1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



325 



In the form of a question, he puts the afflrmation, 

 that "farmers, as a class, are a poor ignorant su- 

 perstitious set." 



On a well conducted farm a man need not be 

 poor. I know farmers, even down here in this cold 

 north-eastern extremity of the Union, who have 

 more or less governmeut bonds or other securities 

 — in some cases amounting to thousands of dollars. 



Nor is there greater necessity of their being ig- 

 norant. All through the winter they have the 

 privileges of good schools, and the opportunity of 

 more or less leisure, and if they are ignorant it is 

 their own fault. There are farmers here whose 

 sons are fitted for college, and whose daughters 

 are women of refined manners and good education, 

 and I deny friend "Billy's" assertion that farmers 

 "have not time to learn, and are an ignorant set." 

 He further says the "boys have to work early and 

 late in mud and mire and in much 'that is not so 

 sweet by half,' doing the work of scavengers, and 

 all for nothing." That there are times in the year 

 when farmers' boys have to work early and late I 

 admit, but as a farmer's boy, raised in Maine, 

 among Billy Styx's "poor, ignorant and supersti- 

 tious set," I know that this is not generally so 

 here, and I do not believe it is so elsewhere. 



Again friend Billy says "the farm hand seldom 

 gets twenty-five dollars a month, while in the shop 

 forty is not uncommon." Now, dear Billy, I have 

 myself labored on a farm in your own State, at 

 $'30 per month and board from March to December, 

 and taught school from December to March. But 

 let us look at the contemptible $25 per month and 

 board through the year. At the end of a twelve- 

 month, it amounts to $300. With the $40 per 

 month, that looks to Billy as such a "big bight," 

 the wages for the year amount to $430, but after 

 deductmg $4.50 per week for board — certainly low 

 figures — there are only $246 left, against $300 for 

 the farm hand, and this on the assumption of no 

 lost time, which is more probable in the shop than 

 on the farm. 



I admit that the farmer has or should have a 

 good deal of manure to handle, but docs that jus- 

 tify Billy's use of the word "scavenger," which is 

 defined by Webster's Unabridged, a copy of which 

 lies at my elbow, as a "pei-son whose employment 

 is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or 

 sweeping and carrying off the tilth!" Is that a 

 fair word to use as characteristic of the work of 

 farmers' boys in the country ? Are the breeding 

 and training of the intelligent horse, the sturdy ox, 

 the noble cow or the golden-fleeced sheep the occu- 

 pation of a scavenger ? Does the management of 

 the mowing-machine, the harvester, the plough, or 

 the cultivator, suggest the idea of scraping up the 

 filth of the streets of a city ? Now, Billy, please 

 don't be quite so severe, but have a little mercy 

 on us. c. w. H. 



Wiscasset, Me., May, 1868. 



Remarks.— J. Burrows of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 

 writes to the New York Farmers' Club as follows : 

 "Fifteen years of my life was passed in the "clas- 

 sic atmosphere" of a printing olHce, and before 

 the war I published a paper. I have lived much 

 in towns and cities, and know something of culture 

 and refinement. I maintain that there is no better 

 place in the world for a gentleman than on a farm. 

 All the appliances of culture a gentleman need de- 

 sire are within his reach. There is no such thing 

 as being "forced into associations and companion- 

 ship" outside of one's own home ; and there is no 

 labor connected with a farm which can in any de- 

 gree degrade or demoralize a man of culture and 

 refinement, providing he oxons the land he tills. 

 Now, I will hazard this assertion : Take fifty far- 



mers, at random, out of any farming community 

 in this Slate, and fifty men, at random, out of any 

 village or city in the State of New York, and, 

 upon careful examination, the fifty farmers will be 

 found superior in intelligence, culture, true refine- 

 ment, and above all, morality. The ambition to 

 be a gentleman, with no knowledge of the true 

 meaning of the term, is taking from the farm those 

 who should make our best farmers, and it is lead- 

 ing thousands of young men to their ruin in our 

 towns and cities." 



"Green Mountain," of Milton, Vt., furnishes us 

 with strictures on Billy Styx's communication 

 very similar to those of "C. W. H." He appears to be 

 rather indiflFerent as to the charge of poverty, but 

 says, as one "farmer's son, though I may not be 

 as bright as some, I do hate dreadfully to be called 

 ignorant and superstitious." Still he is so little 

 affected by Billy's tirade that he closes his first 

 letter to the printers with the remark, "I intend 

 to stick to the farm for a while longer, any way." 

 Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that by 

 doing so the whole Billy Styx family should per- 

 sist in classing you with the poor, the ignorant and 

 the superstitious, will it not be still true that the 

 wealth which stings like an adder is worse than 

 poverty ; that the knowledge which some acquire 

 is more undesirable than ignorance ; and that the 

 incredulity which doubts that the path of virtue is 

 the path of safety is more to be dreaded than super- 

 stition ? We leave this train of thought for the 

 present, and conclude these remarks with the fol- 

 lowing words of wisdom from a living American 

 writer, whose admonition should be carefully con- 

 sidered by those who are losing faith in old-fash- 

 ioned honesty, industry, and economy, and are 

 watching for some "easy situation." He says : — 



The darkest day in any man's earthly ca- 

 reer IS THAT "WHEREIN HE FIRST FANCIES 

 THAT THERE IS SOME EASIER WAY OF GAINING 

 A DOLLAR THAN BY SQUARELY EARNING IT. 



No matter whether he acquired it by beggary, 

 by theft, or any fashion of gambling, that man is 

 fearfully demoralized who, looking at the dollar 

 in his palm, says, "That come easier than if I had 

 earned it by honest labor." He has lost the clew 

 to his way through this moral labyrinth and must 

 henceforth wander as chance may dictate. To his 

 distorted apprehension, the universe has become a 

 gambling table, and life a succession of ventures 

 on the red or on the black. His prospects of win- 

 ning thereat, in the long run are miserable enough. 



RED WATER. 



Having a cow sick with red water, I beg to state 

 symptoms and remedy for the good of the commu- 

 nity at large. Not expecting the cow to calve for 

 a fortnight or three weeks, she was tied up in a 

 warm stable at night with my other cows as usual, 

 and calved in the stalls. It was a fortnight beforfe 

 she cleansed, and then it did not appear to have 

 been done naturally, but rather to have dried up 

 and fell away. She grew so poor and thin that she 

 was little better than a skeleton, though her appe- 

 tite did not fail her except one day, and she milked 

 well for a sick cow. She was seven years old the 

 28th of April last. She appeared to suffer much 

 pain, and often set her back up as if shfe wanted to 

 make water, and appeared to strain very mach. 



