Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1902-05-23
Agricultural.
z PLURIBUS UNUM.

Not the Union, but the live, intelli-
gent farmer With his checked shirt
and his cowhide boots you may have
taken him for a simple product, but you
mistake he is intensely composite /;
there are many more of him than there
we're of the John" in the "Autocrat."
To begin with, he is q meteorological,
since he devotes himself to the science Of
weather. When you meet him, you have
his cordial greeting and kind inquiry
for "the folks" then full weather re-
port from all the drawers of his private
bureau. He knows the sun and moon
like an almanac; he has met all the
mists and hazes and fogs the snow and
frost are his familiar friends he is at
home with all the clouds, and as we'll
acquainted with the winds as was Eolus.
He needs this knowledge, for be fairly
sows and reaps weather, and climate
makes or mars his harvests and herds.
You will also find him 4 geologist, but
not the kind that, hammer in hand, is
willing to wander all summer in search
of trilobite, or to spend ell winter in
cleaning stone lily. He is at home
when scanning handful of earth and
experimenting with it. He knows what
is lacking TO make 1t fertile and how to
supply the lack. He discovers what
underlies his acres, and what is wise to
do and not to do in consequence. He
sees the strata and outcroppings, boul-
ders and moraines on bis farm, and con-
jures up Q way to use them. This com
posite man is also somewhat of bota-
mist; not familiar with everything from
"the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto
the hyssop that springeth out of the
wall" as was Solomon but at home
with many flower and seed and blade
on his own domain, understanding their
relations to their surroundings, their
growth and multiplication, their health
and disease. and readily distinguishing
between his friends and his foes. The
live farmer is q zoologist. He does not
refuse to buy milch COW because she
has lost her upper front teeth, he does
not call her dewlap her "burlaps," he
knows that her four stomachs mean food.
He plans that his domestic animals shall
not live like the reindeer of which the
old readers said,
"His dinner and his bed were snow, ami
supper he had not"
Their rearing, feeding and housing are
his particular study. He is often their
doctor and surgeon. aud always their
friend. This multiplex man is student
Of insects, not a Professor Scarabeus,
who could spend all his years npon one
kind of beetle, but an entomOlogist of
practical type, knowing the eggs and the
larvae Of winged enemies, together WITH
their time Of development and their
favorite haunts and rations. He does
not call all insects "bugs'-knowing
that the bug family is . comparatively
small One-nor does he draw q spider,
as artists have done, with two big COM
posite eyes and six little legs like but
terfly. In bird lore he is q practical
Ornithologist, who can gather about his
premises the "little brothers of the air,
and set them to work in his orchards
and fields. This farmer is a chemist
whose laboratory is his whole farm He
does not sit before sink or table filed
with ill-smelling bottle constantly dread
ing an explosion, but out in the sun
shine and air he studies the lie pro-
cesses of plants and animals, the liquids
and gases and solids of his land, the in-
creased fertility Of his soil. and the CON-
position Of materials used on his farm.
This wide awake farmer may daily reve
in bis knowledge Of the laws of physics
and mechanics. He cannot hitch
horse, turn furrow, roll log, or con-
struct Q fence without obeying their
teachings. His windmill, wedges and
levers, all call for his scientific intelli-
genoe; his draining. ditching. grading
and surveying draw upon bis knowl-
edge Of civil engineering Aud so he
finds that every bit Of scientific knowl-
edge ever gathered from teachers and
books, from laboratories aud field OBJ
servaton, is source Of comfort and
strength in his many sided life II, as
is usually the case, he has developed
his domestic. his patriotic, and his reli-
gious side, he stands, indeed, q com
posite man.-Agricultural Epitomist.