1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



65 



In agriculture, the feeling and tone complained 

 of, is not more uncommon than in other affairs. 

 Silence is, not unfrequently, better than a struggle 

 tor the last word. If an opponent shows no dis- 

 position to accept of truth out of himself, let him 

 be left to the influence of the moral elements with 

 his own drapery wrapped about him. D. W. L. 



West Medford, Dec, 1862. 



Remabks. — Read and ponder. 



For the Neic England Farmer, 

 THE WAR AND THE FARMER. 



Mr. Brown : — After ten years' association of 

 my name with yours, in the editorial depaitment 

 of the Farmer, the Fates seem to determine that 

 our pleasant fellowship shall nominally end. I 

 say nominally, because I intend to claim the priv- 

 ilege of a correspondent, and to hold some sort of 

 place, still, in the hearts of the editors and read- 

 ers of our paper. It would, perhaps, have been 

 more consonant with the fact, had my name ap- 

 peared always as a correspondent, but there has 

 been no harm in the name of associate editor, for 

 nobody has supposed that any one but yourself 

 had much to do with editing the agricultural de- 

 partment. 



Pursuits far other than those of agriculture, for 

 the present, claim my attention, but my thoughts 

 and reading, and sometimes my pen, will be, 

 •where my heart is, directed toward the culture of 

 the earth, and its improvement in beauty and fer- 

 tility. 



I rejoice that the Farmer is not to go down in 

 the contest which convulses the land, and which 

 is destroying the lives of so many of the young 

 and brave, deranging the peaceful plans of life, 

 and with the rest, sweeping away so many useful 

 publications. It is said to be darkest just before 

 the dawn, and although the night has been long 

 and dreary, I cannot help feeling that the dawn- 

 ing will begin with this new year. What right 

 has any American citizen to ask of Him who rules 

 in heaven and earth, for victory to our arms, in 

 the name of Liberty, while our government stands 

 responsible for slavery ? When we ourselves are 

 in the right, and the decree has gone forth to "let 

 the people go," we shall deserve success, and that 

 is much toward its attainment. Truly it cannot 

 be within the designs of the Almighty, that slavery 

 shall triumph over freedom, and that the only 

 hope of the world, as an illustration of self-gov- 

 ernment, shall perish ! 



But, beside the duty which the farmer owes to 

 his country in standing by tlie flag, and the Presi- 

 dent, who is its representative, he has his peculiar 

 province of labor. Thus far the boast of the 

 South that the free labor system cannot maintain 

 itself against that of slave labor, has been an idle 

 assertion. There is plausibility in the theory 

 which comes daily to us from Richmond, that the 

 North cannot spare the laborers from the larm for 

 the battle-field, but must either end the war, or 

 starve at home, while the slave labor of the South 

 can furnish constant supplies to the soldiers, who 

 have never been laborers or producers. The fict, 

 however, that the North has produced abundant 

 crops for herself and her armies, and for the im- 

 mense demand of the Old World, while prices ui 



the South have reached almost to the famine point, 

 is, thus far, a significant criticism upon this pro- 

 slavery idea. But this theory will bear a criticism 

 beyond the mere facts which have been suggest- 

 ed. Had tlie whole energy of the North been 

 heretofore directed to the immediate i)roduction 

 of the greatest amount of food and clothing, and 

 a miUion of her laborers been suddenly called to 

 the war, we shoidd have seen a failure of products 

 corresponding with this diversion of labor. But 

 the North has never been so employed. Only a 

 small part of her labor has been upon the soil. 

 Of those who have enlisted as soldiers, a great 

 proportion, how large cannot be stated, did not 

 depend upon their labor on the soil, for support. 



Of those who were engaged in agriculture, per- 

 haps one-half their labor was usually employed in 

 permanent improvement of their farms. A new 

 country diff'ers in this respect from an old one. 

 Our young men on their new farms, or, in fact, on 

 any farms, with few exceptions, were not work- 

 ing, like Irishmen at home on a half-acre potato 

 patch, to get enough to keep oft" starvation, and 

 pay their rent. They were permanently investing 

 their labor, clearing off" the forest, building walls, 

 draining swamps, erecting buildings, making for 

 themselves homes. They were building school- 

 houses and churches, and roads and bridges ; they 

 were adorning their homes with trees and lawns 

 and shrubbery ; they were planting vineyards and 

 orchards ; and all this, not for themselves alone, 

 but for their children, and for all jjosterity. War 

 first cuts off luxuries, arrests public improvements, 

 interrupts schemes for permanent advantage, stops 

 the construction of railroads and canals and pub- 

 lic buildings, takes the farmer's time from clearing 

 and draining and building, and by-and-l)y, if the 

 pressure is long and severe enough, finds him un- 

 able to produce his usual supj)ly of food and cloth- 

 ing. No doubt the war has already done us much 

 harm, in retarding such progress as has been al- 

 luded to, but we had, and have yet, thank heaven, 

 a surplus of strength and energy in Northern 

 hearts and Northern muscles, and a surplus of re- 

 sources in our soil, which far more than compen- 

 sate for "all the wealth that sinews bought and 

 sold, have ever earned." 



The farmer can easily understand this matter. 

 His son, who was his best helper, has left the 

 farm, to serve his country. Perhajis, now, the 

 new barn cannot be built, pcrha])s the meadow 

 cannot be drained ; certaiidy the now orchard can- 

 not be planted, nor the grape vines, nor the pear 

 trees, till the dear boy couies hack ; liut the old 

 fields can be tilled, and with mowing-machine and 

 horse-rake, the hay can be housed, and the cattle 

 and crops can all be cared for ; and it will be long 

 vears I)efore this will cease to be so. 



Besides, there are at the North many willing 

 hands to labor now, which heretofore have done 

 little work, many delicate female iiands to knit and 

 sew for the soldiers, many willing hearts to watoh 

 by the sick and dyint; in hospitals, to take their 

 places in shops, aye, in the field, too. if necessary, 

 while the loved ones are away. Woman's labor 

 has not been much needed with us in lime of 

 peace, and many young maidens have looked 

 about, aliTiost in vain, for em])loyment. In the 

 war of the revolution the wives and daughters of 

 our fathers often labored in the field, to keep the 

 farm going on, while husband and father were in 



