USE OF MIND IN FARMING. 39 



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pre ting these slight and misty messengers, but recently, on a 

 noblo farm, was disastrous to the almost total loss of hay and 

 grain in harvesting. On an adjacent farm, and under a more 

 close and shrewd observance of natural laws, the whole crop 

 was secured with scarce a farthing's loss by wet, fermentation, 

 or mildew. 



In these instances, things above and around were the same. 

 The difference was in the use of mind. One did not closely 

 study, or studying did not understand, and hence acted at 

 random and lost his crop. The other studied, understood and 

 obeyed nature's laws, and was blessed. Superficial observers 

 and glib-ton gued critics — and they are not scarce articles — 

 looking on the mildewed heaps in one case, would doubtless, 

 with doleful emphasis exclaim, " unlucky ! always unlucky !" 

 And turning their eyes over upon the bright and golden heaps 

 of the other, sing forth, " lucky ! always lucky !" Now, gentle- 

 men, what a mistake this about luck. The secret of the whole 

 affair was in the kind of attention the one gave, and the other 

 did not give, to the exigencies of the case. When will men be 

 persuaded to suffer luck, in the calculations and labors of life, 

 to pass for just what it is, nothing? There is no haphazard, 

 no game of chance, no wizard or departed spirit juggling, in 

 raising and harvesting a large crop of corn, hay and wheat, or 

 in fattening a large herd of swine or cattle. Whatever may be 

 in other departments, we have yet to learn the existence of 

 ploughing, mowing, reaping or threshing mediums ! 



Nature in her sunlight, clouds, rain and heat, will not stop 

 to play hide-and-go-seek, or ride-and-tie, with an ignoramus, a 

 fool, or a stand-still. Like time, on she ever rolls, and regards 

 the will of no man. It is not her business to fawn and flatter, 

 and flirt, with such as belie her counsel and make void her 

 mandates. She pays no sycophantic compliments, bows before 

 no titled dignitaries, allows no privileges to gentlemen of 

 renown or to honorary members of agricultural associations. 



To be successful, the farmer must think and work. He must 

 observe and obey natural laws. He must, by practical study, 

 become a living thermometer, barometer, electrometer, hydro- 

 meter, patent wind and weather gauge, electrical, magnetic, 

 galvanic, terrestrial and celestial, universal calculator. Such 

 an instrument can be made only of mind, strong mind ; and 



