170 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



April 



ford an opportunity, if judiciously improved, to 

 lay aside (]uite a sum against future needs. It 

 appears as if it were a general rule, the more 

 the income, the greater the wastefulness ; the 

 greater the opportunities for thrift, the less the 

 inclination to improve them. If these are 

 facts, and few careful observers will dispute 

 them, what improvement are we to e.xpect in 

 case these persons are to be pro-rata partici- 

 pants in the profits of the workshops and mills 

 in which they labor ? 



Some no doubt will contend that the. fad of 

 such a connection will beget self-respect, self- 

 reliance and personal interest in the results, 

 that will eventuate in developing the very 

 thing we find they so greatly needed. With 

 some we are ready to admit this result might 

 be looked for ; but with the masses we are not 

 justified in expecting it. Business might be 

 divided equally with the workmen to-day, and 

 to-morrow many would be in circumstances to 

 require you to do the same again, and so on 

 until the entire capital was gone. 



The truth is, man has not become fully sat- 

 isfied with the law, given by his Maker when 

 in Eden, that by the sweat of his face he 

 should eat his bread. It is one of the many 

 "pricks" he foolishly persists in kicking 

 against. He tries various expedients to evade 

 the law, but in vain. Sooner or later he finds 

 to his sorrow, that if a man will not work, 

 neither shall he eat. This law implies or en- 

 forces the principle that w^ should earn and 

 wisely use our earnings, so that we may have 

 enough and to spare. 



I have in my mind an illustration of this 

 want of thrift in a man now employed by me. 

 The business requires a capital of about three 

 thousand dollars. To encourage this man to 

 interest himself in the success of the business, 

 I gave him very liberal wages, so liberal in- 

 deed, that I could see no good reason why he 

 should not be able to lay by two hundred dol- 

 lars a year, after supporting his family as well 

 as those around him supported theirs. I also 

 told him that when he had saved up a thousand 

 dollars, I would sell him one-third interest in 

 the business, and continue his pay as before. 

 He set out with this prospect before him, but 

 to-day he is involved in debt on every hand. 

 It would seem as if the very liberal income he 

 received was really an evil to him. 



How to manage wisely with such men is a 

 problem I am unable to solve. I have again 

 renewed my promise to him, and he is again 

 trying the experiment. Wealth will concen- 

 trate in the hands of the few, unless we can 

 devise some method of co-operation, which, 

 while it gives the laborer his equital)le share 

 in the results of the business, shall at the same 

 time confer on him those business and moral 

 qualities that will enable him to appreciate and 

 make a proper use of the position in which he 

 18 placed, and the opportunities he enjoys. 

 He must, of necessity, be brought to feel more 

 fully his manhood, and seek for culture and 



elevation of character. He xawstfecl the ne- 

 cessity of avoiding the drunkard's cup the 

 loafer's resorts, and the haunts of the vicious ; 

 and that the present is inwrought with the fu- 

 ture as intimately as web and woof. Failure of 

 present duty will more or less unmake his fu- 

 ture. If by any means we can bring men to 

 attempt to level tip instead of trying to bring 

 down to their level those who by patient in- 

 dustry, careful economy, and faithful use of 

 their God-given powers have outstripped them 

 in life's race, we shall have the best founda- 

 tion laid on which to rear our hope of success. 

 Then indeed may we with cheerfulness look 

 the future in the face and feel that by the 

 smiles of a beneficent Providence all is well. 

 To attain this end men of means, and the 

 agents of corporations must put their hand to 

 the work, training and educating their em- 

 ployees to a better appreciation of their indi- 

 vidual responsibility, and a better understand- 

 ing of the relation of present duty to future 

 success. I can conceive of no other means of 

 escape from our present ills. This failing, we 

 must of necessity go on in the future, as in the 

 past, with capital and labor at a dead lock 

 most of the time. k. o. 



Broad Brook, Conn., Jan., 1868. 



For the JVew England Farmer. 

 THE SMALL MANUKE HEAP. 



In an article in your paper of Jan. 18, it is 

 asserted that "a large manure heap is the far- 

 mer's great mistake." This is Dodge Hay- 

 ward's theory, or "chemistry" as he calls it; 

 a theory opposed to the belief and the experi- 

 ence of all tillers of the soil. He says, "All 

 vegetable matter, including the grass of the 

 western prairies and the leaves of the forests 

 of the north, are useless, as manures, except 

 for the small amount of mineral they contain." 

 Then he goes on to say, "The lo«s of fertility 

 in our lands is not caused by the loss of veg- 

 etable matter, but by the loss of the minerals 

 of the soil." 



Chemistry informs us that nothing is added 

 or lost, in all of nature's operations. If you 

 burn a block of wood you have for the ten 

 pounds of wood, an equal number of pounds 

 of water, carbon, creosote, and ashes. Mathe- 

 matics teach us that if we borrow we must re- 

 turn. 



Has this lecturer found a mineral that will 

 supply all the fertilizing matter that the soil 

 requires ? If so, great must be his success. 

 His theory is something to this effect : the 

 more fuel you burn the less heat you will get ! 

 He says, "the rain, dew and snow supply all 

 the material of a vegetable nature ;" "manure 

 is not injured by drying," and that if you "let 

 four loads of horse manure burn itself till it 

 is reduced to one load, you have just as much 

 fertilizing matter as when you had four loads !" 



Now every farmer and gardener will tell you 

 that horse manure that is "burnt up," as they 



