AMERICAN INSTIXrTE. 199 



believing, knowing, that his crop will be good for nothing with- 

 out it. 



Let there come a drouth, partial or severe, and let him be told 

 and believe, that by an extra hoeing his corn will entirely escape 

 the evil effects of the drouth, and how quick he will go to the 

 trouble and expense of hoeing it agairi. But let him be told, 

 that with proper facilities he can, and for less expense, water his 

 corn instead of hoeing it the extra time, and thus save it, and he 

 will at once demur; because it is what he is not accustomed to. 

 Still it is true that the irrigation would save the crop, — besides 

 all the labor and expense bestowed upon it up to the time when 

 the di-outh overtakes it. When, too, a farmer learns, by what- 

 soever means, that his soil lacks in a certain ingredient, how 

 quick he hastens to ascertain what kind of manure will supply 

 the deficiency, and go to the expense of supplying it; or when 

 he wishes to raise a particular crop, he ascertains what it is, and 

 goes to the expense of furnishing just the right kind of manure 

 for that crop, feeling assured that he will be amply rewarded in 

 the result. But let some portion of his farm, from peculiarity 

 of soil; or from drouth, let his whole farm be suffering, however 

 slightly or severely, for that one, great, simple, common manure, 

 water; without which, the fattest soil is barren and good for 

 nothing, and how little he thinks of trying to supply it, believes 

 he can do nothing, sits down, folds up his hands, takes the wind's 

 direction a hundred times a day, and looks in vain at every pass- 

 ing cloud, and finally takes a mournful view of his ruined fields, 

 and with a long face, sighs " what have I done that my crops 

 should be thus blighted ? '' Done nothing, and that is the worst 

 of it. Had the cry for water been heeded, the harvest could have 

 been saved. 



If land and crops suffer by lack of moisture, as in a drouth, 

 and we see how, by machinery and other means, we can supply 

 the deficiency ourselves, it is erroneous, if not presumptuous, to 

 question the constancy of Providence in the matter, until we have 

 4one all in our power. Otherwise, we might do the same re- 

 specting the necessity of manuring, weeding, and all other proces- 

 ses which Heaven has made it necessary for us to perform, in* 

 order that bread shall be earned by the sweat of the brow. 



Why do farmers make so little use of water? They are not 

 always afraid of expense, and never afraid of work; they will 

 toil early and late — dig, plow, manure, trench, drill, plant, weed, 

 hoe, watch and wait; these they will do faithfully, and never 



