Year: 1868

TIE SE3SON OF HOFE.


Our long. hard Winter is over at last, and
Spring is fairly upon us, We may have more
cold rains, and possibly furry or two of
snow in our highlands; but bright, warm days
will henceforth be more and more frequent,
until the fullness of Summer is with us. And
the very backwardness of Spring impels to a
wider and fuller activity. There is no more
complaint of nothing to dO;' every village,
every rural township, from Calais to Cheyenne
is calling for workers who cannot be found
If One Million additional laborers were fairly
distributed over the country every one could
this week find work at fair wages. And not
merely our fields and gardens, but our work
shops also. are calling for help. Every carpeE-
fer. every mason, so far as we can hear, has
more work than he can do, and is beset and
hurried from every side. He who can merely
die and shovel can have work and wages il he
will he who can do any useful work that sat
slies general want can have instant employ
ment and good pay Nowhere but at Wash
ingtOn and a few subordinate points where
office is dispensed or hoped for can We hear OF
secdy, needy. miserable human beings grunb-
ling and whining at the hardness of the times.
Even the South is electrified by the cry OF
cotton thirty cents per pound. and-thcrc being
no longer a cOtton-taX to complain DIV mte
and Black seem for once TO agree that good
crops are next in order. and that 1t is more
important to get "a good stand than to Sc
cure this or that sort of Reconstruction. Not
that all have yet attained to this wisdom, but
it is gaining ground with gratifying celebrity.


We must grow great crop tins year. despite
the distraction and excitement of a Presidential
election. We do not urge our farmers to plant
more acres, but to fcrtilizc to the extent of
their ability and cultivate faithfully. Better
have ten acres of corn that yield fifty bushels
per acre than twenty acres that yield but
twenty-five bushels per acre And, though La
Dor be high, we insist that the judicious en-
ployment of labor-saving machinery and i'm
plcmcnts will enable farmers to employ 1t
literally and realize fair profits, even III view
of lower prices,for products. The farmer who
himself cuts FIVE acres of grass in a morning
and rakcs up an equal area in the afternoon
can afford to pay his help fairly and yet have
cheap hay.


The radical vice of our current farming in
heres in our system of hiring help. Every
farmer should hire in December all the help
he will need during the ensuing year. Labor
is then cheap and abundant; and 1t should he
lberaHy employed in digging muck or i'll col
lecting sea-wced, leaves, &c, &c, to he con
vcrted into elements of fertility for the next
harvest. Some have advantages for this which
Others lack but no farmer who has eyes need
long work poor land for want of the means OF
making it better To give to each field at
least twice as much as you take from it is "A
| l.,,..l Il IN
ter has its labors as important, if not quite so
urgent, as those of Spring and Summer. Yet
tho sroat body of our farmers, having housed
their crop, act as though nothing remained but
to wait for sced-time next Spring so their
help are dismissed to drift down TO the cities,
and there waste their earnings-Oftcn to the
damage of their health and morals-while wait
ing for further employment. This ought not
TO be-


Can il he possible that another Winter will
see our City crowded with the needy and the
wretched, the shiftlcss and the helpless, as it
was a few weeks agO3 Does misery teach
nothingq or shall the simpletons of tomorrow
but repeat the follies of the simpletons of yes
terday? Shall this dreary round of error and
suffering be repeated cvermOrcf To every heir
of misfortune and want, we would implorngly
say, Remember the horrors of the Winter just
sped, and resolve that another shall find you
better fortified against its terrors Work dill
gently and save carefully throughout the genial
season now opening, and resolve that another
Winter shall not find you exposed to the grudg-
ing because Overtaxed charities of n great city.
BE sure that those who suffer in Winter have
generally misused the opportunities of the pre-
cedng Summer.