The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-19
THE SUMNER AND THE HARVEST.

In the hot harvest fields, or worn by
the days toll, it is difficult for US to
appreciate fully the beatty revealed
day by day as the seasons roll by. In
summer we have the full fruition of q
year of toll; it is well for US some
times to forget the toll as we con-
template the majesty as well as the
mystery of the law underlying seed
time and harvest.
If a man die, shall he live again?
IF the grain we scatter by the sewers
hand die not, whence cometh the IN
crease? It is faith born of the ex-
perience of the ages which induces
man to take of his store of grain and
scatter it over the plowed fields or
bury it in the furrow, in order that the
law of the harvest bringing the early
and later rains, the mists of the morn-
ing and the warmth of the sun, each in
it's turn, may once more fill our gran
aries and the race of man be fed.
We have not food enough to keep
the race through one absolute failure
of crops the world over; so each farm
er in the field may know therefore
that "under the law" he is laboring to
save mankind from starvation. When
a man feels that he may save a life
he nerves himself to greater labor, he
bravely faces even the loss of his life
that he may save others. In the fields
before harvest, or in the harvest, or
after, he is laboring to save life; he is
part of an innumerable host of labor
ers, who are scattered over the world,
working unconsciously for the adj
vancement of all mankind. That is a
thought we should like to have every
farmer, every farmers boy, every
farmers girl, carry into the daily toll.
It was uttered nearly seventy years
ago by Ralph Waldo Emerson when
he said:
"In this r~efulgent summer it has
been a luxury to draw the breath of
life. The grass grows; the buds burst,
the meadow is spotted with fire and
gold in the tint of flowers. The air is
full of birds, and sweet with the breath
of pine, the balm-of-Gileads and the
new hays. Night brings no gloom to
the heart with its welcome shade.
Through the transparent darkness the
stars pour their almost spiritual rays.
Man under them seems a young child,
and his huge globe a toy. The cool
night battles the world as with a river,
and prepares his eyes again for the
crimson dawn. The mystery of nature
was never displayed more happily.
The corn and the wine have been free
ly dealt to all creatures, and the never
broken silence with which the old
bounty goes forward has not yielded
yet one word of explanation. One is
constrained to respect the perfection
of this world, in which our senses con-
verse. How wide; how rich; what in
s4CoCAOh CNO4J PAOPO4GJ IL SANCS
to every faculty of man! In its fruit
full sails; in its navigable sea; in it's
mountains of metal and stone; in it's
forests of all woods; in its animals;
in its chemical ingredients; in the
powers and path of light, heat, attrac-
ton, and life, it is we'll worth the pith
and heart of great men to subdue and
enjoy it. The planters, the mechanics,
the inventors, the astronomers, the
builders of cities, and the captains,
history delights to honor"
Surely the mystery of nature was
never displayed more happily than it
has been displayed this summer in the
homes of the American farmer.-R.
". Knott, in Home and Farm.