The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-04-24

little Stock OF learning until we are wiser To-Day
than we we're then. But hope we are all
possessed ola sufficient amount OF humility to be
perfectly willing to be characterized as of those
who know in part"
IT'S true the quotation which we have taken as
our subject is related directly to spiritual things
but we believe we do it violence in the setting
we giving it today as it is certainly none the
less true when applied to the things which per-
tain to this life alone. The acquisition of knowl-
edge NAV be said to cover the whole range of life
from our first conscious moments until the last If
the mind is in its normal condition and we are
awake to the life all about us, and yet notwith-
standing, the heights to which we may ascend and
the depths we may fathom it is still the same we
KNOWN part.
We are upon the threshold of the active oper-
ations of another year as tillers of the soI-the
past with its successes and failures has added to
our experience and knowledge-but the future
is all unknown, what the climate conditions will
be-to what extent it will be a wet or dry season,
hot or cold one-we don't even know in part
And for this reason think sometimes the farm
er's lot i, surrounded by more mysteries and I'M
certainties than pertain to the most of callings.
However he is the wisest who uses his successes
and even his failures of the past to teach him
| lessons for the present.
| A noted one in the past, competed in his early
life fora prize on given subject. and he con.
| fident that he knew all there was to know about
it as he had spent great deal of time preparing
himself but, alas, another carried off the honors
and coveted prize-but instead of sitting down in
disappointment it was but the spur to urge him to
| find out yet things which he became convinced
| he did not know ana the result was work pro-
duced in after years which became the recognized
| standard for the world on that subject He used
his failure to good purpose as doubtless had he
gained the prize by his earlier efforts he would
| have been convinced that he knew it all and
have rested on his laurels far short of his later
attachments.
| He is wise person and one that is more likely
than not to be on the road to great achievements
who is as ready to acknowledge, don't know,
as to boast of his present attachments The late
Lord Kelvin who died few months ago and who
stood perhaps without peer in the scientific
| world and who. to his praise be it said, demon
strated to the world that man can be great
scientist and at the same time devout Christian,
is reported to have said, Il have lived long and
| have learned enough to realize know nothing"
Again, F. c. Miles. who has spent much of his
life in Alaska says that the country battles
| science
'I have known scientists to go into that country
with the most plausible theories in the world,
but they went out of it with none of them left
1t is impossible for them to explain the frozen
condition of the ground for distance of two
hundred and fifty feet down into the earth or to
| account for the finding there of giant mastodons
and mammoths. have seen ivory tusks taken
out of the ground that measured twenty feet, and
the skulls Of these animals were bigger than
forty shilling pot.
There are impressions Of ferns to be found that
show the vegetation to have been hundred feet
high. Among all these evidences of animal life.
there is not sign of the existence of man.
What amuses me il the way the so-called
| scientists approve Alaska. They assume to have
explanations for everything in nature; but the
moment they get up into Alaska and see the
| wonders of the earth there and are Intercepted
| by the practical miners who have lived there
for years all their ideas vanish and they disclose
| the fact that they really know nothing"
In face of all these facts we are here today not
| by any means to offer this intelligent body any
| instructions or to tell them what we know but in
the humble role of scholar trying to catch some
| thing from those who are most experienced and
thereby become little more efficient tiller OF the
soil
| am constrained to believe that much of the
dissatisfaction existing among farmers is failure
to grasp this fundamental truth as applied to all
callings alike. For instanee the farmer sees much
of and dwells upon the better side of the other
callings about him and forgetsthat he knows only
| in part that the dark side he seldom sees nor
cares to investigate and truly wakens up sadder
and wiser man when rushing into that which
promises so much he finds it out to his great dis
appointment.
What the farmer of today needs in my view is
a greater love and appreciation for his work, as
noble if not the nobiest work under the sun.
While not by actual choice farmer, am glad to
say that as have grown older and have tried to
see some of the dark and as we'll as bright side of
some other callings. am becoming more and
more thoroughly convinced that we have no
reason to bend our heads in shame but on the
other hand with noble demeanor and erect form
we have every reason to be glad of the fact that
we are worthy successors of those who started out
from the hand of the Creator to till the soil and
tend the hocks. Again as an evidence of our
little knowledge and as spur to greater trust
and less complaint in our calling, take our
present crop of wheat as an illustration, true we
have not yet arrived at harvest but we all know
that perhaps up to a few weeks ago it was the
| NA~~SN@NoNH1
As heard gentleman who had travelled con-
siderably declare there was not wheat east or
west-today the fields literally lie dressed in
living green and the crop report as sent out first
of this month report 1t more than per cent
higher than this time last year, and per cent
higher than the average for the last 10 years.
Perhaps no better view Of man, the farmer, can be
given to close with than Emerson gives in one OF
his ESSAYS He tells u.s. that there is an old table
which out of, an unknown antiquity conveys an
unlocked tor wisdom that the Gods in the be.
ginning. divided man into men that he might be
more helpful to HIMSELF just as the hand was
divided into fingers, the better to answer its end
The old fable covers doctrine ever new aud
sublime; that there is one man-present TO all
particular men only partially or through one
faculty; and that you must take the whole so-
ciety to find the whole man, Man is not farm
er. or professor, or an engineer, but he is all.
Man Il priest scholar, statesman producer and