Year: 1877




from starving.


honor the farmer, as do the truthful


ness of George Washington. but shou


have lied the oltl ran right out of hi


boots about that cherry tree, if had bee


George. l freely confess that l do no


like farming any better than do casio


oil. There Is more hard work to the acr


III farming thar, in any occupation know


of, ii We except the dentist. There is


heap Of hard work to the archer in tha


business, though the work is chiefly to tn


archer rather than to the dentist.


! The iarnler has an inborn idea that IT,,


sun will not rise unless he gets up an,


personally superintends the job. When


was small boy was told by my goot


mother that the sun rose every morning


and-I always believed her. | never go


up to see, for l always felt us if it woult


look as though doubted her word.


After the farmer is up he must cut ul
some green wood for his wife to build the
fire with. \ farmers wife who had kin
dlings and dry wood furnished her would
consider that she had good grounds for q
divorce. While the breakfast is being
cooked the farmer hics to the barn to take
care of and feed his cattle. Anybody who
has ever taken hold of Il pitchtork handle
When the thermometer was below zero
never will "utlive the remembrance of it.
| Iherc lliaV be things colder. but | never
touched them. took hold of a white oak
pltcllfork handle over twenty Years ago.
and have never had the full use of NV
hands since.


stttet completing the chamber work in
the tath. the mex. thing is to water the
stock. Watering stock on Wall street and
watering it on farm are two different
things. Pumping up wafer through a
leaky pump. when it seems as if the first
drop comes from the centre of the earth,
is more cheerful to read of than to do.
Perhaps it is not pump, but an icy we'll
pole that you are called pon to embrace.
and, as it slips through your fingers. and
tic cold drops OF water splash up your
shlrt-sleeves. you begin to wonder whether
| this really is the bright world that YOU al
ways thought it was. and whether YOU
will be called upon to draw water from a
deep well with an ice pole in the other
land beyond the skies.


1t is during the winter that the farmer
throws aside tie drllGgery and hard work
of the farm. and engages in the snort of
cutting and hauling out cord-wood. Next
to making tatting. there is scarcely anv
labor more easily done than breaking out
wOod-rOad through snow three feet in
depth, and then chopping down trees.
spilttln" and cutting them into cort-wood.
then hauling load--of it--tfteen miles 10
market. and then stand. in the streets all
day. and then.. finally sell it for five dollars
cord. and take your pay in..sometIino
You don't want. When | tlin.. Of this
easy way of earning dollar have to hire
stout man to hold me down in a chair,
in order to keep me from pllinging out and
buying Il wood lot.


When spring fairly sets in then it is that
the farmer begins to realize that h.; owns :,
farm. and that he is Il sturdy yeOman.
He starts out with his plOw to turn up the
burrows in The glad earth. How beauti-
fully the poets sing about all this, and how
nice it sounds. especially if the poetry is
good! l think there is charm about
poetic lie that does not exist in prose.


Fora delicate invalid. a course OF treat
ment consisting of holding plow for tif-
teen hours a day, through a rocky field,
would be likely to make another man Of
him in short time. 1t might possibly be
a dead man. but still it would be another
man. held plow once and helped to
break up piece of new land. Through
the kindness of friends was taken into
machine shop and rebuilt over, as well as
the machinist could do the job. l have
never seemed to feel exactly right since,
but don't suppose l ought to blame the
man. lie said lny arms were both pulled
but of their sockets and | was all stretched
ont of shape, and he did as we'll as any,
body could for me. shall not hold plow
again as long as l hold my reason, and
when that leaks out of me it will not
matter much what hold, or what holds
me.


When farmer wants a little play. in
stead of putting out his croquet set, he
turns to and builds piece Of stone wall.
Bhildins stone wall is more exciting than
playing billiards, for there is more variety
in it. Amateur billiards always reminds
the Of the itch. there is so much scratch to
it, but building stone wall is diversified
something to do all the time, like catching
fleas.


No one can realize the charm of digging
around big rock, and getting It chain un-
der it, and twitching it onto a drag, or Of
getting a crOwbar under it; and lifting and |
straining on it, enough to strain the whole
Atlantic Ocean, and then Of having the |
bar Slip, and the stone roll back. barking a !
shin, or otherwise brllising you, while you
plunge forward with force enough to drive
your head into the ground: | say no one
can realize the charm OF this unless he has |
sat on fence, as have, and seen it done.


The bug problem to the farmer is Il stu
pendous one: 1t amounts to more to a
small farmer than it does to the biggest
hotel proprietor in the country. A good,
smart chambermaid and bottle of double
B poison will fix bed 80 that you can
plant man at nine o'clock ut night, and
have to haul him out Of bed with steam
tug in the morning, he will sleep so sound
ly.


The potatd-5ug is native of the West.
He originated in the canyons of Colorado,
and may be called an dtf-shoOt of that sec
tiOn. The State is raMmed full and loaded
down with them. They formerly lived on
wild plants, but one of them went up to
Denver on d little pleasure trip, and at the
,otel there he had some fried potatoes,
md they struck him as being about the
,est thing to quiet hunger he had lighted I
IN. He went home and advised his breth- |
-, <.<> Eoct oO1 thovy cipnn1u nv, ,