Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-01-25
The Worn.out Farmer.

1 Inc WOfn.Out FoTmcEs
Again the woru-out and abandoned
eastern farm. There is sometimes |
great mistake made and much grounC
lost by wrong definitions, and it may b'
safely said in this connection that The
"worn-out'' definition does this very
thing. 1t says altogether too much. il
is the farmer and not the farm that IL
worn out, his wholesome methods gone
his knowledge of the new things requir
ed by his land lacking aad his energy, i
he has it, misdirected.
II there is any one in this country
who really believes that land will veal
cut, let him take trip to the old worlC
and he will never use the term again
| for there the rule is that the longer the
land is cultivated the better it is. 1t al
depends on the handling of the land and
not on the land itself. l have not beer
able to discover that the rich lands o'
Europe are in charge of people who are
scientifically educated. In fact, they
employ methods in their work that any
one in America would laugh at, though
this is mainly because labor is cheap
and can safely be handled in way that
would bankrupt any American farmer,
and besides the land is so soft and mel
low that it often will not hold up ma,
chinery as ours will.
The only trouble with as is that we
use a farm as makeshift. We skim 1t
and get off of it what We can in hurry,
while we are getting ready for some oc-
cupation that we imagine we shall like
better. Till this feeling that farming is
beneath the level of an intelligent man
becomes a good deal less common than
il is now, there can be no great improve
ment in the business. OF course the
popular phrase, "a farmer" as applied to
some one who is not up TO the common
level, has been given sign ificance by the
way some farmers do business, but as
whole, it is just as improper a term as
the older one, blacksmith" applied to
botch workman of any sort, because
some blaeksmiths are poor ones. Let
the farmer adopt the business as a life
work and take up his farm as something
that will repay his best thought and ex-
ertion and there will be no more belit-
Ting of the really one occupation in the
world that can be called independent.
There has been much harm done in
the schools for the farmer, along with
the good. The object of young men
who went into them has been too often
merely to make, not farmers OF them
selves, but farm teachers. 1t goes long
way further in the line of proof IL you
do what you advocate doing instead OF
stopping after you have told some one
else how to do it. When Prof. Henry OF
the University of Wisconsin sent his son
to take up an abandoned Connecticut
farm and took direct hand in restoring
it to cultivation, he did more in a GER
tain way than he did in establishing the
agricultural department at Madison, unr
doubted success that it always has been.
We hear that the Connecticut farm has
again demonstrated that it is good one
aud has shown the people of that locali-
ty how foolish it was to drop such land
and run off to the city.
There have been several queries OF
late as to the cheap laud in this state
and how to get hold of it. 1t seems to
me that all the land in the state is cheap,
and unaccountably so. | have direct
information of the sale of good land in
the middle of the state for $40 or SIS an
acre, land with considerable timber on
it, that is easily worked and has been
cultivated a hundred years or 80 and
has not been allowed to run down more
than the average. II has fair fences
and buildings, free mail delivery, and
fairly easy markets for any thing but the
more perishable truck. In that section
eggs are bringing 40 cents dozen this
winter, and almost everything else that
the farmer has to sell is on the same
high scale. Never have prices of farm
produce been so high, and never has the
land been so low. What is the matter?
Let the thousands of young men who
are going into the farm schools do so
with the idea that farming is one Of the
most complex callings in the world; let
them qualify themselves for the calling
as thoroughly as they can, and then let
them take up the problem of the worn
OUT and abandoned farm with their
own minds and hands. They can buy
plenty of such farms for thousand or
two apiece, bring back the dormant
fertility, show the doubling and dis
appearing people that it is there and
that there is profit behind it, and in
doing so they will do more towards
solving the problem of the farm than
many times their number will as teach
ers who are not attached in any way to
these lands.-Cor Country Gentleman.