Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-16
Special Correspondence Of I

| RUTLAND, Mass, July Z, 1911.
No one would think Of coming to Mas
sachusettsi to study agriculture. for il
Is essentially a manufac
Inventive turing state, and the area
Faculty. under under. cultivation and nd thu thu
crops are Insignificant compared with
those OF the central and western states
Nevertheless. the farmer of Illinois, Min
nesotA, Nebraska, California and other
great agricultural states might learn
many valuable lessons by visiting the
villages around Rutland and elsewhere In
| the interior Of Massachusetts. The in
genuities and economies that are prac-
ticed by the New England farmer would
double their profits What Harriet
Beecher Stowe calls faculty" in her
description Of the New England char
acter. and what the natives here call
| "contrivance," is one of the most val.
| liable assets Of New England. The in
ventive faculty to contrive something
that will meet the necessities Of the case.
or provide for an emergency. or q sub
| stitute for something that Is lacking. is
peculiar to the Yankee, and is the secret
Of his success in all the activities Of life.
and we see that characteristic displayed
by the humblest Of farmers. Without
this resourcefulness they could not sur
vive.
The average New England farmer
works harder than those in the west. a
fact which has been considered to his
advantage spiritually as well as ma
terially.. In general description Of New
the Chamber Of Commerce Of Boston, I
have found q statement concerning agri-
cultural conditions and a description OF
New England character, whose. greatest
virtues are attributed to 1.-The influence
and the unconscious memory of genera
lions of contention with the hard natural
conditions surrounding industrial life dur
ing its first two centuries"
X
There has been a certain grim liking
for adverse conditions in the New Eng
land character the
Severe writer continues. (which
o.. has operated to produce
oA0o~' reluctant assent to OPP
timism. The old-fashioned New Eng
lander often chose the harder path. ap-
parently. for the very joys Of martyrdom.
Not few of the men Of New England
seem yet to feel the same impulse. 1t
was long a part of the creed Of our
fathers that the flesh must be "morti-
fed; that self-sacrif1ce and self-denial
were necessary for their moral and spir-
itual welfare, and 1t was their inclina-
ton to reject whatever promised pleas
ure, ease or comfort. The profit they
were in the habit of accepting. If it came
to them in obvious guise. They would
never concede that one field was better
for corn than another. II they elected
to plant corn. and 1t did not elect to
grow and ripen into a plentiful crop, the
failure was charged up to Providence
and the same field was planted to corn
the next year and the next. The Pill
grims and the Puritans persisted in
whatever course they believed was d.
vinely marked out for them. They trust
ed the Lord to provide heterogeneous slim
ulant FOR their fields. and would probably
have regarded the planting Of inoculated
clover as an appeal to witchcraft. We
Of today have plenty Of the same spirit.
We hope for divine Intervention in the
matter Of the fertility of our fields, and
We are inclined to be persistently stub
born in matters Of custom and tradition
in our business methods. Tell an in
grained New Englander that his old ap-
pie orchard can be made to produce
twice al many apples as he has harvested
In his best year and he viii not believe
It; neither will the average business man
believe that the efficiency expert can so
order his business that II viii yield ten
or twenty-five per cent more profit.
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