76 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



he had observed ; and on being asked how many 

 meetings he had attended, it M'as ascertained that 

 he had been present but a few minutes one evening! 

 Those who have attended the most reguhirly, have 

 been the most interested, and received and done 

 the most good. AVe have now fifty members, and 

 an apparently increasing interest. Some attend 

 for the agricultural benefit, some for the lyceum 

 benefit, some for social benefit, some from curi- 

 osity, and some for pastime. Order is easily pre- 

 served, and none but pleasant words have ever 

 been uttered in any of our meetings ; and few 

 meetings of any description have ever been held 

 in our village, equally pleasant and useful ; and I 

 wonder that similar institutions are not in progress 

 all over New England. I was rather surprised, a 

 short time ago, to hear it said by a man who 

 ought to know, as he is teaching agricultural 

 schools, that just such clubs as ours were in oper- 

 ation a thousand years ago ! and fifteen years ago 

 in NeAV Hampshire, and twenty years in Massa- 

 chusetts, but not one of them in operation now — 

 all died out. Now I understood this man to say 

 that he knows more about agriculture than any 

 other man in the United States ! and of course, he 

 must know if the clubs are all dead In New Hamp- 

 shire and Massachusetts ; if they are dead, I am 

 dreadful sorry, but, if alive and kicking, I am 

 more sorry that they don't report themselves. Our 

 Club includes but a small portion of this town, but 

 I believe the benefits already accruing to the town 

 therefrom, after only fifteen or twenty meetings, 

 could not be purchased with one or two hundrecl 

 dollars, while the cash expense of sustaining it 

 has not been three dollars. I think there is scarce- 

 ly a town or village in New England that might 

 not very profitably sustain a so-called farmers' 

 club, though it might not be wholly composed of 

 farmers. In our Club, we can reckon ministers, 

 doctors, farmers, mechanics, merchants, inventors, 

 teachers, judges and justices. Our constitution 

 and by-laws exclude all subjects for discussion 

 except those directly pertaining to agriculture, so 

 that there is little chance for quarrelling. 



It seems to me that the war almost enthely rests 

 on the shoulders of farmers, and there never was 

 a time in the history of our nation, when every 

 agricultural advantage is so emphatically de- 

 manded as the present, and Avhat farmer is* there 

 who does not know, or think he knows, a more 

 advantageous way of "getting in" this, and "get- 

 ting out" that crop than his neighbor over the Avay ; 

 of rearing this animal and fattening that ; what man 

 has not somewhere seen a better plow, harroAv or 

 cultivator than his left hand neighbor uses ; and 

 a better seed-drill, fan-mill or root-cutter, than 

 his right hand neighbor uses ; and hoM- little etfort 

 it would cost him to tell all his neighbors about 

 it, especially if they should ha])pen to be all to- 

 gether ; and how much good it might do them to 

 be told. There are those, styled men, who, if by 

 any means they acquire knowledge of some agri- 

 cultural improvement, seem to be actually afraid 

 that their neighbors will hear of it, and so know 

 as much as they do, and be able to have the same 

 advantage, but such are not men, but niggardly 

 pigmies. 



If any farmer would " show himself a man," let 

 him show a cheerful willingness to communicate 

 a knowledge of the advantages he has in anv man- 

 ner acquired, to any and all liis neighbors ; let him 



take one or more standard agricultural periodicals, 

 and use his influence to get his neighbors to do 

 the same, and if they won't, at the first onset, lend 

 them his pa])er and call their attention particu- 

 larly to this piece and that article, let him invite 

 his neighbor farmers to come to his house and 

 consult in regard to the best way to keep the dogs 

 away from his sheep, or the midge away from his 

 wheat ; or to see the operation of his new machine 

 for cleaning and cutting vegetables, and get their 

 opinion as to whether it is any benefit to cut them 

 up before feeding, or to clean them before cutting 

 up, &c., and thus before he knows it, he has got a 

 farmers' club all going. And if once going, it will 

 keep at it for one while, like a steam-engine, as 

 long as the engineers furnish wood and Avater ; 

 and they are plenty all along the route. Some 

 men query in regard to the benefits of farmer's 

 clubs, but only because of their ignorance, for 

 they are all benefits, when properly managed, and 

 no injury. The coming together, for any lauda- 

 ble object, and remaining together two or three 

 hours, is of itself a benefit, as it tends to assimi- 

 lation, sociability, and friendship among neigh- 

 bors. It is natural for man and all other animals 

 to consociate together, and, if elevating, intellec- 

 tual, moral and beneficial objects do not occupy 

 their attention when together, and stimulate them 

 to assemble, degrading, sensual, immoral and 

 injurious objects will. Such clubs, then, are 

 beneficial in that they tend to keep men from 

 getting together for worse purposes. 



Famers' clubs are beneficial in that they stimu- 

 late the members to study, research and medita- 

 tion. The object of a good common school, or 

 collegiate education, is hardly begun to be real- 

 ized when the student graduates, or the boy or 

 girl leaves the school-room for the last time. The 

 studies they have attended to are of little impor- 

 tance in and of themselves, only as they have con- 

 duced to mental development and discipline ; and 

 he whose mental and moi-a! development and 

 discipline is the most perfect, is the most useful 

 and happy man, and the best prepared to meet, 

 control and enjoy the stern realities of life. Every 

 facility for the at'tainm.ent of this should be sought 

 and embraced. The saying, " Knowledge is pow- 

 er," was never more true than to-day, and " Know 

 thyself" is a dead letter, without study, energy 

 and exjjerience. 



These clubs cannot be got up and sustained, 

 without some effort, neither can any useful enter- 

 prise, but the effort required is not great, in pro- 

 portion to the value of the object, and is of itself 

 an actual benefit. 



I would give you another sample of our meet- 

 ings, if you desired, for the encouragement of any 

 other clubs ; there is also at every meetmg much 

 information communicated, for us here in the 

 country, but might not be so to those better in- 

 formed. There is especial reason for sustaining 

 farmers' clubs the present winter, in the fact that 

 it is absolutely necessary, for the safety of our- 

 selves and our country, that all our farms shall 

 produce more the next season, in proportion to 

 the help employed, than ever before, and I have 

 no doubt that every club sustained the present 

 season will tend very greatly to that end. Let no 

 farmer offer as an excuse for not attending clubs, 

 that he is not a " public speaker " — go right 

 straight at it, attend the meetings regularly from 



