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286 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



with the least possible delay, after the time of 

 payment comes. Though we have the farmers 

 flag at oar mast head, and know that many of 

 them require no schooling in this matter at our 

 own imperfect hands, still we are disposed to 

 emphasize the class, more especially as they are 

 the base upon which the business superstructure 

 of the country mainly rests, and if they dishionor 

 themselves, prove delinquent, the shop keepers 

 fail or are in peril, and the eastern wholesale 

 dealer goes down beyond all peradventure, drag- 

 ging with him across the water those from whom 

 we have descended, and belong to the family of 

 man, though so far divided from ourselves. 



The East Indian war is a marked feature iu the 

 aspect of the times. Were the Hindoos an un- 

 mixed race, we should say let them govern them- 

 selves, let the English go down. But Hindoos 

 and Mahometans in the central and southern 

 districts, mingled with the ferocity of the Af- 

 ghan and Tartar tribes of the north, portions ot 

 the earth from whence Europe m early times was 

 overran, can only be kept in abeyance by some 

 of the great powers. India has been governed in 

 the main pretty well since the time of Clive and 

 Hastings; the garrisons throughout have not 

 swayed a very arbitrary rule, but the East In- 

 dia Company who still hold the revenues, tax 

 their Indian subjects too heavily for an Asiatic 

 people, and hold monopolies over their produce, 

 opium, indigo &c., that has caused great dissat- 

 isfaction. This, coupled with the influences of 

 Christianity, which, in barbarous countries gen- 

 erally shows anything but Christian aspects, so 

 far as trade and common intercourse goes, with 

 a people singularly eupergtitious, religious, fa- 

 natical, ready to burn up or be crushed for the 

 rales of their faith, could only end sooner or la- 

 ter, in an outbreak. Bat humanity requii'es that 

 England shou'd succeed; anarchy would ensue 

 under native rule; and who would deair* the al- 

 ready bloated Russian Empire, stretching one 

 wing on our own continent, semi-barbarous in 

 all its distant confines, to place its feet upon the 

 fair peninsula of Hindoostan ? 



In China, England is in another predicament, 

 and our sympathies even there, are not with the 

 Chinese. Much might be said in their favor if 

 they were not such a treacherous, implacable 

 race. Their Mongol, and worse, their Malay 

 blood sticks right out ot them. Their preten- 

 sions, not to desire foreign tra^le is all sham, 

 what would they do without it? If a famine 

 happens in any of the provinces, a very common 

 evenV^Q American or English ship can bring 

 them a cargo of rice in a tithe of the time that 

 one of their own could doit, and at less expense. 

 Their desires, their tastes, their wants, their ne- 

 cessities, have been modified by a loreign trade, 

 and it is useless for them to pretend that their 

 welfare as a nation is not promoted by it. This 

 then being granted, patting the opium traffic — 

 the only known evil entailed upon them by trade 

 — in the one scale, and the palpable benefits that 

 result from trade as a whole; the abuse of for- 

 eigners; the inhumanity toward them at all times 

 when unprotected; the inflated vanity anJ non- 

 sense in their addresses to foreign governments, 

 and worse than this in aljading to the people, in 



the other scale, and we shall see that it will be 

 quite up to the best ethics of our day for the 

 English, Americans and French unitedly to give 

 them a sound drubbing. All this may be wrong 

 in a man of peace to advocate, but a demonstra- 

 tion of force seems to be the only thing that can 

 bring so supremely a bigoted people to estimate 

 aright the power and character of those whom 

 they affect to despise as barbarous. 



The Farmer's Occupation—Food for ThOBght. 



The occupation of the farmer furnishes food 

 for thought, subjects for study, which are ever 

 new and inexhastible. All the elements wait to 

 do his bidding. All the occult forces of nature 

 challenge his investigation, and promise him a 

 rich reward for every secret he will bring forth 

 from her hidden store-house. He can use head- 

 work as well as hand-work. No form of labor 

 invites so freely or pays so promptly tho head- 

 work of the laborer, as agriculture. Nature has 

 her secrets. She does not reveal them unasked; 

 but to keen intelligence she constantly offers 

 something new and valuable — chemistry, botany, 

 geology, ornithology, all stand ready to help the 

 farmer do his work. And just in proportion as 

 he uses their aid, does he elevate his occupation 

 from servile drudgery to a soul elevaling and ex- 

 panding employment. He has to do with plants. 

 How much is his interest in these plants awak- 

 ened, if he knows something of tlie ingredients of 

 which they are formed! of the influences ot soil 

 and the atmosphere in their production. Hehas 

 to do with the soil — geology will tell him how 

 that soil was formed, and in what respect one 

 soil differs from another. So far as the science 

 of agriculture is concerned, it is still in its infan- 

 cy. The farmers are intelligent, well informed 

 as a class; but they have not yet given their 

 study, and their best thonght to the occupation 

 in which they are daily engaged. When they 

 have read, it has been upon topics ■nidely remote 

 from the objects of their daily pursuit. The 

 farm itself, the soil, the rocks, the flowers that 

 grow there, the springing crops, the insects that 

 devour, the birds that protect or injure, all are 

 interestinjo' subjects oisindi/: and all have imme- 

 diate application to his daily labor. Tt is a lack 

 of acquaintance with these things which makes 

 labor upon the farm dull and monotonous, ard 

 sends our young men, by crowds, every year, to 

 the store or to the factory. It is an acquaintance 

 with these things which will awaken a generous 

 enthusiasm in his calling. It will enlist his mind 

 and heart. It will not be drudgery— but a labor 

 of love. It will call out all his best powers, and 

 he will become not merely a toiling artisan, 

 working for daily bread, but a living man, pur- 

 suins: a noble calling with noble aims. — Sermon 

 of John Moore. 



-—>- 



Winter Protbctiov for Plants. — About 

 as good way as any, is to lay the plants down 

 on the earth, and cover them over with a piece 

 of turf. This is a capital plan for pinks, antir- 

 rhinums and tender roses. 



