148 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



LABOR A NECESSITY AND DUTY. 



liV NEI.SOX SIZEU. 



Man is by nature a being of labor. His mental 

 and physical constitution is wisely adapted to labor, 

 and hc'never fulfils his destiny, and obeys the laws 

 of his being, without it. Almost as soon as the 

 •child can raise its head, it begins to sliadow forth 

 this inherent element — he labors. That which in 

 the cliild we call play, is his labor ; and most ear- 

 nestly and faithfully does he perform it. Nothing 

 would change the habits of the child as he advances 

 in life, but the unsound public sentiment which 

 writes disgrace on the perspiring brow of labor. 



As well might we shut out the light of day from 

 the young as to deprive them of labor — they will 

 work. If taught that useful labor is disreputable, 

 they will seek sports of questionable moral tendency, 

 on which to work off their surplus vitality and mus- 

 cular energy ; and the world as well as themselves are 

 deprived of all the usefulness which so much wasted 

 labor might have produced. 



Labor is an effort of the mind and body exercised 

 to produce some useful result. It is valuable wholly 

 for its benefit to sentient beings, particularly to the 

 human race. Nearly all that is produced by labor is 

 the result of the industrious toil of about one half 

 of the race ; the balance are mere consumers, drone - 

 bees in the hive of human society, who prey upon 

 the products of industry, lessen the aggregate of 

 human comfort, and do little or nothing to compen- 

 sate society for their sustenance. It is therefore not 

 only unnatural and dishonorable to live a life of 

 useless, unproductive existence, but it is mean in the 

 extreme ; it is social robbery ; piracy upon the prod- 

 ucts of the industrious world. No person has a 

 right to live without a valuable contribution to the 

 general stock of mind, morals, or money. The world 

 supports him, and he owes it, in return, the efforts of 

 hLs mind or muscles in the production of the useful 

 and the true. To refuse to do this, in a moral point 

 of view, is robbery. The idiotic, the insane, and the 

 imbecile, are excusable — none others. 



If man Avould take lessons of industry from the 

 whole world of organic and inorganic matter, and 

 carry out, as he should do, the indication thus written 

 in the practical language of action, useful, laborious, 

 universal action, the race of idlers and non-producers 

 would, by reformation, cease to burden and disgrace 

 the earth. Nature is one great workshop. The 

 tides and winds, electricity and magnetism, chemical 

 and geological combinations and changes, the forma- 

 tion and developments of organic life, are all speci- 

 mens of incessant industry, evolving results of om- 

 nipotent importance. Shall a part of the noblest of 

 God's work, man, be the only exception to this 

 great law of industry ? Shall earth, air, and sea, be 

 instinct of life, action, unmitigated action ; and every 

 species of animal, from the animacule to the ele- 

 phant, exert an earnest industry, and man, having 

 more wants than any animal in existence, be either 

 too proud or too indolent to labor ? It is wrong and 

 unnatural to be idle, or uselesslj- employed ; it is a 

 libel on existence. It should, therefore, be regarded, 

 as it truly is, disgraceful. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



PLANT THE BEST. 



Mr. Editor : My motto is, and mj' advice to every 

 farmer is. Always propagate from the best. The 

 effects of this rule, and of care in cultivation, are 

 wonderfully exemplified in the history of almost 

 every production of value at present to be found 

 cither in the garden or upon the farm. Indeed, 

 scarcely a single vegetable known cither to the gar- 



dener or farmer at this day, can be found in its pris- 

 tine state. 



Wheat is a factitious production ; and so are barley, 

 rj'e, and hemp, lliee and oats are also never found 

 wild ; tliey are, together with the afore-mentioned 

 grains, the result of careful culture, graduated upon 

 principles of science and enlightened effort. The 

 potato — one of our most valuable, and, perhaps, 

 salutary of all our edible esculents — is a native of 

 Chili and Monte Video, and is there a small, bitter, 

 and disgustingly nauseating root. Cabbage, celery, 

 and asparagus, likewise owe their present reputation 

 and consequence in the vegetable world simply to 

 the efforts of enlightened art. In their natural and 

 unameliorated state, they are wholly M-orthless for 

 purposes of food, cither for man or beast. 



The pear, the poach, the apple, plum, and apricot 

 equally attest the effects of artistic skill and effort in 

 improving the wild, insipid fruits of nature. In the 

 floral kingdom, the results are even more remarkable. 

 Not only have the various species of flowers been 

 greatly improved, in numberless instances, by scien- 

 tific cultivation, but there are cases in which indi- 

 viduals may almost be said to have been created. 

 That they are susceptible of wonderful and almost 

 endless improvement, no one who has witnessed the 

 magical influences of art, can for a moment doubt. 

 Nor is this all. In the animal kingdom, we have 

 witnessed results which, in the days of the old Cotton 

 Mather, would have condemned the person who had 

 been instrumental in their consummation to the 

 dungeon, or, more probably, to the stocks ! An indi- 

 vidual in Massachusetts recently announced through 

 the public journals, that he was prepared to breed to 

 order any color or form of animals that might be 

 desired. If animals purely white were desii'ed, he 

 could produce them. Any peculiarity of formation, 

 or physiological development named, he would guar- 

 anty to secure, or ask nothing for his toil. 



By selecting the best animals for breeders, and 

 reserving them to propagate from, a farmer may 

 exalt the character and consequently the value of 

 his flocks and herds, to almost any extent desired. 

 But this, unfortunately, is not the practice pursued 

 by most breeders. The superior price which good 

 animals always command in the markets of this 

 country, and that short-sighted policy, originating 

 oftentimes in the most sordid avariciousness of mind, 

 which leads men to sacrifice future rewards to pres- 

 ent gains, induces the owner to sell his best stock, 

 and retain the meaner and less excellent animals on 

 his farm. 



The same policy, also, is often blindly adopted in 

 reference to grains. The fullest wheat is often sold, 

 instead of being reserved for seed ; and what is the 

 legitimate result ? Any one can answer. It is too 

 obvious to every person, to require a reply. 



A PRACTICAL FARMER. 



Bald Eagle Farm, April 1, 1850. 

 — Gennajitoton Telegraph. 



CHARRING BUTS OF POSTS. 



We take occasion, says the American Farmer, as 

 the sjjring is now upon us, and fences will have to be 

 constructed and repaired, to commend to the favor 

 of our agricultural friends the practice of charring 

 the but-ends of posts, before inserting them in the 

 ground. We advise that the but-ends of posts be 

 charred sufficiently far to leave about four inches of 

 a part so treated above ground. That the durability 

 of posts thus prepared will be greatly prolonged, wo 

 have not the slightest doubt — nay, we believe that 

 it will make one post last as long as three would, 

 that had been planted without such previous prepara- 

 tion, and that any loood susceptible of being wrought 



