The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1905-11-22


there is among foreigners. The
American farmer will sell his grand
fathers farm for what it will bring
and go to new part of the country
without hesitation with only vague
hope of doing better than he has been.
An editorial in the last Southern
Cultivator has the right ring to it.
Read it.
Nothing is more apparent to us
than the fact that our farmers have
not been trained to love the soil. The
care they take of it demonstrates this;
also. the readiness with which they
part with it, without pang, proves
they love it too little. The fact that
it has been so cheap has caused us to
place it low in the scale of our afec-
tiOns We are glad it is becoming
more valuable so rapidly; our selfish
interest will make us love it more, as
it costs us more. One gentleman
puts it thus: "GOd has quit making
any more land, but He is still making
more people, and hence land is bound
to become more valuable" Mr.. Geo.
Truitt says: 1--WE have the finest land
on earth. but it is mighty poorly in
habited" Friends, let us do better.
We should love with answering de-
vOtiOn and tenderest care, the good, old,
kindly Mother Earth, from whose dust
we were made, who furnishes us with
a place of abode, who furnishes us
with all our food and clothing and
whose bosom furnishes us our last
resting place when life's work and
struggles are over. 1T is the raw
material from which we are to fashion
all of our human happiness. 1t is the
source from which we are to draw
all our comforts, and furnishes the
only means of satisfying the numerous
and pressing physical wants of man.
The soil is natures great manufacture
ing plant, where the forces of Omnipo-
tence are to cooperate with the agen-
cies of man; and where man is left
to regulate and control, whether these
forces and agencies go i'm to make the
jimsOn-weed or the rose, the rag-weed
and crab-grass or the corn and the
cotton. God has placed a thousand
agencies i'm the forms of the sunshine,
the rain. the elements constituting the
soil. the untold variety of insects,
WOTlIlS. IllCIODtS DdCtClld,
i'm our soil to aid us. who work our
soils Alright, or to hinder our yields
when we depart from an watch
| full and judiciOus care. Here the
penalties for an evil deed are not
Ideferred'' or withheld for some future
state; but our retribution comes at
once, i'm the decreased yield and a
| poorer soil. If treated Alright, the
science of Alchemy is not only trans
muting minerals, and making new
acids and nitrateS to feed our plants.
but flowers. We should delight to
| turn up the rich dark mould, to
crumble it fine so that it may best
feed the growing plants. 1t should
| thrill us with pleasure to tread the
velvet sod. and to know that our
ministering care made "two blades of
grass grow where one grew before,
and as we cultivate our crops, it
should give us Il new joy to know
that every needful consideration has
been given to aid the nOuriShing of the
growing cotton and the corn. The
| Chinaman will come to America that
he may reap more for the fruit of
| his labor. but he never fOrgetS his
native soil, and should death Overtake
him here in this foreign land, he will
direct that his bones repose in the
soil of his beloved father-land The
| Italian will wander for years that he