VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 35 



THE OL,D AND NEW IN FARMING. 



BY LUNA SPRAGUE PECK. 



There are many vital questions 

 For the farmer of to-day, 

 Bearing radical suggestions, 

 Foreign to the good old way. 



Conservative, and loth to change, 

 Oftimes he views askance, 

 The innovations new and strange 

 That scientists advance. 



The acres that he proudly tills 



Are those his grandsire cleared 



His sire rebuilt smoothed vale and hills, 



And sons and daughters reared. 



And both were honest, fearing God 

 With frugal ways content, 

 They wrested from the well turned sod 

 The dollars saved and spent. 



And so he argues, that the way 

 Their competence was won, 

 Is good enough for him to-day 

 And suited to his son. 



And if the world were standing stil' 

 And life a stagnant sea, 

 No breath to stir the sails, until 

 All life had ceased to be. 



Progressive Arts might be refused 

 And farmers reap and sow 

 With implements that farmers use! 

 A hundred years ago. 



With wooden plow, and weary -arm 

 He still could turn the sod, 

 And feel the wooden harrows charm 

 Each footsore mile he trod. 



His grain from out a wooden pail 

 Sow broadcast o'er the land 

 Then thresh it with a woodengfiair 

 And winnow it by hand. 



But since howe'er the billows break 

 Progress' brave ship sails on 

 Farming must in it passage take, 

 Or breast the waves alone. 



All other occupations are 

 Aboard this craft so wide 

 And watching eager from afar, 

 The turning of the tide. 



Greedy to reach and make their own 

 Before the voyage is o'er, 

 The flotsam and the jetsam throw 

 Upon the waiting shore. 



