Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-11-27
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net has added a secretaryShip OF agrlcul-
ture. Societies are constantly being eS-
I tablished for the education of the plow.
Journals devoted to this department are
circulated through all the country. Farm
ers, through sach culture. have learned
the attributes of soils and found out that
almost every field has its peculiar prefer
| ences. Lands have their choice as to
which product they will bear. Marshy
lowiands touched by the pillow rise and
| wiring out their wet locks in the trenches.
| Islands born down on the coast of Peru
and Bolivia ara transported to our fields
and make our vegetation leap. High
ways. by this plow, are changed from
! Doggy sloughs into roads like the Roman
/ Appian way. Fields go through bloodless
revolutions until there the farm house
stands. In summer honeysuckles Chamber
over the trellses. On one side there
stands a garden. which is only farm
condensed. On the other side there is
! stretch of meadow land with thick grass,
and, as the wind breathes over it, it looks
like the deep green ocean waves. There
! goes brook, tarrying long in its wind
! ings, as if loath to leave the spot where
the reeds sing, and the cattle stand at
| MONDAY under the shadow of the weep
/ ing willows. In winter the sled comes
i through the cracking snow, with huge
| logs from the woods, and the barn floor
/ quakes under the thumpings of the fail
| or the deafening buzz of he thrashing
machine. Horses stand ben, nth NOW
poles bending under loads of hay and
whinny to the well-flled oat bis Com
| fort laughs at the wind rafting the
sashes and clicking the icicles from the
| caves.
Religion the Tree of Life.
Although most of us have nothing di-
rectly to do with the tillage of the SOIL
| yet in all our occupations we feel the eff
feet of successful or blighted industry.
| We must, in all our occupations, rejoice
over the victories of the pillow to-day. The
earth was once cursed for mans sake,
and occasionally the soil reyenges itself
on us by refusing bountiful harvest. |
suppose that but for sin the earth would
be producing wheat and corn and sweet
fruits as naturally as now it produces
mullen stalks and Canada thistles. There
is hardly hillock between the forests of
Maine and the lagoons of Florida, be-
tween the peach orchards of New Jersey
and the pines of Oregon that has not
sometimes shown its natural and total de-
pravity. The thorn and thistle seem to
have usurped the soil, and nothing but
the rebellion of the pillow can uproot the
evil supremacy. But God is good. Now,
if one of our seasons partially proves a
failure, the earth seems to repent of 1t
the next summer in more munificent sup
ply.
Praise God for the great harvests that
have been reaped this last year, Some of
them, injured by drought or insects or
freshets, were not as bountiful as usual,
| others far in excess of what have ever
before been gathered, while higher prices
viii hel1 make up for any decreased sup
ply. Sure sign of agricultural prosperity
we have in the fact that cattle and horses
and sheep and swine ana all farm animals
have during the last two years increased
in value. Twenty million swine slaugh-
tered this last year, and yet so many hogs
left. Enormous paying off of farm mort
cages has spoiled the old speeches of the
calamity howlers. IL the aneients in
their festivals presented their rejoicings
before Ceres the goddess of corn and till
age. shall we neglect to rejoice in the
|
Atlantic to Pacific let the American ma
ton celebrate the victories of the piow.
| come next to speak of the eonquests
of the American hammer. Its iron arm
has fought its way down from the begin
ming to the present. Under its swing the
city of Enoch rose and the foundry of
Tubal Cain resounded and the ark float
ed on the deluge. At its clang ancient
temples spread their magniicence and
chariots rushed out fit for the battle. Its
iron fist smote the marble of Paros, and
it rose in sculptured Minervas and struck
the Tenteichn mines until from them a
Pafthenon was reared whittier than a pal
ace of ice and pure as angels dream
Damascus and Jerusalem and Rome, and
Venice and Paris and London and Phila-
delphia and New York and Washington
are but the long protracted echoes of the
hammer. Under the hammer everywhere
dwellings have gone up. ornate and lux
urious. School houses, y ceums, hospitals
and asylums have added additional glory
to the enterprise as well as the benefi'
cence of the American people. Vast pub
lie works have been constructed. bridges
have been built over rivers and tunnels
dug under our mountains, and churches OF
matchless beauty have gone up for hin
who hau not where to lay his head, and
the old theory is exploded that because
Christ was born in manger we must al
ways worship him in a barn.
Growth of National Industry.
, Railroads of fabulous length have beer
completed, over which western train,
rush past the swift footed deer. making
the frightened birds to dart into the heav
ems a. the cough of the smoke pipes anC
; the savage yell of the team whistle. Ii
hot haste our national industry advances
her breath the air of ten thousand fur
naces, her song the voice of uncounted
factories, her footsteps the flash of whee
buckets and the tread of the shaft ant
the stamp of foundries. Talk about ante
diluvian longevity. | think the average
of human life is more now than it evel
was Through echanical facilities mer
work so much faster and accomplish SC
much more in a lifetime that a man car
! afford to die now at forty as well as one
of old at 900. / think the average OF
human life in point of accomplishment
is now equivalent to about 800 years, as
near rs | can calculate it. In all our oc
Lcupations and professions we feel tn,
effect of a crippled or enlarged mechan
zeal enterprise. We all have stock il
every house that is builded AMI in every
public conveyance that is constructed anC
in every ship that is sailed. When W,
see the hardworking men Of the land liy
ing in comfortable abodas. with luxurie.
upon their tables that once even kings
could not afford, having the advantage