dr. Gatling of gun fame Is said to have invented a motor blow, by the aid of which a man can blow up good-slzed farm in a day. The steam blow has long fixture. There is no small degree of pleasure felt in watching q school of lf-binders rythmically leveling held of grain, but all these innovations. how ever valuable from a material standpoint, are fast7driving the romance outsof farm
 Time was when none of these modern new-fangled ideas were to be seen. We did not ship abroad so much wheat, to be sure, but people were quite as happy. The cradle swung by hand, and which laid the stubble land, had not come. In the romantic halcyon days the pioneer felled the forest. cleared and planted the land: His wheat grew rank and lush, ana burnt trees around the deadening. When It's greenery turned to gold the reapers entered, sickle in hand as they did in stalks and laid them in sheaves against the evening, when these were bound and put in shocks or stocks. protected from sisted. and the children gleaned because each grain was an evidence of God g bounty, which must not be left to waste thanklessly. Hard work 1t was. and the elders felt the sting of sore backs. but the air. was pure and the sound of the dinner horn was sweeter than the grand est rhapsodies of poet or the grandest raptures of cathedral organ. The stone jug, hidden in the clump of hazels, kept cool the water from the spring, and the half hours rest under the shade tree but the corn was failed out on the barn floor and separated from the straw, and there was not unpleasant music in the
 staccatn of the 'thump,$ 'thump" of the thrashers. There were no such contriv- ances as exist nowadays for winnowinG, and the golden grain was caused to leap | in fan driving out the scurrying chan | as it fell. It was hauled on wains to the | old mill. save what was put away for
 the next seasons seeding and a few | bushels for good measure. The crop was | small but the mouths to feed were few. and each home had plenty. Did one have | bad luck befall him, others divided cheer | fully with him None was sold, and
 money was useless, as there was nothing | to buy Life was what Is called hard,
 but there was piety. content and a happy
 healthfulness. No one was rich and no | one was poor.
 There was a romance in farming in
 those old days before farming became sordid. and when people farmed to pro- | vide for their wants. The farm furnished
 everything and nee,ss the surplus eggs and but | while d few hogs or beef steers paid the | taxes and the small expenses of the men.
 Men lived many years and each year tar l ried long. They did not roll by on elec- | tric or steam cars.
 | Plausible and confident is the scientist | who Is trying to convince us that as pop | uiation increases we must one by one | abandon our boasted triumphs of civili- | zation and return to primitive methods,
 where each must delve in the earth for a | sustenance. No one believes him now. | No one believes that evolution may yet
 become obvolution or that there will he | any but a forward movement. Still, Chi | na claims to have had most of our tri-
 umphs of invention and had to abandon
 them as they were too much to support.
 She had 10 abandon swinging gates be- | cause the arc described in opening and | closing means so much land taken for | cultivation, and there was no land to | snare. If we are to be driven back to
 primltive methods. it will be after our | day long while. Nevertheless, those
 who are forced to adopt them may find | less raason to complain that comes now | from the rush and fever of the present | strenuous life. Romance is better than | Rhadomanthine reality, and the romance | of farming, especially when seen through 1 inc mystical haze of the past, appears | Indignantly beautiful